Finding Your Calling

No matter your job, your calling is to love.

The first semester of Freshman Year in College was a few days away. My friend J- and I were driving somewhere. I can’t remember the destination. He asked me what I would major in. Too embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t the faintest clue, I said, “Psychology.”

Eventually I did end up double majoring in psych and philosophy. We’ll get to where that has led me over the years in a moment. But first let’s take a look at the source of my embarrassment.

My tacit belief at the time was that only select people have a calling. Think Jane Goodall and Marie Curie. Martin Luther King and Mary Oliver. People like that have this one thing, this one pursuit, that gives their entire life focus, direction, and motivation. All the rest of us just get by as best we can.

Their lives had real meaning. They were somebody. I didn’t want to be a nobody. So, I was embarrassed to admit that I had no clear career goals.

Mind you, I had not really thought any of this through. These ideas had come to me from our cultu…