You have been made for greatness.
God has lovingly crafted you with care and given you a specific calling in your life. You are chosen. Set apart. Definitely NOT an accident. God has a beautiful plan for your life.
Ok, but what if I'm, like, not really feeling that right now? I mean, yay, great, God's got this sweet plan for me... but, I kinda just wanna chill right now. Have you seen outside? We're in the middle of (hopefully, more like tail end of?) a pandemic... God's plan is gonna have to wait.
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This Sunday (aka today) we celebrated vocation Sunday. The word vocation comes from the Latin word "vocare" which means calling. God has called all of us to holiness - our specific vocation is the unique way in which He has planned for each of us to live out that call to holiness. It might be as a priest, deacon or nun. It might be as a married person who teaches, heals people, or designs video games. It may be as a consecrated lay person. Whatever it is, you can be sure of two things: 1) it is the best possible route to holiness for you (as you have been specifically made for it), and 2) you will be the happiest that you can possibly be in your life by saying yes to that call. Sometimes we think that we know better than God what it is that we have been made for... but when we think that we forget that He's, like, really smart. I mean, God is literally the smartest being in existence. On top of that He knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. So yeah, God knows best, trust me on that. We can also think sometimes that God's call is great, but will ultimately lead us to a boring life of just church and praising God and Jesus-y stuff. That, however, is not necessarily true: 1) as a Jesus-y fellow myself - church isn't boring when you actually understand what's happening (I mean, football is boring for my wife, but again, that's just because she doesn't understand what's actually happening). When you understand the "rules" to how the Church game is played (and more importantly, what is happening, and why we do what we do), then Church is literally the coolest place on earth - Mass is the one place that you can witness heaven touching earth. 2) God's plan for your life is definitely not devoid of fun stuff - in fact, it is intentionally crafted just for you: it speaks to your interests and desires, because God is the one who gave you those interests and desires.
That actually leads us to a good way of figuring out what God's call in our life is: get to know ourselves, our interests and desires. God speaks to us through these. Prayer is another important way of seeking our vocation: Jesus Himself tells us to ask and we shall receive, seek and we shall find, knock and it shall be opened. But sir, what if I get it wrong? Seek His plan honestly, ask him genuinely, and remain open (even when it might require challenging yourself or coming out of your comfort zone a bit), and you will never get it wrong. God isn't out to trick you. He loves us and wants us to get it right - like a GPS unit, the Holy Spirit is constantly recalculating and whispering in the depths of our soul to help get us to that ultimate destination.
Lemme finish up by addressing the part in the beginning of this reflection, where I spoke about the fact that we're in a pandemic and God's plan for us probably needs to be on hold. This is a dangerous way of thinking. I've talked about this in an earlier reflection, but hey, reminders are always good. Yes, we're in a pandemic; yes, we're in lockdown; yeah, I can't do most of the things that I would normally be doing... However, God's call in our life is not on hold. There is no vocation vacation. God's call to holiness is still present, still gently urging us to respond in love. So, here's a couple pandemic tips:
1) See the gifts in the midst of the storm. If you're languishing away at home, bored with nothing to do, then use that time wisely. Take some time in silence, away from all the noise that we so often surround ourselves with. Permit God some quality dedicated time.
2) Look for opportunities to live out that call to holiness. If you've got at least one other person in your household, then I'm sure that there are bound to be a great many of them. (wash the dishes, take out the garbage, "no sweetie, it's ok, you can have the last cookie," "don't worry, I'll go get you more water," maybe this time don't fight with your sibling...).
3) Spend some time getting to know yourself. Think about what you're actually passionate about, where your interests are, what your future desires look like.
ok, I said a couple, and technically that's a few now, so you're welcome for the bonus one. ;)
