Are you who you are?Kind of an odd question I know, but think about it for a bit. One of the books I'm rereading right now is called "Let Your Life Speak" and it's about vocation which is a word I had never heard until I started hanging out with Dane Sanders.
Frederick Buechner defines vocation as "the place where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need."
The author, Parker J. Palmer, says
"The human self also has a nature, limits as well as potentials. If you seek vocation without understanding the material you are working with, what you build with your life will be ungainly and may well put lives in peril."
He then suggests looking back at your childhood for clues into who you are and what your gifts are.
A story from my life comes from elementary school when I saw some of the students selling candy bars for $2 a bar. I thought this was silly that kids were spending this much money on these lame candy bars when I could get a 4 pack of Reeses (on sale on Sundays) for .25 cents and sell it to them for $1 and make a pretty good profit and now they could buy twice as much good chocolate.
I was kind of ignorant of the whole "sell candy to support your school" concept but I knew that my Reeses candy was making kids way more happy because it was what they really wanted and we were 12 years old so what do we care about supporting our school and so I was selling these things like crazy. I'd put all my books at the front of my desk and then keep a huge stash of Reeses in the back. It was a good operation but once the school got wind of it I was informed that I needed a permit to sell things on school property. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting and I wonder how that will play out in my future.
What about you! Do you have any stories from your childhood that you think will help you understand who you really are (instead of who our culture has tried to mold you into) and how do you think those gifts will play out in the future?
:)
DJ
7 comments:
wow! great post!!!
Btw..we have a whole bag of Reese's here so if you come out here I'll give you 1 reeses for a dollar!! :) It's a major discount but I'm willing if thats what it'll take to get you out here;) jk:)
You rock!
in 5th grade we spent half of the year playing "town." There was a currency, a democracy, everyone had a role in town, and a lot of people had businesses (you could only sell items you made yourself).
We sold pepsis on the black market for huge profits. i hope that doesn't point to a shady future!
Lord help me :)
I remember taking names while playing Hot Dog Stand on my elementary school's Commadore 64. That beat-down marketing hasn't exactly translated into my current life though. I also used to play Oregon Trail when my school upgraded to the Apple IIc. I set the pace to grueling and 'grandma' could never keep up. Why did she always die?!?!
I started reeling from the unadulterated marketing of my youth. ..all the way to the other extreme. I need to find the happy medium.
0_o I'm a little spooked at your post. Actually, more than a little spooked!! Haha, I've been thinking along those lines for the past few months! I'd been asking God to give me a vision for my life. It took a while, but about a week and a half ago, I got the answer. The funny thing was, the answer was a memory from my childhood! I just got a picture of something that I used to do ALL the time as a child and I got an echo of how passionate I felt about it.
Natalie, I think you should practice that sowing and reaping thing..... So sow a little candy my way??
Sam that's awesome! Wow! You should checkout the book!
Great post. Growing up my parents always "jokingly" told me I'd likely be a lawyer one day...I was too young to understood why, but realized it had something to do with how I debated everything. Funny thing is, as I grow older I've become more and more of a listener, rather than a debater...and would frankly make for an awful lawyer.
Great post!! I'll have to pick up that book!! It looks awesome! :)
Um...let's see when I was younger I would have lemonade stands, hot chocolate stands, juice stands, toy stands.., my friend and I created fake dogs to sell to people who couldn't have dogs, started a newspaper, put on zillions of plays, created tons of movies and tv shows, and tryed to start a company where people could request whatever music they wanted and my friend and I would put it on a tape for them and sell it...(unfortunately we found out that was illegal...)hehe!!
So yeah..I guess I have alot of options..LOL
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