Vocation

June 14th, 2013

I have the distinct privilege of working on my M.A. in Higher Education at Messiah right now and happen to be completing an internship this summer. For the class, we’re reading a wonderful little book on vocation by Parker Palmer (“Let Your Life Speak”). Coincidentally, this week’s chapter used Rosa Parks’ bus protest as a case study for vocational discovery. Palmer wrote, “Rosa Parks sat down because she had reached a point where it was essential to embrace her true vocation-not as someone who would reshape our society but as someone who would live out her full self in the world.” I have never heard Rosa Parks’ story recounted through the lens of vocation, but I have to admit that I quite like it.

Parker continues later, “Where do people find the courage to live divided no more when they know they will be punished for it? The answer I have seen in the lives of people like Rosa Parks is simple: these people have transformed the notion of punishment itself. They have come to understand that no punishment anyone might inflict on them could possibly be worse than the punishment they inflict on themselves by conspiring in their own diminishment.” In other words, the pain of living a life not fully committed to one’s vocation is worse than the pain that sometimes comes with living out one’s vocation.

I am struck by Parker’s point not only because it is a unique lens by which to interpret the Civil Rights movement, but also because it is an extremely compelling call to understand and remain committed to one’s vocational mission. My life mission might not involve racial desegregation of buses, but how has God called and equipped me to speak into this world?


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