Thought for the day from writer and theologian Frederick Beuchner:
The vocation for you is the one in which your deep gladness and the world’s deep need meet—something that not only makes you happy but that the world needs to have done . . . The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work that you need most to do and that the world most needs to have done . . . The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
December 31st is a day to reflect on the life we live. Are we living a life of deep gladness? Are we doing the kind of work that fills the world’s deepest need? In other words, are we living a life that matters to either ourselves or the world beyond us?
The world has this lovely habit of pressing the reset button once every year. With all its triumphs and tragedy, 2012 is over. Done. Whoever we did or didn’t love, whatever we did or didn’t accomplish will never happen again in 2012.
But what would 2013 be like if you lived a life that expressed your deep gladness—whatever that may be—so that you could address the world’s (or probably more accurately your world’s) deep need? If each of us took care of our little corner of the world expressing our deepest love using our unique gifts, the whole world would shift.
The wisdom in this simple admonition to do what you love to do in service to the world could be the antidote to so many of the problems we experience collectively today. As John Lennon once sang, Love is all you need.
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