Calling by debgrant
I have often been asked about my calling…a word used alot for those in the clergy, but less so in other vocations as if the church vocations ranked higher because of the status God, our boss.
We all have stories about our vocations, avocations, our first job for pay, our jobs we did just for the pay. We all are called. Sometimes by love, sometimes by need.
There is a Robert Frost Poem titled “Two Tramps at Mud Time.” It begins with this scene: “Out of the mud two strangers came and caught me splitting wood in the yard, and one of them put me off my aim by hailing cheerily "Hit them hard!" I knew pretty well why he had dropped behind and let the other go on a way. I knew pretty well what he had in mind: He wanted to take my job for pay.”
The poem continues in the narrator’s voice to describe how much he loved the feel, the task of splitting wood in that season of spring thaw. He has an inner dialogue with himself about this avocation and the tramp’s need for a job. He ends the poem by agreeing the tramp’s need is greater than his and yet grieving the separation of vocation and avocation for them both. This poem ends with him saying “My object in living is to unite my avocation and my vocation as my two eyes make one in sight. Only where love and need are one, and the work is play for mortal stakes, is the deed ever really done for Heaven and the future's sakes.”
I have been reading a book this week compiled by the novelist James Patterson called The Secred Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading. This is a compilation of interviews that lifts up these noble individuals serving in a variety of settings. In our time, these venues especially of independent booksellers and school libraries, are the front lines of courageous battles for access to reading and the power of community. These people have a calling as profound and as holy as I have ever known. And this is just one slice of millions of human callings.
As a retired pastor and a current writer and artist, I understand the discomfort of the transition in the day to day tasks of each job and hobbies. The separation of love and need. The tug of financial resources. The longing to make “my two eyes one in sight.” What does it mean to continue to serve the world’s need with my gifts and passion? Ironically, this morning I recalled during my first year of seminary, I paid for my tuition, room and board by cleaning the toilets in a mansion of a wealthy family with a teenage boy with terrible aim and splitting wood for an elderly couple. They were not my favorite jobs. They were both uncomfortable and necessary.
Wherever you are in the story of your callings - vocations and avocations - I hope you are asking questions, listening for your calling. It may be something new or a re-affirmation that you are who you need to be right now, giving what you have to give, and meeting the world’s need in your own way. I am so grateful for your holy calling.
Peace,
debgrant
I have always considered my lab technologist occupation as a calling. A call to help people from behind the scenes. Now that I have completed that call, I must find another. Right now, it is still “helping people”, but in a different capacity. I am blessed to be able to continue my call.
You touched my heart today.