If you were in college group last night, this is the book that I highly recommended and told everyone that they must read.
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer.
And if you are not a student, nor in the college ministry I oversee, I recommend this book to you as well. I will say more about this book later, but I believe it to be a must read if you are wrestling with “calling” and “vocation.” I read this book four years ago and it changed my perception on these ideas very drastically. I am again reading the book and it is again revolutionizing the way I think about “calling”, “vocation” and how my identity is wrapped up in those things.
Palmer makes the point early on in the book that the vocational question we should be asking ourselves is not “what ought I to do with my life,” but rather, “Who am I?” Because “vocation” is not a goal that we pursue, but rather a “calling” that we hear…according to Palmer.
This book is a must read, and I believe now that I should read it every year. It will both make you feel uncomfortable and free you at the same time. Uncomfortable because you will realize that there are limits to what we can do and uncomfortable when you realize that maybe your false identity has allowed you to pursue, or hear the wrong things or the wrong “calling.” But it is at the same time freeing, knowing that God has placed us in the tension between our strengths and our limits.
