Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday Reflection: Vocation and Call
I have never been one to think that a job is just a job. I want my work to mean something, something deep which connects to what I want for the world. If my faith means anything, it must relate to what I do for most of my days. This idea of work as vocation is hard and challenging and often requires sacrifice, but it also offers great rewards.
I'll be honest here-- I started my career with a big advantage. Because I went to Yale for law school, I had an easy time getting a job. That may not be fair, and may not be right, but it is. When I graduated from law school, I sketched out what I wanted to do, in terms of seeking a vocation: First a clerkship, then pay off loans, then be a prosecutor, then a teacher (building on what I had learned as a prosecutor). It all worked out in exactly that way.
But, now, I am in uncharted territory. I'm a teacher at Baylor and I love it. I think I have been able to engage my faith with my work, each and every day, though on too many days I was not very good at it.
So, why change jobs?
Many people have asked exactly that question.
If I knew the answer to a certainty, and God is God (and I am not), would it be a call?
Comments:
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Professor, don't get too down on yourself for being so fortunate, I'll let you wash my car after I graduate and before we both leave BLS if that will help you feel humility and like you've earned some of your breaks. hahaha
You have a rare ability as a professor in that you don't just work with students. I think your life has been based around a calling because you've gone beyond what you have to do. You could've just settled with teaching the law and writing a few law review articles. However, you've gone beyond that and impacted the lives of people you haven't even met with your work on the guidelines. Rather than just teaching about concepts like justice, you've helped shape the country's understanding of it.
If that isn't a calling, I don't know what is.
Brennan
You have a rare ability as a professor in that you don't just work with students. I think your life has been based around a calling because you've gone beyond what you have to do. You could've just settled with teaching the law and writing a few law review articles. However, you've gone beyond that and impacted the lives of people you haven't even met with your work on the guidelines. Rather than just teaching about concepts like justice, you've helped shape the country's understanding of it.
If that isn't a calling, I don't know what is.
Brennan
# posted by 
: 1:56 PM
: 1:56 PM
Why not change jobs?
I know in academia the idea is to find a place to settle and make your own, to stake out your little corner of the world and be content... but I could never do that. I don't understand the mentality of people that do.
When I left for college, it was with the intention of doing something like that in Austin. I love Austin; it is the only place that will ever be "home" to me. But when faced with the adventure of new places, new people, new challenges? How could I resist moves to Waco, or to Cameron County? There are uncharted corners of this State and others (well, uncharted to me!) that need to be explored, sought out, and conquered.
New places provide new challenges, new perspectives, and a chance to enrich ourselves. If we do not take them, how can we claim to be truly living?
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I know in academia the idea is to find a place to settle and make your own, to stake out your little corner of the world and be content... but I could never do that. I don't understand the mentality of people that do.
When I left for college, it was with the intention of doing something like that in Austin. I love Austin; it is the only place that will ever be "home" to me. But when faced with the adventure of new places, new people, new challenges? How could I resist moves to Waco, or to Cameron County? There are uncharted corners of this State and others (well, uncharted to me!) that need to be explored, sought out, and conquered.
New places provide new challenges, new perspectives, and a chance to enrich ourselves. If we do not take them, how can we claim to be truly living?
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