The work-around the work

There’s such a close connection between location and vocation. Listening to my friend Ben one morning as he shared an experience of his formation where he came to grips with feelings emerging from deep within, I realized just how challenging it is to do a deep dive into the interior realm. It takes courage to go there. And it certainly takes guts to come back out and share whatever you uncovered. Recovered. Or discovered.

So…how does location connect with vocation? Vocation is a calling. If we are listening and paying attention, a response is elicited. Just like the physical universe, for every action there is a reaction. What exactly is the Call? Something you hear? Feel? See?

How do we react when we get the call? Are we flat-footed? Or sure-footed?

Frequently, the locus of the Call lies embedded deeply within our selves. But who possesses the topographical map of their own soul? Over what inner distance or terrain does that Call have to travel before it registers in our consciousness?

Vocation can be cerebral, abstract, remote. Location is visceral, physical, concrete. Let’s look at some of the ways we interpret or discern where we are standing.

Here’s a short list of nine innate intelligences which are very useful for locating where we are:

• Linguistic: the use of verbal language.
• Musical: create, communicate meaning made out of sound.
• Logical: use, appreciate abstract relationships.
• Spatial: perceive, transform, create images from memory.
• Kinesthetic: use all or part of the body to create, solve problems.
• Interpersonal: recognize, make distinctions about others feelings, intentions.
• Intrapersonal: distinguish meaning among one’s own feelings.
• Natural: distinguish among, classify, use features of the environment.
• Existential: raise philosophical questions regarding life’s meaning.

Whichever way you prefer to roll, identifying or recognizing a nudge is a critical first step in responding to your call. The more familiar you become with how you tick, the quicker you may be to react to the prompting of your call.

For ages, sailors have attached small strips of cloth to sails and stays on their boats. These flexible flags of fabric are known as “tell-tales,” and they indicate the presence (or absence) of the wind. Of course, since no one can actually see the wind, these tiny tools prove very useful in sailing, as well as moving oneself from point A to point B.

Where are the tell-tales in your soul? Have you discovered them? In sensing the teasing touch of RUAH (God’s breath) on your shoulder, can you tell where that Wind is coming from? And where you are heading? Make your map. Get a fix. Mark your location. Press on… and into your calling.

Richard Rumble
August 2013