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Courage to Follow Your Call
Picking up from yesterday’s post about becoming aware of one’s calling or vocation in life, let’s look at a next step: courage to follow your call. In a comment from yesterday, KCMayrie wrote:
The comment I have is related to courage to follow your call, once you’ve discovered where God wants to lead you. Do I really have the courage to ‘step into the boat’? as it were, to follow the call? Will it really BE alright? Can I relinquish control to God and trust that He won’t let me fall? Can I stand up to those around me who question or deny my call or who challenge and oppose me? Is this really what God is asking of me or something else? How do I know? … There are always so many questions!
KC articulates many of the questions that I and probably many of you have once we have discovered our calling — or at least initial inklings about our calling.
What are some of the other questions that pop up or lay below the surface? In addition to courage (even in the face of a threatening Mr. Potato Head), what other qualities or dispositions or other gifts do you ask for?
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This week is National Vocation Awareness Week. The Sisters will be praying daily for those who are discerning a vocation as well as taking your prayer requests. Join us at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.
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We got a bunch of comments on discovering one’s vocation, but not so much with moving forward. So … is moving forward with one’s calling more challenging than the process of discovering one’s calling in life?
For me, the hardest thing is moving from admitting that God might be calling me to the religious life, to asking for advice on how to proceed. It completely fits, but I’m still working to overcome my own doubts that I’m not “good enough”, or that others will laugh at me if I tell them. (When it finally hit home, my first response was to go “Seriously? You’ve got to be kidding. Me?”). Right now I’m praying for courage to talk to my priest, because although I know what what God’s calling me to do, I’m afraid he won’t take me seriously.
Good question, Sr. Julie. I think it’s a much harder place to be. It’s one thing to hear God’s call and to say yes. Sometimes you aren’t even sure what it is you’ve said yes to, although (hopefully) you’ve said yes to following Jesus and committing yourself to him.
It’s a whole other thing to try to figure out where to go from there. Sometimes the choices seem clear and well-defined. Get married. Or not. Look for a religious order and apply. Or not. But sometimes the path ahead seems very obscure. What are the implications of this YES – how do you implement the commitment? Does it mean a different kind of work or ministry? Moving to a different living situation? Do you do it alone or with a group?
Sometimes there’s just a substantial time of groping about, wondering what it is you need to do, how you need to change, how will those changes come about. That is where the “waiting upon the Lord” part kicks in. That’s where you may not be borne up on eagle’s wings – instead you may find yourself walking and wondering about the “not fainting” promise.
Actually I feel it is easier as one has moved forward. The ups and downs, the OMG! factor (no pun intended), all these feelings are gone. What remains is a wondrous sense of peace. Expectation as well, the knowledge of what is to come and the joy in both knowing and waiting. And yes, wanting the “waiting” to be done with and the next step realized. The plans, the sisterhood, the absolute joy of being closer than ever to Mary and her Son.
Perhaps people who may feel have a calling or have feeling of being drawn to something more than they have known are not aware or know how to move forward. The unknown can undoubtedly pose fear in each and every one of us and perhaps that is why it is so essential to have strong, reliable, and credible resources available to know when and where to turn to when questions arise and one wants to seek the answers to those questions!
Moving forward to me is hard. What are the next steps? If the call is religious life, then what community? How does one actually “discern”? There are many many communities out there, but which one is right for me? How do I know when I have found THE one? Many have told me that you will know you have found the right community when it feels like home…
Making that initial contact is also scary for many people…from the discerner’s point of view, in most cases, you’re being asked to contact a complete stranger and initiate a conversation about something you aren’t really sure about, have no clue what you’re doing, or what you should ask…it can be terrifying!
Visiting communities can also prove challenging…geography, time, costs, etc all play a part…and it is such an important step, but knowing what communities to visit and expectations while you are there is a difficult road to navigate…
Then the application process! And what an extensive process it is…but it needs to be…as one Vocation Director said to me, “you aren’t applying for college – this is for LIFE!” and she’s right…but looking at it from the other side can be daunting. So much information! But it’s good too, because it acts as yet another challenge to test the vocation…the resolve to complete it, to submit it…
There is so much uncertainty involved too…if/once the application is accepted, then comes the time prior to entrance, preparing the transition – wrapping up one life to begin another. This can involve many different steps, but with each one, the applicant is one step closer to where she is being called…
Entrance doesn’t end the journey either…there is still a lot of discernment to occur. Now that I’m here, is this really where God wants me to be? Does the community feel the same way? Can I really DO this…forever? Is this really right for me? It is a constant discernment process…I would even venture to say that discernment continues not only through formation, but continues long after…even after final vows have been professed…we are always, constantly searching for the will of God…
Personally, the worst part the uncertainty. I am comfortable where I am. I have an apartment, a cat, a job I enjoy – where I am appreciated and respected, I am not wealthy but have a comfortable standard of living…am I really being asked to ‘give it all up’ for something else? And, what happens if I’m not accepted? or if I am accepted and I get there, I discover or the community discovers it really isn’t a good fit? What will happen then? But, that is also where trust and abandonmnet comes into play. I have to trust that God won’t lead me anyplace that isn’t His will and I have to abandon myself and my concerns to Him, trusting that He, my loving Father, will always take care of me…