Vocation – Life Experience, Research, and Opportunities

I almost missed the call. If I had, I would not have been the first. If I had, I cannot conceive that my life would be better – but more likely, neither as nourished nor as fulfilling.

My undergraduate years were not in response to a vocational call. In the tumultuous 1960s, having grown up traveling between parents on two coasts who could not live together, I was trying to find myself. I changed majors three times – from physics, to philosophy, to Russian language. This latter interested me enormously from an intellectual perspective: How do you translate meaning, really convey the author’s meaning, across vastly different cultures? I had the opportunity to participate in a United Nations university cultural exchange program and had studied for a semester at the University of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg again). It also gave me a distinctive, it fed my immediate need for an identity. I went off to graduate school.

But once I was studying Russian full-time, I began to have misgivings. While I was skilled, I did not sense that it truly fit me. Other considerations: I was in graduate school while many I knew were either drafted or enlisted. I had been a volunteer draft counselor as an undergraduate. I had a deferment because my studies were considered of national security value. But what was I doing with myself, I asked. Being an independent type, and still in touch with my early Quaker experiences, I settled myself to listen within

This settling in and listening revealed two things to me. First, I was to withdraw from graduate school and seek conscientious objector (CO) status and do my service. Second, I recognized that my better future, perhaps my called vocation – I did not know that language then – but I now understand my vocation was working with people, on people issues. Following through with what I heard, I achieved CO and served two years in a social service role. My life was changed.

How do I know I am not the only one who nearly missed the call? When I withdrew from graduate school I had a meeting with the head of the department. When I told him of my decision and how I had reached it, his response was: You are so lucky. He said it again. You can imagine what he shared with me in confidence next. But to his credit, he carried on with determination to support his family.

Another way I know my leading was correct is in looking at my quality of life. While I had stressors and gaping holes in my growing up years, I also had advantages – I had spent a couple of years at Westtown in Pennsylvania. I had learned the valuable practices of settling and connecting with Spirit. I had a long and enriching career which was accompanied by volunteer service. I am physically healthy and happily married almost fifty years. While such is typical of many people I know, I also recognize that my quality of life is better than the average – and for this I am grateful. Pay attention, listening, hearing a vocational calling changed things for me – it was no longer just about me.

As a career social scientist – now retired – I find much in the bible that is timely and instructive. The many stories pertaining to call, which is often referred to as vocation, are instructive. People have been hearing God’s instructions for a very long time, still to this day. Between one in four to five people in the United States have had some experience they believe is a message from God or Spirit.

On a practical level, the last twenty years has seen a steady upsurge in research on calling and vocational choices. It is fair to recognize that these trends are found in research:

• The awareness of calling is linked to reflective behavior, the more reflective one is, the more likely one will perceive a calling.
• When a calling is acted upon, one is more likely than not to have improved vocational satisfaction and life satisfaction; this appears to be definitively in contrast to research respondents identifying as rejecting a calling, whose life outcomes are less positive.
• Last, there is growing research suggesting that mentors can play a significant role assisting the practice of reflection, exploration, choice making and follow-through.

We can wonder together how these results could play out in the Quaker world. At the moment, I have only anecdotal information to share. Following a call requires sacrifice. In my case the challenge of leaving graduate school and the selection of various roles during my career that honed my calling. By last quarter of my career, I was focused on the practice of virtues in one’s work and life. My career was richly rewarding – and now in my volunteer period in life – my activities are still calling led.

I find similar patterns and examples among Friends. We seem to fit the patterns developed by social science research:

• Listen for calling, act on calling, stay open to the call and where it goes, and good things are more likely than not.
• Seek counsel when a call or a leading comes. Counsel helps us to discern more clearly the nature of experience and its implications.

There are questions raised in research that are important to consider. For example, some of us have had greater opportunities to have exposure to the elements of a calling (listed above), and greater opportunities to exercise both exploration and choice than others. That is true for me.

For us Quakers, including this writer, consider how we might mentor and support younger people to take advantage of calling-vocational research – the result of experiments – and we Quakers like experiments. Such consideration might guide us to assist as many young people as possible to learn to reflect and listen to the inner teacher and guide. In addition, mentors could support their hearing a call, exploring it, following it, and realizing what such a course has to offer others, and what it has to offer the communities to which they and we belong.

Many people remember the story of Jonah. He was called to deliver a message. He resisted – ran away and sailed away. From the ship he was cast into the sea and swallowed by a whale. He spent three days and nights in the belly of the whale. He repented. He responded to the call, finally. I will stop here, the story goes on emphasizing the reality that a call does not always work out as one thinks and one should live with gratitude, not bitterness, when things do not work out as you thought.

Jonah’s story fits the rising research data: resisting a call lessens life satisfaction – but we can have second chances. Jonah’s story teaches us to be grateful not self-preoccupied and see where Spirit and love may take things. Research tells us we can enhance our chance of receiving a vocational call and it underscores that following a call through to vocation is beneficial to all concerned, although, like Jonah, Peter, and Paul, not always easy.