More questions than answers...

In keeping with the title of my blog, most of my posts have centered around little pieces of wisdom or tidbits of knowledge that I have gleaned from the things that I’m experiencing in my life. I’m going to change it up today and ask some questions around a topic that I am struggling to understand right now. If any of you are out there reading, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

My question hinges on the relationship between four different aspects of my life: vocation, calling, spiritual gifts, and natural abilities. I have a pretty good understanding of where I am with respect to each of those items individually. However, what I’m trying to understand is how – or if – those things should influence each other.

I always hear people say “You should be doing what you’re passionate about!” But, what if your passion doesn’t translate into dollars? Is there still a way to incorporate your passion into your vocation? What about spiritual gifts? Will you derive more satisfaction from your job if you’re doing something that leverages your spiritual gifts in some way? And, if you’re not in full-time ministry, how does your calling fit into all of this?

I, for one, don’t believe that natural gifts, spiritual gifts, calling, and vocation are mutually exclusive. I believe that they’re all an integral part of who or what God made us to be, and therefore, they can’t be considered in isolation.

For example, I’m in a vocation that seems to leverage quite a few of my natural abilities, and as a result, I’ve been fairly successful. However, I don’t find my job fulfilling. At least for the near term, I don’t see my vocation merging too closely with my calling. But, I do see the potential for incorporating more of my spiritual gifts into my vocation (teaching, for example).

I spend 40+ hours of my week pursuing my vocation, and I’d like to derive more satisfaction – more joy – more gratification, from my job. After all, that’s a big chunk of time to devote to something each week. I’m becoming more and more convinced that finding a vocation that incorporates some aspect of my spiritual gifts, working in tandem with my natural gifts, and in some way enabling me to devote more time to pursuing my calling, is where I need to be.

Any thoughts out there on how to achieve this goal?