DO WHAT YOU ARE
Once upon a time the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the challenges of the new world. So they organized a school. They developed an activity curriculum of climbing, swimming, running, and flying. To make the administration easier all the animals took all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact better than the instructor. But her grades in flying were barely passing. Her running grade was very low because she was so slow. Since she was so slow she had to drop swimming, which she really enjoyed to spend extra time running. This running caused her webfeet to be badly worn, so that by the end of the semester she was only an average swimmer.
The rabbit was at the top of the class in running. Swimming, however was a challenge, she developed a nervous twitch in her leg muscles because of the make-up work in swimming. Her speed fell of because of this nasty muscle twitch.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he was always in trouble in flying class. The teacher insisted that he start from the ground and go up but he wanted to start in the treetops and go down. He developed cramps in his legs from overexertion, and his grade fell in climbing, which he enjoyed, to a “C.” His flying teacher gave him a “D” because he could not follow instructions.
The eagle was always being disciplined. For instance in climbing class he beat everyone to the top of the tree but he insisted on using his own way to get there . . . flying.
The moral is clear. Each animal has its own natural abilities that is was designed to use. The only way the animal fails is if it is forced to do something it was not gifted to do. What is true of the animals of the forest is also true of us who walk upright. God has not made us all the same. Discover your natural abilities and enjoy them. Rabbits don’t fly. Eagles don’t swim. Squirrels don’t have feathers. Ducks look funny trying to climb trees. So what exactly were you designed to do.
Yehudi Menuhin, the famous violinist, has held audiences all over the world spellbound with his playing. He made his debut in San Francisco at the age of 7 and started a worldwide tour by the age of 12 with his historic concert at Carnegie Hall. In his memories, Unfinished Journey, Menuhin tells about his love affair with music.
From the time he was 3, Menuhin’s parents took him to concerts in New York where he heard Louis Persinger. Menuhin asked his parents for a
Violin on his fourth birthday and for Louis Persinger to teach him how to play. A family friend provided the violin, but it was a toy one with metal strings. Although he could have hardly held a full size violin, he was furious with the gift. He writes, “I burst into sobs, and threw it on the ground.” Menuhin said he realized he wanted nothing less than the real thing because he writes, “I knew instinctively that to play was to be.”
This story is not uncommon for musicians, John Coltrane, the saxophonist who played for Dizzie Gillespie and Miles Davis had a similar experience. Coltrane nearly died of a drug overdose; he came to faith in Christ and gave up the drugs and drinking. His later works were some of his best. He wrote “A Love Supreme” a thirty-two minute musical praise to God. After an extraordinary performance one night he stepped of the stage and said, “Now let your servant depart in peace.” He confessed that his mission was done; God had sent him to make music and write “A love Supreme.” Maybe we are designed to do, who we are. Again, think about it, maybe we are designed to do who we are.
In Biography magazine there was a feature on Katie Couric. Her sisters say that even as a child she would gather the other children around and entertain them. Which was obviously good training to work with Matt, Bryant, and Willard.
In this world “we usually become what we do” but shouldn’t it be “we do what we are.” This morning we have children and youth present that have not made this most crucial decision, further we have senior adults who no longer have to consider their career, and then there is the rest of us who daily wonder, “Why do we do what we do?” This message, however is not about career (which would include only a few), it is about hearing and following God’s calling for our lives (which concerns us all).
Vocation & Career
Be mindful that what we are talking about is a vocation not a career. Vocation comes from the Latin “Vocatio” or calling. A career is a way of putting bread on the table. If your calling and career intersect you are one of the lucky few. Most people have to have a career and do their calling on their own time. In the 18th chapter of Acts, Paul identifies himself as a tentmaker by profession. The scripture indicates that he spoke every Sabbath and makes no mention of any other activity, presumedly because he was making tents. Paul’s calling was to be a missionary his career was to be a
tentmaker. That is the real world. To find work that perfectly fits our calling is not a right but a blessing. Michelangelo once complained, “times are contrary to art [his calling] I do not . . . have any hope of further salary.” In more modern times George Foreman the boxer said, “Preaching is my calling, boxing for me is only moonlighting.”
This morning we will find ourselves intersecting this issue either as one who is responsible to train a child to follow a calling, or as one who is searching for our own calling, or as one who is trying to rediscover their gifts and calling.
For those of us training others
In Proverbs we read, “Train a child in the way he should go way, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (22:6).
We have always considered this passage about spiritual development. Teach children about God when they are young and when they grow up they want forget about God. I imagine there is some truth in that. Consider for a moment that the writer of Proverbs was most concerned with practical wisdom, family wisdom. Given the writers interest in worldly matters is it not possible that the writer is saying this, “Train a child in what comes natural and when they are old they will stick with it.” Could this be vocational wisdom? Help children discover their natural gifts and point them in that direction instead of letting them do what is in vogue. Graham Green wrote in The Power and the Glory, “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.” John Coltrane and Yehudi Menudin verify this. Consider this “God normally calls us along the line of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service.”
For those of us searching for our calling
Paul wrote, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.” (Romans 12:3)
Self-assessment, reflection, sober judgment, call it what we will, it is the first step toward finding our calling. Have we ever really examined who we are? Do we really know who we are? Or have we been so deceived by the advertisers, our greed, and comfort that we no longer know who we are? It does not take long to get so turned around that we simply become what we do instead of seeking to do who we are.
After we are prepared for our career we find ourselves working our job for a few years and then we begin to think, “Maybe I’d be happier doing something else.” So we look in the paper, get in touch with our contacts, and in short order we are setting up a new desk. A few years later and we repeat the same routine, same song, second verse. We think by changing our job, our address, or our spouse that we will somehow find the yellow brick road that leads to Oz. We are confused. Our longing is not for a new desk to sit behind or new people to work with, our longing is to use our gifts, to discover our calling. A job will not quench this thirst only a calling can quench this longing.
To discover who we are and what we were meant to do it is important to have a heart to heart talk with ourselves. We need to ask ourselves some unsettling questions.
1. What are my gifts and abilities?
2. What are the deepest desires of our heart?
3. Where I do personally sense the needs of the world and feel the brokenness in God’s creation?
4. What is my unique personality?
For those of us trying to rediscover our gifts and calling
Jackson Brown wrote a song entitled “The Pretender” about the temptation to neglect our natural gifts and calling and just struggle “for the legal tender.” We start out so young and strong he writes; we could have been a contender. Before long, however, we are going through a daily routine and as time passes by we forget all about our dreams and God’s gift. In due time we are caught between the routine and the struggled for the legal tender and in short we become the happy idiot and a pretender. It is a harsh commentary on the life and affairs of us humans. The truth is nothing is wrong with sticking with the routine and being faithful. We all have to pay the bills. But we don’t have to surrender our gifts and calling on the altar of a career.
Rediscovering what we are designed to do often takes the form of a search. In our twenties we may pursue one thing but by our forties we may be burned out on it and discover that our passion lies elsewhere. Sometimes it takes trial and error to happen upon our calling. Thomas Paine did not discover his calling until his forties, when he found himself, out of necessity writing political commentary in a print shop in Philadelphia. Prior to this he had been a seaman, a soap maker, and a government agent in England. Even after the publication of Common Sense and the discovering of his calling as a writer he had to make a living as a soldier, as a clerk for the State of Pennsylvania, and as Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
Conclusion
A calling once found is not for ourselves alone. We are called by God to serve others. Our calling cannot be to travel the world, that may be our wish but it would not be God’s calling because it makes no one better but ourselves. God calls us to be ourselves, but to be ourselves for the good of others.
Our career is our gift to ourselves. It provides the resources needed to survive. Our calling is God’s gift to the world. It is were our deep gladness meets the worlds deepest needs.
