Your Vocational Credo E-Book

Deborah Koehn Loyd

• Herausgeber: IVP
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 260

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

We know God has created each one of us in unique ways, but we often struggle to understand his divine plans. Instead, we live with a vague sense of discontent as we question who we are and what God has designed us to do.Vocational coach Deborah Koehn Loyd believes that every person has a voice that must be heard and expressed through vocation. She walks you through a transformational journey of creating your own vocational credo so that you can be a world-changer in the way God has intended. You?ll discover: - the true meaning of vocation - how to redeem past pains in your life - your personal vocational preferences - a unique plan for your life?s work Using unique tools and practical guidance combined with inspiring stories of personal transformation, this workbook will provide you with the resources to find your credo and accomplish the work God has designed just for you.

Leseprobe

Your Vocational Credo

Practical Steps to Discover Your Unique Purpose

Deborah Koehn Loyd

www.IVPress.com/books

To Ken,

my partner and husband of thirty-six years,

who yet inspires me daily

with his passion for people.

Contents

Introduction

1 Why Vocation Matters

2 What Is Vocation Anyway?

3 How Pain Sets the Trajectory for Vocation

4 Illumination from Darkness

5 The Puzzle Pieces of Your Story

6 Dreams That Heal the World

7 Creating Your Vocational Credo

8 Identifying Toxic Skills

9 Addressing the Fear of Failure

10 Pursuing Change and Chaos

11 Discovering Your Vocational Preferences

12 Leaving Behind a Legacy

13 Giving Voice to Your Song

Acknowledgments

Appendix 1: The Vocational Triangle Template

Appendix 2: Examples of Vocational Credos

Appendix 3: Vocational Preferences Survey

Notes

Bibliography

Praise for Your Vocational Credo

About the Author

Finding Forward

More Titles from InterVarsity Press

Copyright

Introduction

Welcome to the journey—your journey. This book is about noticing patterns, those that come from your own story, that mark you, shape who you are and help you to be your best self. Most of us are well acquainted with the events of our own stories, yet we have not made sense of the mountain peaks and valleys in them that form us. The trends and truths get lost in the multitude of clues that vie for our attention. The chatter distracts us and the landscape becomes flattened.

Christine and I met when we were studying in India. She was a ray of hope in a landscape that seemed void of mentors for someone like me. I begged her to mentor me, and she eventually said yes. Until I began my vocational exploration at Christine’s urging, I had no idea how to interpret the events of my life. Since then, I have collected a few unconventional shortcuts that will help you to move along more quickly than I was able to. I offer you a process to help you read and interpret your own story. It includes developing your vocational credo and discovering ways that you might live it out. Your vocational credo describes why you are on earth and what you will do about it. You will adapt and re-adapt the concepts demonstrated in this book before you find the right words to describe you. Only then will the credo become truly yours.

In the following chapters you’ll find your pathway forward by delving into these questions:

What are the differences between vocation, career, job and calling?

What are you all about? What is your ultimate

why

?

What are your gifts, talents and tools?

What are the personal barriers to success that will keep you from living into your vocation?

How has pain been formative in your story, and what does it contribute to your vocation?

What in your past is waiting to be energized?

In what ways does your greatest joy intersect with the deep needs of the world?

What is your greatest hope?

How do you establish enduring significance for your life’s work? How does it live on after you are gone?

Vocation is a creative significant work unique to you, expressed with deep joy as a love offering to God, exuding self-respect and care for others that meets the needs of the world in a meaningful way.

Furthermore, vocation rests on three pieces of hard work. The first is to discover what you are all about. This is the journey of your why, which is shorthand for a question that most of us have asked at one time or another, Why do I exist? Your responses to the preceding questions will help you to begin to form that answer. The second piece is discovering how to make yourself available to God in a way that makes sense to you. This requires your commitment to explore how you will utilize your skills, gifts and talents in life-giving ways for yourself and others. The third element comes from my mother, who, at a very dark time in my life, gave me this sage bit of advice: “We don’t do faith if it works. We do faith until it works. This is what spirituality is all about.” She helped me understand that trial and error are part of the process. I learned that what I did not fight for could never be mine. Numerous times this advice has helped me to flow with my circumstances, rather than fight them, and find my way to success. As it turns out, it is crucial to know when to fight and when not to fight.

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

FREDERICK BUECHNER1

By applying the practices in this book you will develop an inner voice that will gain strength. And as that happens God will respond with enablement and opportunity. It is a circular proposition: You risk, God shows up, you respond, and then it starts over again. Accepting a lifestyle that welcomes risk and does not shrink from failure is the cornerstone of growth. If you make yourself available, God will give you opportunities to do what you do best and the capacity to do it with maximum effectiveness.

So I write this book with three assumptions. First, everyone has a unique vocation that God desires for each of us to fulfill. Second, our fulfillment in life is tethered to the discovery and performance of our vocation. Third, vocation is meant to be altruistic, that is, for the sake of others. Without others, vocation deteriorates to narcissism.

What if God is so generous that God cannot help but give each human being a vocation that will contribute to changing the world? It is possible for everyone, from teenagers to retirees, to find our significant vocation because God intends for us to find it. Vocation creates people who love what they do and who inspire others to be more than they currently are. People with passion will never lack for vision or mission.

Neither will they lack for followers. What kind of greatness is hiding in you? Are you willing to find out? You may become the hero in your own story!

I am particularly passionate to show that altruism and compassion are not luxuries, but essential needs to answer the challenges of our modern world.

MATTHIEU RICARD, “The World’s Happiest Man”2

A Little of My Backstory

My journey to discover my vocation could not have happened without my partner in crime, Ken, my husband of thirty-six years, and my amazing children and grandchildren. When Ken and I were first married, we worked at jobs that paid the bills but were unfulfilling on most levels. Both being raised by parents from a generation that emphasized responsibility over fulfillment, we responded well to their tutelage but found ourselves feeling stuck. Once we dared to step outside of the norm, we began to dream, and based on those dreams we took risks, lots of them. Life changed dramatically. The ride became extremely bumpy and at the same time crazy exciting.

In the 1990s we started a church for twentysomethings. It was unlike anything that had come before it. Edgy did not even begin to describe it. What a wild ride that was! Ken has since started three churches for our friends who live outdoors in Portland, Oregon. I went back to school for ten years and became a college professor. I went on to partner in a couple of organizations to empower Christian women: Women’s Convergence and Women’s Theology Hub. I now work with Forge, an organization that supports those who want to live missionally as well as young church planters. I also started Finding Forward, which is my ongoing endeavor to help people find their vocation. I do retreats, group training, individual coaching and certified training.

For Ken and me there is no turning back to the staid life of the past. Our friends suggest that we think about retirement, but that doesn’t sound right just yet. Although we now are grandparents and in the legacy season of our lives, we continue to change and grow, finding new ways to express our vocations. As it turns out, God is not finished with us yet.

The impetus for this body of research and this book is a result of my loss of voice. This occurred on two levels. The first was the virtual loss of voice that happened through sexual abuse. Fear and shame robbed me of my ability to tell my own story. My abuser threatened me into silence. This signaled a self-destructive urge within me that took years to unravel through therapy and working out my spirituality.

The second loss of voice was quite literal. I developed a condition called spasmodic dysphonia, which left me with barely a whisper. My life dramatically altered as a result of this loss, creating a domino effect of losses in other areas. It was also the very thing that set me on my journey to find healing, vocation and a more gracious view of God. My story has been miraculous, and I trust that yours will be too.

I desire that everyone, especially those reading this book, will find that sweet spot of vocation for their lives. I want you to be able to say as I have, “I never dreamed that life with God could be this exciting!” And “If you would have told me thirty years ago about all the amazing things I would experience, I never would have believed you.”

My prayer is that you will be filled with wonder as you discover your own wild frontier! Cheers to God from whom all blessings flow, and cheers to you as you begin the journey!

- 1 -

Why Vocation Matters

It was autumn 1969 and career day at my high school. Students sat with eager anticipation, hoping to answer with some imagination the questions that were posed: To which career do you feel called? What would you like to do for the rest of your life? My friends chose careers that sounded interesting and planned for either vocational school or college after graduation. I was perplexed. The questions did not seem right to me. Although I didn’t dare say it out loud, inside my head I was screaming, Nothing! I do not want to do any one thing for the rest of my life! For some reason the idea of a career seemed boring, lifeless and not a legitimate way to express the real me. I understood career as something similar to the electrical wiring in the house. People need electricity, but who wants to focus on wires and electrical current when there are lamps, radios, movies and music to be explored and enjoyed? Better that the mundane functioning systems be hidden behind the walls, enabling us to focus on the important things.

The idea of making money and supporting myself, much like those wires, felt important, but it seemed like it should be secondary to more passionate inspiration and dramatic events. The future was a mysterious, unknown drama that held many possibilities yet to be played out, including the journey of self-discovery. Yet I felt pressed to become a cog in the machine, to choose a job and do my part methodically, contributing to society until I struck it rich or retired, whichever came first. Inside my head I was functioning more like a method actor, asking myself, What is my motivation here? I wanted to make a difference. I wanted a reason to become something and a purpose beyond the mundane. I wanted an inspired, exciting future.

When the career specialist finally rolled out my choices, I was underwhelmed, to say the least. My options were limited: teacher (Same room, same kids every day? No thanks), nurse (Sorry, can’t do blood), librarian (“Disturbs Others” was commonly checked on my grade school report card so this was not a natural fit), secretary (I was independent and self-determined, no bossy boss for me), seamstress (Who can sit in one place for that long?), and stewardess (Well, that one was intriguing, just impractical if I ever wanted a family). This was an era when the typewriter was a woman’s domain, a man in the nursing profession would be considered effeminate and stewardesses (there were no stewards or flight attendants back then) could not be married. Men’s and women’s roles were rigidly defined, and the career specialist’s suggestions reflected this limiting fact.

My mother had raised my expectations with a worldview that was ahead of her time and apparently mine too. “You do not have to be a secretary; you can be the boss. You do not have to be a nurse; you can be the doctor.” My mother had inspired me with these thoughts, and I believed her with all my heart. Once I left home I struggled unsuccessfully to find mentors who had horizons beyond the norm. There was no one to tell me “You can do better than this” or “Take some time to explore your options” or most importantly, “What are you all about? What really excites you? Where do you find meaning?”

And then there was the spiritual side of the struggle. From my Catholic upbringing I knew that God had made me a unique individual. I sensed that I was born to do something that no one else could do. If this was true, why did it feel like I had to wrestle with God to find out what my vocation, my life’s work, would be? Why was it such a big secret? Later on I became a good Pentecostal. I knew how to obey. If I thought God said, “Do it,” I did it no matter how crazy “it” seemed. I was convinced that obedience was not the issue. Discerning God’s will was the problem. Just tell me what to do! was my simplistic prayer. But it seemed as if the heavens were turning away my prayers like the clouds on a gray day in Seattle turn away the brilliant rays of the sun.

What I didn’t know back then was that no matter how much I prayed, the answer would not emerge from prayer or merely choosing a career or doing what was convenient. Vocation would not fall into my lap. The pathway forward would become a spiritual journey that included much more than I could imagine. Puzzle pieces would emerge from loving but honest conversations with friends and mentors. Books would shed light on the path. Movies, art and music, each in their own way, would enliven my search. Discerning the themes and trajectories of my life would take on a life of its own. I would learn to lean into my most painful moments, discovering passion that was hidden in the darkness of my pain. Hour after hour of sitting and prayerfully examining my life in the light of God’s wisdom, grace and provision would paint a picture into which all those puzzle pieces would be integrated. And through all of this, my pathway forward would emerge and my vocation would come to light.

Since that time I have walked down the pathway of vocational discernment with many friends, family members, students, business colleagues and clients. I am more convinced than ever that every individual has a specific vocation that can be coaxed out and brought to light through patience, probing and reflection. Finding vocation is an act of spiritual practice that must be cherished and held reverently. It is not withheld from us. Rather through exploration, self-knowledge and the gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit, vocation is revealed in us. However, like most treasures, we must search diligently to find it.

The Power of Purpose

Dr. Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and creator of logotherapy, observed in the Nazi concentration camp that those who had the ability to hope in the future were able to rally the courage to weather the unendurable.1 Frankl said,

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life: everyone must carry out a concrete assignment which demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.2

Frankl noticed that those living in the most deprived and debasing circumstances could survive if their lives had meaning and purpose. These were the keys to dignity, hope and survival. Vocation is what brings substance, meaning and purpose to the events of life, whether we understand these events or not. In Frankl’s case, his mission was to be reunited with his loved ones. Although Frankl’s entire family died in the camps, he was able, in spite of profound disappointment and loss, to press on to a future of good work, prosperity, love and long life. And in the process he found vocational fulfillment doing the work of a psychiatrist and researcher.

Each one of us is put on earth for a unique purpose. The apostle Paul writes, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). This is a teleological plan, meaning a plan with an end in mind. God’s story for you and me is a story of purpose. Although none of us can predict the future, we are safe trusting the trajectory that God has allowed in our lives, because it will enable us to do the good works that God intends for us to do. However, if we ultimately fail to accomplish that purpose, there is no other human being that can fulfill the assignment in place of us. It is an intriguing and sobering thought that I have been designed specifically to fulfill a particular role on earth in a way no one else can. This realization gives birth to the perspective that vocation is a spiritual practice. Partnership with God is absolutely necessary.

Our Holy Book reminds us that our lives are not ours alone, but we are given to this world to serve others. We cannot do this without the help of God. I am guessing that you might share the same idea. God’s mercy and love engulf us completely as we search to find purpose and its resulting responsibility. Because of the cross, our mistakes and missteps are forgiven even before they happen. God is glorified when I become the best me that I can be. My unique expression of God is a testimony to the goodness and breadth of my Creator. In accepting my uniqueness I am able to support the unique gifts of others.

Vocation is speaking or living forth the truest form of self. Vocation does not merely happen to us from the outside in a blinding light from heaven or an official “call” from God. That sweet spot of significance suited only to you must be discovered from the inside as well. A thorough inner exploration is necessary because it will allow you to bring your most energized and creative self into the future. It will ignite passion in your soul that is specific to you. When that passion collides with God-given opportunity, you have the elements of vocation and the power to change the world. Who wouldn’t want that?

Passion: zeal that sustains energy to accomplish goals.

Don’t Be Left Behind

My story is not unique. It took me a long time, a lifetime, to discover my vocation, which is to help others find their voice both literally and vocationally. But it doesn’t have to be that way for everyone. In fact most young people launching careers today cannot afford it to be that way. We live in compelling times that demand our attention and energy. It is easy to be left behind. The problem is that the world is changing so fast it is difficult to know how to respond for survival, let alone addressing meaning in life. Before 2002, Gordon Moore, the cofounder of Intel, determined that the processing speed of a computer chip doubled every eighteen months, accelerating the ability to disseminate information.3 YouTube videographers Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod and Laura Bestler suggested that in 2006 technical information was doubling every two years, and by 2010 it was expected to double every seventy-two hours.4 Guess what! We have passed that now.

Shift Happens, an informative video presentation by Fisch, McLeod and Jeff Brenman, gives a view of the unprecedented challenges for the job seeker:

The top ten jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004.

Students are currently preparing for jobs that will use technologies not yet invented in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.

The US Department of Labor estimates that today’s learner will have ten to fourteen jobs by the age of thirty-eight.

One in four workers has been with their current employer for less than one year, and one in two for less than five years.

Many of today’s college majors didn’t exist ten years ago. These include new media, organic agriculture, e-business, nanotechnology and homeland security.

For students starting a four-year technical degree this means that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

5

How are we to keep up with this bewildering rush of change? Career sustainability is a moving target these days. How do these pieces fit together for the graduate? Yet, in the midst of this career uncertainty, I have never met so many young people who want to change the world but just don’t know how to go about it. This is a crisis of vocation. And adding insult to injury, the educational bar has been raised. Where once a bachelor’s degree was required to be competitive in the marketplace, now a master’s degree or a PhD is needed just to be eligible. Does the need for higher education draw us toward our purpose or distract us from it? This remains to be seen.

Tony Campolo and Bruce Main give the reader pause in their book Revolution and Renewal. They write about the vocational benefits of a program called Mission Year, which engages the youth and energy of college students to transform cities. Campolo says,

For students who haven’t got a clue about what to do with their lives, it can be a defining experience to take a year off from school and get involved in a ministry that brings them into constant contact with some of the most socially disadvantaged and oppressed people in America. Time and time again, listening to and praying with people in need helps these students to grapple with what their own lives mean. In more cases than not, unfocused young people come away from this year of missionary service with clarity about their vocational choices.6

As these students gave themselves wholeheartedly to mission, they were able to see what was important for their own futures. When faced with compelling needs, young people quickly found their resonance. They discovered what was calling out to them and where their passion was leading. It would be amazing if all college students could have life-altering experiences like those in Campolo’s program, centering them on their life’s vocation while still in the formative process. Rather than taking merely convenient courses of study or someone else’s idea of what they should study, students could choose majors that more closely reflect their passions. What if more students were aided in finding their vocations sooner and subsequently changed the world? What if they were able to become what they hoped for? Vocation has a transformative element to it that draws its seekers into permanent change.

Although the college years have passed for many of us, finding vocation is not only possible but gives many elders a vitality for life they have never known to be possible. Older adults have advantages that younger people don’t. They have learned how to persevere and know what works for them. Older adults are often more financially secure and have time to give. These allow more choices and opportunities for vocational expression. The latter years can be more exciting than the former. If you are like me, you want to change the world. Sometimes my sixty-plus years try to convince me that I am too old for this endeavor. But if not now, then when? Time is running out. I have a passion for an authentic gut-inspired voice that exudes from deep within my soul. If you are like me, this book is for you too. Everyone deserves to be heard. In the symphony of voices, wisdom, creativity and future will be found.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. said, “Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it time runs out.”7 Who wants to leave this world without offering their contribution to the symphony? Grandma Jerri, a little lady I knew, was dying of lung cancer. She clung to her cigarettes and her Gameboy until her very last breath. My heart broke for her—and for all of us. She died without singing her song. I can’t seem to forget her. I wonder about the beauty inside of Grandma Jerri that she never managed to share with the world. What passion inside of you is waiting to be ignited? How will you express it? What if we all, young and old, found our voices sooner and changed the world together? Not doing so is too great a risk when the world needs us.

What Are You All About?

In the movie TheCider House Rules Arthur Rose, the orchard boss, has a confrontation with his underlings who are threatening to overwhelm his authority.8 Angrily he yells, “What are you all about? ’Cause I’m about apples. What are you about?” In their violent world the question was important. His pointed clarity forced the crew to focus on that one motivation that would guide their future behavior and possibly their survival. Although I think Arthur missed the point in some ways, his ability to exact that kind of focus, first from himself and then from his crew, was inspiring and thought provoking. He was a strong leader who caused his men to dig deep for that which was relevant in the moment. The scene reminded me of a conversation I had long ago with a mentor who pressed me to answer a few questions about my voice, which I was struggling to discover: What keeps you awake at night? What brings you to tears? What makes you angry?

My mentor may as well have asked me the color of a C chord on my guitar. The questions barely made sense. At the time I knew I was not equipped to answer her questions by myself. I wanted help, which she wisely would not offer. She wanted me to ruminate on the questions and struggle for my own answers, no matter how long it took me. These life-defining questions were meant to cause me to carefully consider the thrust of my education and how I would spend my future. I needed to discover what made my own heart beat. Each of us has a heart meant to beat in symphony with the Holy Spirit. Although I knew that from sermons I had heard, I still could not put my finger on what that was for me. As I began to consider my gifts, talents and the tools I had acquired, I realized that I had to approach this journey as a spiritual practice. Self-examination, reflection and reverence would be my traveling buddies. I thought, Good, I’ve got six months before school starts. I can get this done. I knew neither how deep I would have to dig nor how long it would take to get there. Before I knew it, six months turned into six years. So there is no better time than the present to begin the journey.

Reflection and Practice

Vocation is something that we would do whether or not there was a paycheck. It is a passion that exudes from our soul and transcends any particular job or career we may find ourself in. Vocation brings joy in the midst of tedium and normal. It is simple and profound, hidden and obvious, natural and spiritual. I define vocation as a creative, significant work expressed with deep joy as an offering of love to God, self and others that meets the needs of the world in a meaningful way.

Reflect on these questions and note your responses.

What do you think your vocation might be in light of my ­definition?

What keeps you awake at night?

What brings you to tears?

What makes you angry?

What would you be compelled to do even if there was no paycheck associated with it?

- 2 -

What Is Vocation Anyway?

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “It is not more vacation that we need—it is more vocation.”1 Mrs. Roosevelt was hinting that a calling would bring greater refreshment to the soul than time spent away from one’s employment. An occupation could be revitalizing if it was the right work. Furthermore, if we chose the right career, our job could be a real vocation and thus be fulfilling.

I am sorry, was that last paragraph a little confusing? It should have been. Have you noticed how many words are used for what we do to make money and otherwise occupy our working selves: vocation, calling, career, employment, work, occupation and job. I used all seven of them in the first paragraph. To understand the nuances of vocation, we must discuss a few words that are often used interchangeably. Too often these words are assumed to be the same as vocation. Most of them are not. However, there is some crossover in meaning. I will focus only on job, work, career, calling and vocation so as not to belabor the point. Let’s take a few minutes to tease out the differences between them and thus lessen the confusion.

It’s Just a Job

Leon is an in-house accountant at an insurance agency where he has worked for four years. At the end of last quarter, as he was about to put the tax reports in the mail, he remembered a substantial amount of income that he had failed to include on the report. The tax form and the check were already in the stamped and sealed envelope and ready to go. Leon contemplated redoing the report, which would have been proper protocol according to tax law. However, it was a Friday and nearly time to head for home for a few well-deserved days off. Leon ruminated, I’m tired and I don’t want to waste a stamp. I’ll just fix it next quarter. It’s not that big of a deal. In an effort to soothe his guilty conscience, he mumbled “It’s just a job” as he slipped the envelope into the mail slot and headed out the door.

A job