Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success

Many aren’t sure what they’re called to do in this world. How they are asked to contribute. There are a number of tests that can be helpful to determine, and even judge, your calling. There are those who say that whatever you do successfully as an adult, you were probably doing, and even loved to do, as a child. It is, as if, we are called at an early age. It’s as if our identity is determined when we’re young, and as if we’re put on a path as children that will fulfill us, and fulfill our identities, as adults.

My husband is a massage therapist, and he remembers massaging his grandmother’s hands and feet as a young child. It was something he liked to do. He forgot about this, until, in his 30’s, he passed a sign for a massage school and responded. He’s been doing this work for over 30 years now, and loves doing it.

My career consultant (Judith Claire from Santa Monica, CA) remembers her mother asking her for advice from the age of 5. She became a career consultant, and advises others about their career paths.

When I was young, I loved to write and loved to talk. My mother used to respond to my constant chatter with the words, “Linda has something to say!” I became a seminar leader, and can easily talk for 6 hours or more a day. I began writing when I was 10, and have recently completed my 12th book which will be published in 2011.

Think about what you loved to do as a child, and how it relates to what you love to do as an adult. Then think about how you might define this connection between childhood and adulthood. I see it as a consistent calling from God. You might see it as simply affirming our identity and recognizing that we continue to contribute what we were born to do. However you define it, you may recognize that this spark is worth following, and brings fulfillment to our lives, as well as the lives of others.

Many people are absolutely clear about their Calling. They hear an inner voice, or sometimes an outer voice, and they suddenly know. I’ve had several Callings in my life. The first when I heard an Inner Voice call me into Drama, and it was clear that I was to follow that voice. A second when I decided to go to seminary, but was still grappling with the decision. I was driving to the college where I was teaching at the time (Grand Canyon College in Phoenix), turned a corner, and suddenly I knew I was going to seminary.

But sometimes the Calling may not seem as clear, and we continue to wonder. Here are some ways to discover if it’s a true call, or just an idle thought:

(1) Test the Call by waiting. Don’t do anything right away if you’re not sure. Pray.  Just sit with the feeling. Get centered. If there’s too much that is frenetic around this sense of a Call, chances are, it’s not a real call. God is at Peace and we need to enter into that Peace. If it’s a true Call, it doesn’t leave and you’ll feel right about it.

(2) A True Calling doesn’t contradict the Gospel and doesn’t contradict what you know to be Spirit-Led or Spirit-Filled. It will be in tune with other experiences and events in your life that you know have been led by the Spirit.

(3) The Call will use your spiritual gifts. Paul, in the Epistles, talks about the gifts of the spirit of love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self-control, etc.  (Galatians 5) So  if the Call is about making more money, being more famous, it is undoubtedly not a true Call.

(4) A True Calling can also be discussed and discerned by members of your spiritual community.  Some people call together a group of spiritual people they trust to discuss their Calling. Quakers (my spiritual community) has Clearness Committees, where a group of people from the Quaker Meeting sit down and try to discern, together, the movement of the spirit. When you and your spiritual community agree, it may very well be that this is a True Calling.

Of course any Calling takes discernment. Sometimes we’re wrong about what we think we’re called to do.  If we are wrong, either we’ll get an inkling of this when we sit peacefully, listening to the Spirit, or it will become clear that nothing is working and that you don’t feel right at all about what you’re doing. That doesn’t eliminate the struggles against the world’s resistances, but it’s the Call that helps us be able to deal with the struggles and problems as we move ahead.

Many people wonder if they’ve really been called to the work they do. They might like it, feel it contributes in a good way to life, and feel it suits them. Some say they’ve felt called, guided, led, nudged, pushed or shoved into their work. Some might wonder – “God calling me? I’m much too small a person to be called.”

Our theology and philosophy about our work determines, to a great extent, how we see our work and what motivates us to keep going.

There are many theologies about spirituality and work. I grew up with the Middle Class Theology that says we contribute something worthwhile to the world in what we do, and we work for a living. When I was 19, I experienced a Call to Drama. I stood in my dorm room talking to God, and asked: “I love drama. Yet, how can I go into drama when I’m not good at acting, don’t know what else to do with it, and yet, this is the most exciting subject to me.” I heard the Small Voice Within say, “Your job is to keep the dream of drama alive.” I understood immediately what they meant, and as the years have gone by, have become clearer about this meaning. For me, drama is a humanity – it illuminates the human condition. That is what I must do – use my work in drama to emphasize that insight at the heart of drama. As the years have gone by, the Calling has become clearer: I work to help express the spiritual aspects of drama which does not mean being explicitly spiritual (although at times I do that), but to express the intrinsic spiritual aspects of the human condition.

Some of my theology then developed around this Calling: I learned to see God as personal, and that God had an interest in my individual life. Some denominations within Christianity express it as: “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” Other denominations would support a personal theology  that God cares about us individually and cares what we do in our lives.

There are other theologies that tell us that the “flow of life will take us where we need to go.” We often buck the flow in our lives. We don’t follow where we are seemingly being led. We don’t believe in our happiness, so when some wonderful opportunity is presented to us, we sabotage it.

Some might substitute “Spirit” for “flow” and try to tune in to those gentle proddings and those whispers and the occasional push and shove. Others might recognize that we are made in certain ways, to respond to science or math or music or drama or art or business In a way that satisfies us. We try to understand our identity and therefore might say “I want to be what I was created to be.” We try to become Respond-ers to the moving forces in our lives.

Whatever your theology of Callings, you can test your theology to see if it’s clear enough and strong enough to get you through the tough times when the Guiding Star becomes dim.  Sometimes we need to expand our theology, or even choose a religion that has a big enough theology to contain the many questions in our lives and to help us make wise decisions in our careers. A cohesive theology in itself is not enough, but it’s a start for us to understand whether we’re called, and if so, what are we called to do.