Vocation: The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
– Frederick Boecher
Something for writers to think about:
What if what you need to say is what a reader needs to hear?
Frederick Boecher, from his book, Wishful Thinking:
Vocation "comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a person is called to by God. There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest. By and large a good rule for finding out is this: The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you've presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you've missed requirement (b), on the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you're bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren't helping your patients much either. Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do.
3 comments:
There's that fine line again! But Mr. Boecher puts it very well. Food for thought.
Theresa - tell us about the photo - what is it and what does it say?
Vicky
<<What if what you need to say is what a reader needs to hear?>>
Another great thought for writers.
Buechner's work often makes its way into our pastor's sermons, and I've reade several of his books. But I've often been troubled about the "your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger" quote, because I seldom feel that I have anything to say that hasn't already been said a million times. I am often astonished by how boldly writers go forth as if they were orginials -- and then of course I relaize that they are, because I so enjoy immersing myself in their varying perspectives and words. And here, the way you've put the question for writers -- just brilliant and wonderful.
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