Last week, my wife and I went to an open house at our son’s high school. We walked through our son’s schedule, spending 10 minutes in each of his classrooms listening to the teacher tell us about the year ahead and expectations our son was to meet.
His calculus teacher told us that he quit his career 20 years go as a surveyor, at the age of 35, and went into teaching math. He mentioned the shock he received when his salary fell dramatically from $56,000 a year to $21,000.
A parent asked him in amazement why he would ever transition into a new job that paid so much less. Without missing a beat, the teacher said, “This is my calling. I love to teach.” He continued to explain that he was single at the time and didn’t care about how much money he made. “And besides,” he said, “This is where I met my wife. Life is good.” The delight he enjoyed as a teacher was obvious by the glow on his face, his upbeat demeanor and the enthusiasm he expressed. He truly was in his right place and loving every minute of it.
I mentally applauded him. He was living an honest life. Money was not the motivating factor for him. He had found his calling.
I liked this man because he was manifesting congruency. The outside was a true expression of the inside. He knew what he loved, he lived true to it, and there was no false pretense in between.
He also made a critical decision at a crucial age about how he wanted to spend his days. He wanted to do something he really loved and wasn’t going to compromise. I was grateful to have my son in his class and witness his example.
I could relate to him because I made the same kind of decision when I left the family farm for the healing ministry. I couldn’t tolerate living a dishonest life anymore. I needed to follow my heart, live true to my conscience and go where God was taking me. It was one of the wisest decisions I’ve ever made.
Have you found your calling? Do you know who you are and what you’re all about? God is speaking to you. Listen carefully and faithfully follow. You will be blessed.
I’ve heard a “Different Drummer” all my life, and always wondered why, and began a serious search for meaning of life and being when I was 45. New physics and some enlightened interpreters of it prepared me to reach out to God, finally, at age 62. I see today that drummer I’d been listening to was God all the time, His allness showing me the way, preparing my thought for the answer which, at age 65, I finally found – He brought the grand idea and great comforter that had been coming all the time – – Christian Science! I’m so grateful and so home!
“Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it.” – Buddha
What do you do when you listen and no answer seems to be given for my calling? I love to do so many things. Thank you. Ann
Ann,
Keep listening! Like the first commenter wrote, it took him decades to find his calling. That’s not bad. It just brings out that we all must continue searching until we arrive at the truth that causes us to feel “I’ve come home.”
I think of a calling as a place an individual arrives where they have found genuine purpose, meaning and worth to what they do–spiritual meaning and worth. A “calling” is not just an activity we like to do. That’s pretty superficial and can be shallow. It’s much deeper. A calling is a genuinely spiritual experience we have in doing good works that benefit others and reveal our spiritual worth. People who have found their calling are filled with passion for what they do. You can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voice, see it in their life. They are alive with purpose!
This is timely- I’ve been figuring this all out too and it’s taken years but I’m homing in… With every career change I’ve gotten by degrees truer and closer to my calling. One indicator to look for in particular: a calling should come with a very strong sense of mission.~D.W.
Sometimes you have to learn to appreciate your calling.
I was doing mine a long time before I valued it. It wasn’t what “I wanted to do” or what I thought I valued so I didn’t think much of it until later on. I felt perpetually misplaced. Eventually I discovered I had been in my right place all the way along. I needed to be humble enough to recognize and value it as much as others did and recognize I had what I needed all the time I thought I lacked.
I have a much more contented and appreciative view now.
Excellent and very helpful comments by all…thanks so much!
Wow, Evan, my husband and I had a very similar experience last night at our son’s middle school/Jr. High Back-to-School night, as well. His science teacher told us that he consciously left a family owned-and-operated aerospace company that he was managing years ago to pursue his dream of teaching 8th grade science. What an absolutely dynamic individual he is! His first course requirement is that “science is fun!” He admits that he doesn’t know it all, but how fun it is to explore the subject together. Our son, and his other classmates we’re told, respond very positively to this class/teacher. What a perfect example of living love….
I knew what my calling was at age 13. It came with a very strong sense of purpose and mission. I plunged into it with all my heart, but over the years I got distracted by other things, and because my calling was in music, I absorbed the belief that I couldn’t really make a living doing it, so I started doing other things. Now, at age 68 I am reassessing everything and purifying my thought about my calling, eliminating all the false suggestions, distractions and beliefs. Now I’m just waiting on God for the next step.
I love that idea of congruency! I, too am a math teacher and it is the best!