As the oldest of three children in a single-parent family, I remember we struggled to cover the rent most months and still have enough for groceries. We moved so often that, by the time I reached middle school, I no longer bothered to put away the moving boxes in my closet. As a teenager I craved stability. So it surprised even me when, a few years after college, I willingly left a stable career with a cardboard box in my hands and tears in my eyes.
At age 25, I was enjoying the kind of security I had longed for. I had married my high-school sweetheart and was the youngest account manager at a marketing firm where I helped clients to tell their stories. Yet I sensed a pull down a different path. Instead of telling my clients’ stories, I thought, maybe God wants me to tell his story—the story of his in-breaking kingdom.
After much prayer and many conversations, my wife and I liquidated our retirement accounts, left our jobs, and moved 6,000 miles to England so I could study theology at Oxford University. I saw this education as a way to enrich my writing, to help others see the world through the lens of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Yet even as I was confident that God had called me in this direction, part of me wondered what it even meant to be called.
Having spent the past few years writing about calling, I have realized I’m not alone.
Let Your Life Speak
My quest to understand calling began when I was an anxious college freshman. Reading Parker J. Palmer’s classic Let Your Life Speak, I was struck by his description of vocation: “something I can’t not do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and don’t fully understand myself but that ...
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According to survey of 14,000 people, the pandemic has strengthened religious belief most in US, Spain, and Italy, while South Korea leads in lost faith.
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Full report from outside investigation to be released in January.
A look at spiritual formation resources with better scientific backing.
We talk about "abundant life" in our churches regularly. What does it actually mean?
According to survey of 14,000 people, the pandemic has strengthened religious belief most in US, Spain, and Italy, while South Korea leads in lost faith.
