What Must I Do? Our natural gifts lead to vocation

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

This exact question is asked of Jesus two times in the gospels, by two different people, and he gives them different answers.

TRUTH

So I’ve always been a girl of many passions and interests.  This presents a problem in discerning which of those passions God is calling me to focus on – aka how he needs me to minister to others.  It’s led to distractions like saving all of the starving children in Africa.  Well now that I’ve actually opened myself up to the Holy Spirit and am paying attention to his inspirations (someone told me recently that the fastest way to holiness is to follow the inspirations of the Holy Spirit), I’ve been able to see much more clearly what my unique vocation might be.  It also helps that I’ve discovered another layer of my vocation – being a nun.  Now I am trying to dig deeper towards the person that God made me to be.

So I’ve been asking myself, what is the deepest desire of my heart?  What is at the root of every career and activity I’ve been drawn to?  The list is long – English(teaching and writing), Journalism, Social Work, political activism, campus ministry and the list goes on.

I think the commonality between all of these things has finally been uncovered: a desire to discover and share the truth. Truth: this is my deepest passion.  I’ve always thrived in the classroom, especially classes like Philosophy and Theology, in which ideas are being intensely discussed and the truth is being sought.  I was drawn to English initially because the basic aim of Literature is to reveal universal truths about humanity.  Teaching stemmed from the desire to share these truths with young people.  Journalism is also aimed at revealing the truth (although it doesn’t seem that way often).  My passion for social justice also stems from a desire to reveal the truth.  Most injustices exist because of a lie spread about human dignity.  For example, abortion is accepted based on the lie that a fetus is not a human being.

In coming to this realization, I’ve been trying to figure out why I was led to Social Work.  Did I get distracted by the desire to help the poor and the excitement of “changing the world”?  Well I was partially drawn to Social Work by a desire to help people on a more individual level and then I was attracted by the prettiness of activism.  Recently I am finding that my strengths lie more in spiritual ministry and building personal relationships with others.  I desire to help each individual discover their true self, by discovering the truth of God’s infinite love.  This desire to help others caused me to focus on material poverty, but I’ve finally realized the seriousness of spiritual poverty.  And, in the end, the truth about poverty can only be discovered by forming relationships with the poor themselves.

And it always comes back to this one thing: writing.  It is the talent which God has granted me to convey His truths to His children.  I’m not sure what these realizations mean but I don’t necessarily need to know right now.  Part of surrender is letting go of the “need to know”.  God is asking me to trust Him by becoming a nun, and He’ll take care of the rest.  I don’t need to know the next step, although that is something I am still struggling to accept.

Another prompt from Writer’s Digest

Start your story with, “In retrospect, I wouldn’t say it was my best idea.” And end it with, “And that’s how I attempted to make this world a better place.”

In retrospect, I wouldn’t say it was my best idea.  I was one of those kids.  My mom would tell me to finish all my food because there are starving children in Africa who would love that broccoli.  Wisacre that I was, I’d tell her to send it to them.  Well one day I decided that this had gone on long enough and it was time to take matters into my own hands.  It started out as a furtive attempt to make good on my suggestion.  I couldn’t believe that some kid in Africa would really want my leftover broccoli but mom insisted that they did and she knew everything, right?  Well that plan came to a screeching halt when I realized that I had no idea where to send the food.  Also, the smell in my room kind of ruined the secret after a few days.

Then the all knowing and all powerful television gave me the perfect solution to my dilemma. This was more exciting than finding out that the Easter Bunny really does exist.  And I LOVE bunnies.  “Mommy! We have to call now!”  “What are you talking about honey?” “We can help the starving kids.  The ones I was going to send my broccoli to.  It only costs one dollar.” “Oh sweetie, it’s probably just a scam.”  “What’s a scam mommy?  Will it help those kids?”  “No, it means that the money they’re asking for might not really go to those kids you see on tv.” My nine year old face scrunched up in confusion over how weird grownups were sometimes.  My hope was rekindled when she reassured me, “there are people you can give money to who will actually give it to the kids who need help.”

Now only one obstacle stood in my way.

“What are you doing?” My father demanded.  He had a lovely view of the lower portion of my body because the rest was stuck under the couch.  My muffled voice floated out and informed him in a very matter of fact tone, “I read that the average family has ten dollars in their couch.  I need money to send to the starving kids in Africa.”  He began laughing and then called, “Peg! You’ve got to come see this!”

And that’s how I attempted to make this world a better place.

Hello world!

Hello! Welcome to my blog and thank you for visiting it.  I’m new to this so just bear with me while I learn the ropes.

I suppose for the first blog I can tell you a little bit about myself.  You may have gathered from the title that I am a writer.  You’re one smart cookie!  My mom told me the other day that your passion is whatever keeps you up at night.  Well if this is true, then everyone in my household knows what my passion is.  For some reason the part of my brain that comes up with ideas for poems and stories is most active at night.  God also made me very, very forgetful.  Because of this, I cannot go to sleep until all my brilliant ideas are committed to paper(or computer).  Anyway, I suppose this means my passion is writing.  I had my sneaking suspicions but now I guess it’s proven.

Despite my rambling here there really is a purpose for my writing.  Getting down to the bare bones, my cause is the glorification of God through all that I do.  I also want to make a difference in the world.  I participate in a lot of community service activities and hope to show people the injustices that I experience through my writing.  Maybe I can even inspire others to take action.