How Do You Know You Are Called?
Mark 1:14-20
Illustration
by Staff

How do we know we are called? How do we know to what we are called? An age-old question to which a wise minister and author has given us an answer worth pondering. Frederick Buechner, in his book, "Wishful Thinking," says it well. He says that a good rule for finding one's vocation is this: Our special mission in our life is usually

A. That which we'd love most to do and
B. It is work that the world most needs to have done.

Buechner says that if we really get a kick out of our work, we have probably met requirement A, but if that work is writing TV deodorant commercials, chances are we haven't met requirement B. If our work is being a doctor in a leper colony, we probably have met requirement B, but if most of the time we are bored and depressed by doctoring, the chances are we have not only bypassed A, we probably aren't helping our patients much, either.

Buechner concludes: "The place God calls us to, is the place where our deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., ChristianGlobe Illustrations, by Staff