Vocation

Imagine doing every day what you love to do and do damn well.

Imagine that doing serves the needs of people desperate for what you offer.

Imagine that this service offers you a peace you can't explain, but want to live for a lifetime.

When we center our lives on our savior, we won't have to imagine.

The exercise of the talent he's given us, joined to the needs his people have for it, becomes our way to incarnate him in the world. It becomes our particular vocation, our specific "working out our salvation in fear and trembling." It becomes the fruitfulness of our faith that bears witness to God's glory.

So write that story. Paint that portrait. Redesign that auto. Care for that child. If we've chosen to live in communion with him, he'll inspire us to use the talents he's given us to better love him and one another. Don't be afraid to follow his inspiration.

Discover who he's called you to be. Become that person. Live the talent he's given you in service to the people with whom he's placed you.

Your discipleship will change your life.

No, it won't be rose gardens every day. Some days, the work will still be a drudgery. Words won't come. Paints spill. Engine parts sputter apart. The kid cracks the china.

Some days, worse may happen.

But if we live according to how our Lord has truly formed us, we'll live more truly as he's called us to live. He wants to give us life, and life to the full! Our lives, in accord with his design, become icons of greatness that bear witness to his glory. And that demonstrate our part in it.

Answer his call. Live as he's called you to live. How could you ever regret that?

(Let me tip my hat to Max Lucado, who's inspired book Cure for the Common life inspired this reflection.)