Vocation: your deep gladness meets world’s deep need. Are you there?
What a long time it can take to find out who you’ve always been, that deep identity, that true self who came here with a true vocation.
Frederick Buechner says of vocation: “It’s the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
Here’s a favorite story I’ve often told about the Polish-born rabbi and storyteller Israel ben Eliezer known as the Ba’al Shem Tov, and as Zusya to his disciples.
One day, Zusya, came to his students and said, “I’m frightened. I know I’m going to die.”
“No wonder you are frightened,” said the students.
“No! I have learned the 1 question the holy angels will ask me at the Great Tribunal.”
“Zusya, you are pious, holy, humble. What could the angels ask you?”
“I have learned that the angels will not ask me, “Zusia, why were you not Moses leading your people out of the desert?”
“Of course not, Zusya, you are no Moses.”
“And, I have learned that the angels will not ask me, ‘Zusya, why were you not Jeremiah leading your people into the Promised Land?”
“Of course not, Zusya. You are no Jeremiah.
“What the angels will say is this: ‘Zusya, there was one thing that no power on Heaven or Earth could have prevented you from doing. So, Zusya, why were you not Zusya?’”
Contributor: Diane F. Wyzga, Podcaster, Story Artist, Critical Listening Coach
NOTE: All content and image © 2019 – Present Quarter Moon Story Arts