New Job? New Career? Thoughts on our callings.

What is a calling? What is vocation? What is our ultimate goal in our occupations?

These are the questions that have been rattling around in my brain since I have started my new job as SNAP-Ed Program Assistant of my county. I have gone from working for a church--doing practically everything besides the main pastoral duties--to teaching nutrition, healthy lifestyle choices, and shopping on a limited budget to individuals with limited resources. To many it seems like I have made a career change; many now ask if I plan to be a teacher or why I "left the ministry", but to everyone I simply say, "I don't know."

That, however, is not exactly the truth.

I do know...at least in part. I know my calling is to impact and develop people--that's part of the reason developer is one of my top 5 strengths. I know the more I focus on my county the more I feel drawn and possibly even called to it for now. I know that a calling can develop based on the choices that one makes. I know that a calling can change and adapt. All that to say, I believe you can change your occupation, but your career and/or calling stays the same. Yes, I am a health teacher in many ways now. Yes I teach budgeting as well. I do, however, do it for the development of individuals. I want to see holistic, well-rounded growth. I want communities to flourish and thrive and for a community to do so, the individual must first.

Will I be a SNAP-Ed P.A. forever? Likely not. Does that mean my calling has changed? No. My calling is to better peoples lives any way I can. To invest in my community--which I knew clearly was what I was called to do all through college and I felt very strongly in my blog post after I spent a summer in New Orleans (http://thoughtsfromdust.blogspot.com/2014/07/its-always-hard-to-say-goodbye.html). This calling that I had at the end of the summer translated itself into staying in my community after graduation, investing in it, and ultimately getting a job that works to teach and empower others so that the community, as a whole, can develop and become a better place to live.

So what is our vocation or our calling in life? To bring God's Kingdom here, in our local community, right where we live, with whatever skills and abilities we have been given to use. There is only one of us with our specific abilities: So let's stop trying to be someone else's calling, but focus on what we--and only we--can bring to the Table of the Kingdom of God here on Earth.