In my last blog (https://solve-by-walking.com/2022/08/01/dont-be-afraid/), I quoted Martin Luther King, Jr. as having said, “Everybody can do something.” It sounds like something Dr. King would have said, but I couldn’t find a speech with those exact words. I did find a similar quotation in a sermon entitled “The Drum Major Instinct” that King preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta two months before he was assassinated:

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. … You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

Everybody can do something. Everybody can serve. Close enough.

The reason I wanted the context for this quotation is that I can hear the follow up question: “If everybody can do something, what should I be doing? How should I serve?” The word people in the Christian tradition use to answer these questions is calling, or vocation, from the Latin word vocare, which means “to call.” Basically, your calling is the thing you are supposed to be doing based on your talents, interests, passions, abilities, opportunities, etc. Besides aptitude and desire, there must be a quality of service, of somehow making the world a better place instead of a worse one. No one has put this better than Frederick Buechner:

“By and large a good rule for finding out is this. The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren’t helping your patients much either. … Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking)

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” The only argument I have with Buechner’s definition is that you might conclude that calling and occupation are always the same thing. In my tradition, God calls everybody, whether you have a job or not. Whether you like your job or not. Sometimes a job is just a job. Although whatever your job, you’re certainly called to do it in a way that increases love, peace, justice, honesty, health, well-being – what the Bible calls shalom. But there are lots of folks who don’t have a job because they’re retired, unemployed, on disability, whatever. Nevertheless, everyone – everyone – is called. As someone once said, “If you’re wondering if you’re still called, check your pulse. If you still have one, you’re still called.”

How do you figure out what you’re called to do? In the Christian tradition, the word we use is discernment. You’re probably familiar with some of the secular tools that help people make career decisions. Back in the 1980’s what I was a young lawyer, it seemed everyone I knew had an MBA. The Strong-Campbell Vocational Interest Test, Myers-Briggs, and a good career counselor reminded me I’d loathe accounting, marketing, and pretty much anything commercial. Nix on the MBA. I also know people who swear by What Color is Your Parachute?

Other tools I’ve found helpful include The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, which is very spiritual but not grounded in a particular faith tradition. When I was trying to decide whether to go to seminary, I sought the help of a spiritual director. A spiritual director is trained to listen in order to help people hear their own passion, as well as listening for God’s leading. My experience is that God communicates with us through other people, through doors that open or close, and through my own trial and error.

Sometimes our volunteer work is our calling. Think of President Jimmy Carter and his work with Habitat for Humanity. Sometimes what we think of as our hobby is our calling. If you are blessed with musical or artistic talent, putting art into the world may be your calling. Once in a while, someone asks me, “But how does my art or music help make the world better?” I think the answer is obvious, but what I say is, “If all the people desperate for power and wealth and all the people stuck in fear or hatred created art or music or poetry instead, wouldn’t it be a better world?” Beauty and creativity are gifts from God, gifts that enrich culture and human existence. I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty convinced if people danced more, it could heal the world.

If you adore animals, maybe you’re called to rescue abandoned dogs. If you love gardening, maybe you’re called to tend the flower beds in public spaces or grow zucchini for the food bank. Some people are called to public activism. Others are called to quiet acts of kindness. Calling also has to do with stage of life. If you’re a busy young parent, maybe your calling is reading to your toddler every night. It really will improve the world.

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” The refrain of a hymn by David Haas, “We Are Called,” sums up calling pretty well:

We are called to act with justice.
We are called to love tenderly.
We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.