Who are you called to be? What do you hear from that voice within? Is your inner voice, like that of most of us, frustratingly silent? Or does it speak in riddles, incomplete thoughts, and confusing metaphors? Maybe you are waiting for an email from that inner voice, one that reads: Do this. Now. And all will be well.
Our inner voice is never really silent. We just have trouble listening sometimes. It speaks, gently but persistently, challenging us to be the person we are called to be. But we can’t hear (or we don’t listen), instead trying to be the person someone else has told us we should be.
Parker Palmer, in Let Your Life Speak, taught us that “our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks, we will also find our path of authentic service in the world.”
How do we discover that authentic self? Ask yourself this: What am I passionate about? Not: What should I be passionate about, or what are the people who I most admire passionate about, or what was I told growing up that I am supposed to be passionate about? But this: What am I passionate about?
Here is a prescription for discovering who you are called to be: It is found at the intersection of what you are passionate about and what the world needs. Therein lies your life calling, your vocation. We all have our own unique gifts and passions, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to identify what the world needs. Find the intersection of the two and you are on the path to your life’s work.