The other week I had someone ask me if there is a distinction between one’s career and one’s vocation. “I’ve always heard the words used interchangeably,” he said, “and I was just wondering if there’s a difference.”
At the time I wasn’t sure, but I told him that I would look into it. As it turns out, there is a difference—and a rather startling one! Our word “career” comes from the Latin word “carrera,” which means “racetrack.” In a sense, it literally refers to that area of our lives where we compete against one another to get ahead. By contrast, our word “vocation” comes from the Latin word “vocare,” which means “to call.”
So the real question becomes … Do you have a career or a calling? A career desires to be successful; a calling desires to be valuable. A career tries to make a living; a calling tries to make a difference. A career strives after personal gain; a calling seeks the common good. Granted, the two can be, and often are, combined. But one would assume that God is far more interested in our callings than our careers.
The problem is that it’s not always clear what exactly God is calling us to do. How does one know whether a particular career path is also following God’s path? Frederick Buechner suggests that one way of determining this is to remember that God usually calls us to a kind of work that (a) you most need to do and (b) the world most needs to have done.
For example, if you still get a lot of joy and satisfaction out of your work, then presumably you’ve met requirement (a). However, if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, then you may wind up falling a little short of meeting requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b). but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, then chances are that you have not only missed (a), but probably aren’t doing much for your patients either.
As Buechner writes, “Our true vocation is found in the place where your greatest joy and the world’s deepest need meet.”
At the time I wasn’t sure, but I told him that I would look into it. As it turns out, there is a difference—and a rather startling one! Our word “career” comes from the Latin word “carrera,” which means “racetrack.” In a sense, it literally refers to that area of our lives where we compete against one another to get ahead. By contrast, our word “vocation” comes from the Latin word “vocare,” which means “to call.”
So the real question becomes … Do you have a career or a calling? A career desires to be successful; a calling desires to be valuable. A career tries to make a living; a calling tries to make a difference. A career strives after personal gain; a calling seeks the common good. Granted, the two can be, and often are, combined. But one would assume that God is far more interested in our callings than our careers.
The problem is that it’s not always clear what exactly God is calling us to do. How does one know whether a particular career path is also following God’s path? Frederick Buechner suggests that one way of determining this is to remember that God usually calls us to a kind of work that (a) you most need to do and (b) the world most needs to have done.
For example, if you still get a lot of joy and satisfaction out of your work, then presumably you’ve met requirement (a). However, if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, then you may wind up falling a little short of meeting requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b). but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, then chances are that you have not only missed (a), but probably aren’t doing much for your patients either.
As Buechner writes, “Our true vocation is found in the place where your greatest joy and the world’s deepest need meet.”
posted by Dr. Robert Crilley at
7:58 AM
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