Let the Adventure Begin: Discovering Your Specific Vocation

Since she was 18 years old, Dr. Nadine Scott has had a passion for single women and women with children at risk. Perhaps she learned this passion from seeing her parents provide shelter and food for homeless women and their children in a close-knit neighborhood. The Ariel Outreach Mission (AOM) was founded by Dr. Karla Jackson while Nadine was in college, and even at that age she supported and owned this organization’s vision. Today, Dr. Scott serves as AOM’s Executive Director. Since 1982, AOM has served over 450,000 women. Nadine discovered her vocation early with the help of her parents’ example, which modeled such passion for those on the margins of society. 

Recall that a specific calling or vocation is what you were created and gifted to be, a role that speaks to our unique identity. Discovering one’s vocation in life is not a linear process—it is often a journey of ups and downs that is frustrating and fun. It is not a one-size-fits-all experience. It’s true that some do find their vocation early in life, like Nadine or a friend of mine named Michael. As a toddler, Michael’s first three words were “mama,” “daddy,” and his first attempt at pronouncing the word “car”: “cah-cah.” Michael was fascinated with cars, and continued to be so once he exited this toddler phase. Today, he is an accomplished and well-respected car mechanic. His parents knew he was destined to love cars as they heard him say “cah-cah” and observed his excitement and curiosity.

For most, however, discovering our specific vocation is a long process of discovery. In the last article of this series, I will provide some practical tips on how exactly to discover it. In many ways, these words will be autobiographical, as I have learned the tips below throughout my exciting, sometimes frustrating, and non-linear path of discovering my own vocation as an educator.

Looking Backwards to Go Forward

When I taught Vocational Orientation courses in the past and worked for Made to Flourish—a pastor’s network that trains pastors in the rich theology of faith, work, and economic wisdom—I encouraged my students to look backwards in time to identify evidence of how God made them, wired them, and crafted them to shine a light in a specific vocation. As an aid for this exercise, my colleague Paige Wiley and I introduced what we call the “Wandering Map” in our book Worked Up: Navigating Calling After College. As this title might suggest, this exercise does not map aimless wandering; rather, it maps providentially guided wandering. We wrote, “You have no idea what will happen in three to five years, but you can look back on the opportunities and experiences in your life, as they will likely have some sort of connection.”

For instance, as I look backwards using my Wandering Map, I see my great love for education—so much so that I even disliked holidays because it meant not going to school. I also see a love for teaching or instructing others: I tutored geometry and trigonometry students in high school, for instance. While I was an electrical engineering student at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), I tutored algebra students. One algebra student even became my wife! And as I look back, I also note an insatiable curiosity. I was so curious that I once disassembled a radio to understand how it worked. During my time as an engineer in a laser division, I was often the first to raise my hand to teach at our workplace “lunch and learns.” All of these events and qualities may seem unconnected at times, but they certainly worked together to signal a vocation as an educator. I invite you to look backwards and hunt for any threads such as these to see if they hint at your vocational design. 

Seek Objective Input

I also encouraged my students to ask someone who knew them well (and give objective and honest feedback) three questions:

1.What do I do well, perhaps even effortlessly?

2. What have you observed me doing that seems like I feel God’s pleasure and delight?

3. Is there anything about my work or talents that you notice but I seem oblivious to?

In order to find out transcendent and objective truth about ourselves, it is crucial to ask people other than ourselves. As objective observers, Michael’s parents could have easily answered these questions for him. I myself am an introvert. However, I become a gregarious extrovert while teaching, something I was completely unaware of. It took trusted friends, family, and students to point this out to me and confirm my calling.

Other objective tools for identifying vocational gifts are the many Spiritual Gifts surveys that available. Using the adage “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand” as a general principle, I suggest taking several of these assessments.

Learning Your Specific Vocation from Suffering

Can good come from suffering? It may not always seem like it—especially when we’re in the middle of struggle—but yes. Many have located their vocation amid the stress of pain. A good family friend of mine was plagued with severe acne as a teenager; today, he is a dermatologist who serves image-conscious teenagers who suffer with acne. Another man I know had over 97% of his body burned as a child and went on to become a firefighter today. Since D’Angeleau Newsome was 10 or 11 years old, he wanted to become a doctor that could “fix his mother,” who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Today, Newsome is studying at Kansas City University to practice osteopathic medicine.

Suffering is inevitable in our broken world. However, God uses suffering to mature us and to make us dependent on him. As we go through our valleys, we might ask God, “Are you calling me to do something to relieve the suffering of others? Is this my vocation?” Or, as we witness the suffering of others, we might ask God the same questions.

How Not to Discover Your Vocation

There are at least three principles I can think of to help you avoid not finding your vocation.

1. Do Not Follow Your Passion

It never fails! “Follow your passion” is a pithy soundbite I often hear at graduation ceremonies. Speakers boldly claim this is a sure way to land a “dream job.” While this statement appeals to many, including Christians, it is not a good rule to follow to discover a calling. First, it is not a gnomic statement, or something that is always true and applies to everyone, everywhere. Following one’s passion is a privilege that not everyone enjoys.

Second, as Lisa Slayton writes in Pursue Your Passion: And 3 Other Dumb Myths about Work and Calling, “social scientific research suggests that ‘passions’ evolve over time, and they are sometimes divorced from natural gifting.” Our passions are mutable; they change with time and experiences. If I followed my passion as a clue for my vocation, I might be tempted to change jobs or careers to follow each new passion.

Third, following our passion can sometimes be deeply self-centered. If your passion matches a divine passion, that’s a different story. God’s passions are immutable. As such, striving after a divine passion is not a self-centered endeavor; rather, striving after a divine passion is other-centered. For example, Abraham Heschel says in The Prophets that “justice is a divine concern.” In other words, God has passion for justice. You might opt to follow God’s passion for justice to uncover your vocation. Other-centered passions focus on loving God and loving our neighbors. They benefit other human beings. Following divine passions, of course, begins with (and continues with) a nurturing relationship with God to understand his many passions. 

2. Don’t Avoid Doing Anything

Being too obsessed with finding that one vocation can lead some to become paralyzed as we wait for a “burning bush” moment like Moses had. I suggest you do something while you wait! Doing something honors God because working imitates God. It is displaying obedience because we were created to work. It contributes to others’ wellbeing and our own.

Doing something is also a liberating and noble approach to finding God’s will for our work lives. I worked as an engineer in the American marketplace for fifteen years before teaching. During this stint, God was progressively and slowly revealing my vocation as an educator. Doing something liberated me from the darkness of not knowing my vocation and moved me into the light of seeing what it is. Moses was tending his father-in-law’s sheep before he saw the bush burn and became a liberator of his people.

3. Don’t Do It Poorly

We might let our discontent and impatience in locating our vocation manifest in doing subpar work in the meantime. Colossians 3:23-25 instructs those in the Church at Colossae to do things well as though they were doing it for the Lord, and this same passage instructs us—no matter what we are doing—to do the same. We are called to do good work, whether it is our calling or not, whether it is paid or unpaid. When God finished each workday, he declared the quality of his workmanship “good.” “God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, and 31) does not mean merely that his creation was well-made, but that the goodness of creation is as much a moral quality as it is a qualitative description of its aesthetic, practical, and creative value.  Indeed, David C. Jones says, that “‘good’ is the most comprehensive term for what human beings ought to be and to do” (Biblical Christian Ethics). As moral agents, we ought to be good and we are to work for the good of others (Isaiah 1:17; Micah 6:8; Galatians 6:9-10). As God’s redeemed moral agents, we are to be eager to do good works (Titus 2:14; Ephesian 2:8-10). 

Good work not only shows our love for God, but it demonstrates our love for those around us—our coworkers, our clients, or our boss. Doing good work also serves as an apologetic for the Christian faith. Note what Matthew 5:13-16 says:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Our good works might be the instrument God uses to bring others to himself. What may seem like ordinary tasks actually have the potential of doing tremendous moral good and honoring the Creator of the universe. 

While You Are Discovering

As you diligently or leisurely search for your vocation (or if you have discovered your vocation), busy yourself with three things. First, busy yourself with living out the lyrics to the song, “Draw Me Nearer.” Inhabit these words:

Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,

By the pow’r of grace divine;

Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,

And my will be lost in Thine.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, allow your will to be guided by the will of our Father.

Second, busy yourself with the lifelong task of cultivating virtue. We need virtuous workers in the marketplace and in our communities. Virtue is a good moral habit. Like all habits, we habituate them by repeatedly practicing them. Practice the virtue of love with your coworkers and family members. Practice the virtue of justice with your coworkers and clients. Practice the virtues of courage, temperance, and kindness. As we practice these virtues, they will become instinctual and, eventually, habits.

Finally, busy yourself with being faithful and obedient where God has you planted at this moment. God frequently identifies our vocation while our heads are down faithfully doing the work assigned to our hands. He cares immensely that you are a good steward of what he has entrusted to your hands right now. Do it well and do it obediently to his glory and honor—and in doing this, you may find your specific vocation revealed.

Photo by Fabio Comparelli on Unsplash