As a college senior who graduates in approximately 11days, this is a very suiting question to think about…and boy have I done my share of thinking. The main answer I came to upon doing a lot of growing up and reading (the two often go together for me) this past year, is that vocation is only/hugely the calling to be a disciple/follower of Jesus.
And then obviously that is never going to be specific enough…or is it? I wonder if that understanding of vocation (the latin root just meaning “call” like Jesus calls his disciples then and now) is so stinking simplistic. But I recall that a lot of that understanding came to me via Dietrich Bonhoeffer who has some awesome stuff to say about this. But in this discussion, his life may speak as much as his words: he was doing his smart seminary graduate thing and hanging out in the big U.S. in the 30s until he realized that his messed-up nation of Germany was taking some wrong steps in the oppressive-nationalism-destructive direction. Then he came back, did a lot there with churches, started his own seminary, and eventually went way beyond his own perceived “calling” of being a pastor/theologian and followed what he understood to be Christ’s revolutionary leading all the way to intense secretive involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler and this vocation led him all the way to prison and death.
I guess there are other sweet examples of how vocation takes an unexpected turn (e.g. MLK jr) but since when is being a disciple supposed to be predictable and cruising in that sense.
Gosh, maybe it is just easy for me to talk like that because I haven’t graduated yet so my idealism is just that fresh and alive – isn’t that what this community is all about though. If you are curious, I am hoping my calling takes me to D.C. come September and we’ll see where from there. Let me know what you think of “vocation.”
Andrew H
Apr 26 2004
03:55 pm
As a college senior who graduates in approximately 11days, this is a very suiting question to think about…and boy have I done my share of thinking. The main answer I came to upon doing a lot of growing up and reading (the two often go together for me) this past year, is that vocation is only/hugely the calling to be a disciple/follower of Jesus.
And then obviously that is never going to be specific enough…or is it? I wonder if that understanding of vocation (the latin root just meaning “call” like Jesus calls his disciples then and now) is so stinking simplistic. But I recall that a lot of that understanding came to me via Dietrich Bonhoeffer who has some awesome stuff to say about this. But in this discussion, his life may speak as much as his words: he was doing his smart seminary graduate thing and hanging out in the big U.S. in the 30s until he realized that his messed-up nation of Germany was taking some wrong steps in the oppressive-nationalism-destructive direction. Then he came back, did a lot there with churches, started his own seminary, and eventually went way beyond his own perceived “calling” of being a pastor/theologian and followed what he understood to be Christ’s revolutionary leading all the way to intense secretive involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler and this vocation led him all the way to prison and death.
I guess there are other sweet examples of how vocation takes an unexpected turn (e.g. MLK jr) but since when is being a disciple supposed to be predictable and cruising in that sense.
Gosh, maybe it is just easy for me to talk like that because I haven’t graduated yet so my idealism is just that fresh and alive – isn’t that what this community is all about though. If you are curious, I am hoping my calling takes me to D.C. come September and we’ll see where from there. Let me know what you think of “vocation.”