Your Vocational Credo

Practical Steps to Discover Your Unique Purpose

Deborah Koehn Loyd

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780830843190
• eBook ISBN: 9780830898695
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

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.

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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 The Cider House Rules Arthur Rose, the orchard boss, has a confrontation with his underlings who are threatening to overwhelm his authority.8 Angrily he yells, “Wha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• 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