as excited as you might be

What is it that you’re not letting yourself get excited about? Do you believe that everyone has a calling – an aspiration, a dream?

the glory of god is a person fully alive

 

How often do you hit the pause button? When have you felt fully alive?

i’d rather be a functioning cog

Were you raised up to think you were a unique snowflake? Do you still believe that? Would you rather be told what your station is?

a list of all the things i would never have

Maria Shriver: What does it mean to you to be a poet?
Mary Oliver: I consider myself kind of a reporter—one who uses words that are more like music and that have a choreography. I never think of myself as a poet; I just get up and write. For most of my life, I haven’t had the structure of an actual job. When I was very young and decided I wanted to try to write as well as I could, I made a great list of all the things I would never have.

Maria Shriver: Wouldn’t have?
Mary Oliver: Would not have, because I thought poets never made any money. A house, a good car, I couldn’t go out and buy fancy clothes or go to good restaurants. I had the necessities. Not that I didn’t take some teaching jobs over the years—I just never took any interesting ones, because I didn’t want to get interested. That’s when I began to get up so early in the morning—you know I’m a 5 A.M. riser—so I could write for a couple of hours and then give my employer my very best second-rate energy [laughs].

In this interview, Mary Oliver talks about her calling to be a poet, what it’s meant and what it took. (Oliver’s work has been featured on this blog before.) Do you have a list of the things you’d be willing to give up to chase your calling? Are you okay with giving an employer your “very best second-rate energy”?

as our hearts expand, our expectations contract

6. Our hearts expand as expectations contract. What about those great deeds we meant to do? Like many Jesuits, I once shared a fondness for knights on horses: the teams of Canisius High School in Buffalo, N.Y., were the Crusaders; McQuaid High School in Rochester had the Knights. All Jesuits aspire to do great things, I suppose: win over kingdoms and do battle with evil, like our founder Ignatius did. But as our hearts expand, our expectations contract. And the demons we fight can take strange shapes. What are we to do when we find the demons within us? These battles are not jousting contests, easily decided when one of the combatants is unseated, but long and painful campaigns in which it is not easy to tell whether one is winning or losing.

Old-timers may be battle-weary, but we are still swinging our swords. To put it another way, we have the same shortcomings, the same rough edges and pettiness as ever, but this just does not seem as important to us as it used to. While regretting that we are not better, we can integrate all we are into our offering to the Lord. As the years go by, my prayer increasingly is simply, “Lord, kindly accept the little I have to offer.” No dragons slain, no heads of enemies dangling from the belt, but we are still in for the whole campaign, however long it takes.

What could be simpler than that? So, maybe we elders have something to say to younger people, after all. I wish I could remember what it is.

Francis X. Hezel, S.J. offers 6 reflections on living life after seven decades. What little do you have to offer? Do you want to be a knight on a horse? How big are your expectations? How big is your heart?

 

it comes from listening

Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about – quite apart from what I would like it to be about – or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions.

That insight is hidden in the word vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin for “voice.” Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I MUST live - but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.

- Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak

Are you listening to your life? What is it telling you?

now we are free to enjoy

“I didn’t understand, until that moment, that you can only find joy and satisfaction when you have faced down the possibility of futility; when you’ve acknowledged the vapor, now you can actually enjoy…When you’ve faced the possibility that your actions may not bring about the result you wanted; when you surrender your desired outcome, and when we acknowledge our powerlessness, NOW we are free to enjoy. We may even be able to help somebody in the process.”

 

Rob Bell, teaching pastor at Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, talks about Ecclesiastes, failure, and freedom in this podcast. Have you experienced that feeling of utter uselessness? Has it freed you, or bound you tighter to your own expectations?

are we always sure what love should look like? no.

Folks who are invested in progressive politics often ask why I’m not more involved in work to change the filthy rotten system. How can you care about people who are being crushed by evil policies and not invest yourself in changing policy? On the other hand, church folks who care about community and neighborhood ministry sometimes ask why we would invest time in something like a march. How can you advocate for policy changes when this world’s system is passing away and God’s kingdom is all that will last?

My answer, in short, is the Jesus Rev. Barber introduced me to fifteen years ago. No love is more personal than the love of Jesus. We aim to share that love personally in everything we do. Whether it’s offering hospitality to the stranger at our door, spreading a table for neighborhood meals, mentoring young people from the neighborhood, teaching co! urses in prison, organizing for community self-help, or advocating for better policies, we want to live into the love we’ve received from Jesus. Are we always sure exactly what that love should look like? No. We have not mastered love in relationships nor have we perfected love in politics. But that is no reason to shy away from either. If God’s love really is for everybody, then we’ve got to try to put it into practice everywhere.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, in his monthly newsletter, talks about racism, Black History Month, and loving people – in person and through systems. God’s love, put in practice everywhere. Where are you putting it into practice? Are you drawn to work with people or with systems or both?

 

the best thing about it is that you never know

Well, should you do what you’re good at, or what you love?

laughter almost has to be subversive

Adam McKay is the founder of the Funny or Die website, and is interviewed here for the What’s Your Calling project. He talks about just doing whatever it is you need to do, and finding joy in the process. When’s the last time you lost yourself in laughter?