Our Divine Vocation
Part Eleven: WeCreating the Future of Christianity and the World
Do you know you have a Divine Vocation?
Yes, you. Every single one of us has it. It is the deepest calling of our lives.
When we hear the word “vocation,” we may automatically associate it with a job or type of work someone does. That is not the type of vocation we’re considering here. It may or may not have anything to do with what we get paid for or the career we have or had.
Our divine vocation is not a call to the priesthood or ministry. It is not about your occupation or profession. It’s not even entirely primarily about what we do.
Our divine vocation is first and foremost about who we truly are.
The true meaning of the word connects to something much more. It speaks to finding our true voice and inhabiting it fully. This is more than just about the words we say. We come to “let our life speak” as Parker Palmer calls it, the more we live into and from the depths of our soul, our divine source, our true unique essence. It arises into our being with vitality, joy, and the clarity of inner truth.
I call it our divine vocation because who we truly are in our most authentic being is rooted in our divine participation. It is human as well, because as we are in Christ, we embody the incarnational dynamic of the divine and human comingled and co-creating in the world. Raimon Panikkar referred to this as cosmotheandrism, the cosmic/divine/human Christ reality co-present in all things—including us!
We feel this as a living reality particularly from the energy and flow of divine vitality, arising from the deepest ground of our being, the ultimate source. It lives and moves in our whole body and spirit, into and from every cell and fiber of our being. As we are tapped into a source that brings greater hope and inspiration, we come into transformations not just of our outlook and sense of possibility in the world, but an embodied, divine infusion into our lived experience and sense of self, soul, and spirit.
As we experientially come into more of who we truly are as vitalized divine/human beings—not just from a place of mental recognition—but so too an inner energetic enlivenment of an ongoing felt sense of our divine being permeated throughout our life day by day, moment by moment, we will feel more and more how it is we are truly meant to live.
We find this not as some moral imperative, but rather as a deep beckoning. The call comes uniquely for each one of us, for our divine vocation is an invitation to each of us in our distinct expressions and unique lives. Again, this is about much more than our jobs.
It is a sacred calling we live and grow into, as an ongoing act of our divine becoming. Coming into our divine vocation may require a shedding, some kind of essential release of who we were before. It may call for an integration, a vital embrace of a new way of being in specific situations or actions—or in life as a whole.
Our hearing and understanding this deep, divine vocation is an ongoing process of discovery and discernment, which arises from the essence of who we truly are in our divine being, emerging more and more throughout our life.
Who We Truly Are
We have made the crucial distinction to recognize that our divine vocation is not just about what we do—our actions, careers, undertakings—it is about who we truly are. How we show up in the world and how we live is most authentic when its rooted and integrated in our essential and fundamental divine/human being.
We also need to emphasize another vital identification here, that who we truly are is more than our individual self alone.
Most of us, in this modern world of independence, job training, and career building, live out a solo journey of finding what it is we are to do for our work. If we’re fortunate, this will be at least somewhat connected to who we are and what we care deeply about. We are blessed if we find a career vocation in harmony and resonance with the core of our being.
In our divine vocation, we come more and more to live out a journey of communal being and becoming.
We are invited to experience a calling that originates from our communion. The voice reverberates more and more with a communal tenor, as we are dispelled of the illusion of our separateness and inhabit more of our mystical interbeing—which is also a fundamental aspect of who we truly are.
Rather than the atomized self seeking to “make our own way in the world,” we come into a different fundamental orientation rooted in and from the deep communion we are. Our personal lives and unique callings sound as part of the great symphony of life, the divine song we all sing together.
We don’t lose ourselves in the chorus. We don’t forfeit our agency or negate our personal power—rooted as it is in our divine vitality, not just our separate self. However, it is no longer the ultimate driving force or factor. It is a servant to a greater, wider, fuller, and deeper order.
This is not just a surrender of the self to a higher calling. It is a transformation of our identity from a primarily self-orientated way of being into a dynamic participation and effusive involvement in more unified reality.
Can you feel the allure of this way of being? The expansiveness? The greater truth of a way of living freed from the binding of the self which is far too small for this sacred world, this precious reality, our true being in communion.
Sometimes we call it the mystical body of Christ. We might also call it our divine vocation.
Becoming Makers
Our divine vocation comes out of our essential voice, how we speak into the world with our lives, rooted in who we truly are as children of God, interconnected in the great communal family and ecosystem of the body of Christ, which includes all things.
Rather than a vocation that is a way to “make a living,” it is an invitation to live from our making.
Our deepest identity is rooted in the source of our being, from the divine wellspring which flows from below even the ground of our being. We experience this depth of source, this ever-present origin perhaps most potently from the place within we call the spiritual womb.
One of the reasons we call it the spiritual womb is because of the potency we tap into there. We hold within us the great power to create life—and we all have a spiritual womb, whether we have a physical one or not, regardless of our biological makeup. The flow of divine vitality is not only for sustaining and invigorating our lives as they are, but so too that we might be part of the divine act of creation ongoing. The spiritual act of conception, which is always communal, human and divine.
This is also the place of our magic structure of consciousness, as we have looked at before in this series, for it is vital to the energy and capacity to create, for WeCreating. Another main characteristic of this structure that Jean Gebser emphasizes is the dynamic of becoming makers. Here we find our power of creativity, not just as a means of self-expression, but even our vital capacity to be creators of reality. This can go awry in magical thinking and distorted forms, certainly, but the true power of this aspect of our consciousness shouldn’t be negated, as it unfortunately has in much of modern, western society.
And so our divine vocation calls us to become makers, not just doers.
What will we make and create?
That is more the essence of our question as we come to find and discern our divine vocation! (More than what should I do?)
Discovery & Discernment – Invoking & Evoking our Divine Vocation
“Vocation is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.”
– Frederick Buechner
Invoking
Here, we open to the charm of discovery. We don’t need to agonize over “what is it I’m supposed to do?” Rather, we can await the invitation rising from our core of divine being, rooted in faith, held in communion. These are the inner invocations of sacred calling.
Vocational discernment can be an important and intensive process. Discerning our divine vocation is an ongoing process as well. As it is the deepest calling in our lives, perhaps there is nothing more important—but that doesn’t mean it will be arduous or strained. It is the natural outflow of our deep abiding in our truest divine being, emerging as our truest ways of attending in the world with love, healing, hope, and new life.
And still, we may need to seek to find the truth within us. We will need to experiment and adapt. We can draw upon one another for support and guidance—for remember, this divine vocation is not just a singular and personal calling, it is interwoven in the midst of our communal becoming and cosmic evolution. We might even co-invoke it together.
We may receive clues from the experiences we have of the arisings of our most enlivening spiritual inspirations. The more we consciously welcome and cultivate our spiritual inspiration, the more it will flow. Rather than occasional and sporadic stimuli, we will experience more and more a growing channel of energetic force continually rising from deep within. An invocation of spirit, arising from the most authentic truth of who we are in our divine being and becoming, calling us—compelling us really to live more and more into the power of this reality.
This comes with a warning. Who you were before and what you thought you wanted might change. Our divine vocation may call us to radical transformations our smaller self may shy away from, our controlling mind may want to avoid, our divided ego may want to deny. But our soul will keep calling. And our deepest inspirations will keep inviting us. Our soul won’t give up on drawing us to become who we truly are.
The calling to live into our divine vocation is for everyone. It is not just for the creative types or spiritual professionals. It is not a clergy matter nor a specialized calling. A divine vocation is not given only to a select group, but is the embodiment of living fully into our divine and human participation. It is taking up the will of God as our ultimate life inspiration, which is discovered not only beyond us, but also within and all around us.
Our deep gladness springs from the truest desires of our heart and soul. Our truest longings harmonize with the divine allure and the ways the world itself is yearning for evolution. And our holistic communion co-generates these movements, pathways, and outflows we can all partake in bringing about together.
From our divine vitality, we live into being and becoming the co-makers of a new heaven and a new earth. We are all invited and charged to such grand aspirations. We have been given the power and purpose. Why shouldn’t we be, worthy as we are in our godhood? And it is also our very act of worship now.
Evoking
Along with our inner discoveries arising from who we truly are, personally and collectively, we can also find guidance and direction through evocations, the attraction of that which is beyond us—from the pathways and archetypes of divine vocation we see in the world.
In occupational discernment for a profession, we see jobs and career paths that might appeal to us. From a young age, we play at what our work might be. What are you going to be when you grow up? Maybe some of us are still asking that question. . . .
In our divine vocational discernment, we may need to play around and try on different possibilities as well. In the religious and spiritual sense, some may have put on the ministerial vocation—which may or may not harmonize with one’s divine vocation. Unfortunately, sometimes work in ministry takes people away from their deeper divine calling. Again, we shouldn’t limit our evocations to the pathways of traditional religious office or ministry.
When I felt a call to ministry in high school, the only options presented to me by my evangelical tradition were to become a pastor or a missionary. Deep within, I knew neither of those quite fit, and I wrestled with finding other forms for 15 years before finding the right expression—discovered and created in deep communion with Paul Smith, and now still further in more and more circles of WeSpace and WeCreating.
And what we seek may not be a job at all; it more than likely won’t be. Our divine vocation might not fit into the boxes of what we typically think of as “spiritual work,” for everything is spiritual as we grow through the secular/sacred divide. There are some helpful archetypes and new descriptions of forms and shapes that we may find evocative. We will share some of these next week in the Becoming offering.
As we grow into living out of this personal and communal divine essence rooted within us more and more, we find our sight for the emerging pathways becomes more clear. Our embodied spirit will resonate with that which isn’t even formed yet. Our inspiration will more and more draw us to the emergence of what we are called to be, even if it doesn’t quite exist yet. The external directions, classifications, and destinations will be guideposts along the way—sometimes deeply resonating with our divine vocation. And sometimes a piece of the puzzle as we integrate more and more of who we truly are in our ongoing becoming.
It’s never too late to find or step into our divine vocation more fully—even in retirement!
And it will continue to evolve as well. Our divine vocation is not a fixed reality we discover once. We may have core components that are true always for us, and we may have even lived from them for some time already. But new aspects of our call may still be ahead, beckoning us in our continued evolution and growth, in the continuous dance of soul and spirit, self and world, union and communion.
We both vision the ways ahead and engage in being the ones to WeCreate these new pathways, emerging forms, and growing communities for a more loving future. The heaven and earth we know and see as possible. WeCreating the future of Christianity and the world.
Living Our Divine Vocation in WeCreating
From who we truly are, in our unique, continually emerging personhood and in our dynamic, inspiring communion, we move consciously into the ongoing discovery and discernment of our divine vocation—arising from the invocations of our awakened spirit consciousness within and allured by evocative possibilities and pathways that call to our soul, that sing the song of our communal chorus in new and evolving ways.
In this way, we welcome the truth of our inner orientations from our divine being within, and the divine guidance that emerges from beyond. We are embracing the wholeness of the past, present, future, and our evolutionary becoming. The wholeness of the I, the We, the All, and the Eternal.
Out of our integrated presence and wholeness—from the fruit of our inner work of becoming, inhabiting, transforming—our divine vitality can flow into our orientations of what makes life meaningful, and what purpose it is we have here in this sacred, precious life. How WeCreate anew what God is bringing forth in this time, in, through, and as us, and beyond.
It is our plan and intention in ICN to bring forth further processes of discovery and discernment to support us in living into our divine vocation, personally and communally. Again, we’ll share a bit more about that next week.
Our vision is to be and become, together, the people of the body of Christ becoming. More fully inhabiting our divine vocation, in the many forms and expressions that takes among us—and will need to take in new ways in the days ahead.
Can we do it? Or…rather, can we make it? Can we be the WeCreators of loving evolution?
In the final part of this series, we’ll consider how we come together in The Mystic’s Guild, our communal network and union of WeCreators.
“The Dance of WeCreating”
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