The V word.

"Wherever God has put you, that is your vocation. It's not what we do but how much love we put into it"

 -St. Teresa of Calcutta

The V word is vocation, what did you think it was? I was having dinner with a friend the other day who like many of my friends are discerning their vocation. She discerned as far as to being asked to take a break from the order she was discerning with. Towards the end of the dinner she expressed to me the want to not even use the V word for awhile, she is so tired of it and constantly thinking about it and being asked about it. And I assured her, I GET THAT. 

For those of who may not know, a vocation is how we exemplify God's love to the world and our love for Christ by a certain sacrament or covenant we make. In the Catholic Church, it could be Marriage, Priesthood, Religious life (sisters and nuns), or other things. The whole subject of our vocation is simple, it is not about us. It isn't what we specifically want or what we desire, because who doesn't want to have an Instagram worthy wedding or be able not to think about another awkward date ever again? As you may guess, it is extremely hard to guess what your vocation is even going to be. So we don't guess, we discern. But with your everyday life living in the outside world, everything gets muddled. What is my desire versus what is His desire.

I find myself so lost and I know others do too and there are many ways to help us on our path, but one of them is to not just forget about it. That would be like being lost and turning off Google Maps, it certainly will lead you down to an industrial area of town where you can pretty much hear the law and order title sequence playing after the camera spanning over you dead body. Forgetting that we are searching for our vocation is dangerous and not the best thing to do when the world is feeding you lies about marriage and families and releasing comedy after comedy about meek, helpless nuns. 

When I think of my vocation, it's a muddled mess in my mind. I'm carefully treading down an unpaved path in the woods (which is totally wrong and as a former Venture Scout is the number one rule not to do). I am listening to everything around me, trying to hear a voice that would presumably be God as my Google Maps guide. I hear the crunch of the leaves under my feet, the chime of the wind fleeting through the branches above me, and the panting of the dog that is by my side (because I can't go through this path without a furry companion).  But I can't hear Him. I can hear everything around me and my own thoughts are getting louder and louder to where I want to shush my inside voice. 

But just like our maps app, we can go through paths and be guided by many tools at our disposal. Novenas, bible studies, prayer nights, discernment weekends. Those are all our guiding points. But something even more helpful to discerning our vocation is to just simply be present in our lives. Be present with the people we encounter on the daily and say yes to new opportunities. The Lord will not let us walk blindly, He will keep sending His mother to save us, He will send us on mission trips and deep conversation that inch us closer and closer to His answer. The love that we put into our daily lives is our key to our long-term goal, to be with Christ in eternity, having Him hold us tight and knowing that we made Him proud. It is so important to know that what ever our vocation is, He knows what is best for us and after being so uncomfortable being human and trying to plan the un-plannable, it is indeed comforting to know that that all he desires is us, in our brokenness and imperfect ways, just our love.