Some thoughts on vocation from a campus pastor, and how two of the students she is working with are responding to God's call.

Vocation is about living your whole life. It's much more than figuring out what you want to do when you grow up. It's about figuring out who you are. It is the process of becoming who God is creating you to be.

The psalmist writes: "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:13-14a)

In a campus ministry setting, this vocational discernment — a journey of discovery — is the daily stuff of life. It is work we do together.

I'm writing this just as Advent approaches, and I am struck by just how Advent-y these college years are — full of promise and mostly joyful anticipation. But it also is a time to heed the call to stay awake, to pay attention to what is happening now even as we wait for what is to come. Being a student is a vocation, not simply a means to an end but an invitation to explore the possibilities, to challenge and be challenged. Being a student is a gift and a privilege.

So cultivating a spirit of thankfulness is a good place for all of us to start. We pray in thanksgiving for the opportunity to learn and travel and for the privilege it is to wrestle with what could be and to face so many rich possibilities. We pray in thanksgiving for the gift it is to share ideas, to disagree without threat, to worship freely. A spirit of thankfulness is a powerful partner on this journey.

Amanda and Matt
Amanda is a Global Economics Spanish major with a minor in International Affairs. We met her freshman year. Already focused with an eye toward international development, I've watched her grow in faith, maturity, and drive. She has a servant's heart and her sense of vocation is deeply connected to her faith. Mission trips to Hungary and an Apache / Navajo Reservation in Arizona have shaped her. She has traveled to the Gulf Coast of the U.S. several times following Hurricane Katrina and continues to be an advocate for the long-term recovery needs in that region. She will graduate in May with plans to work for a year or two before entering into a proposed building project for the Peace Corps and graduate school. She is passionate about microlending and the power it has to transform whole communities. Amanda embodies a spirit of justice and a spirit of hope that have served as powerful allies on this road to discovery.

Matt graduated in December 2006 with a B.S. in architecture. He now works in Georgia Tech's Imagine Lab where gaming technology is used to create multi-dimensional images and models for planning and to design seriously cool stuff! He has long been interested in ways to use technology to build community.

Last year, Matt initiated a conversation with the leadership team at Lutheran Towers, an assisted living facility in Atlanta. He proposed a program called Wii-tirement. Wii is an interactive game system that cuts across generational barriers and evens the playing field for those with limited mobility. Folks who have a hard time getting out can now participate in bowling tournaments and tennis matches — or even go for a few rounds in a boxing ring! Lutheran Towers recently purchased the system and Matt helped demonstrate the gaming system's possibilities with a few of the residents.

In addition, Lutheran Campus Ministry students are excited about volunteering with seniors in order to create a wonderfully unique opportunity to build inter-generational relationships. A spirit of creativity and a spirit of playfulness are powerful tools in vocational discernment.

Prayer for Church
The kind of wrestling around vocation, discernment, and identity that happens on a college campus can and does happen everywhere. Today, the path is full of twist and turns. Many of us will have two, three, and four careers as we continually re-discover who God is creating us to be and as we continually respond to our changing world.

I pray for the church that we will be a people of mutual and on-going discernment and that we equip the people of God — not just those preparing for traditional roles in public ministry — for the journey.

Vocational discernment is about creating disciples for the reign of God. Some of those disciples will be musicians, Christian educators, pastors, or diaconal ministers. But most will be attorneys, plumbers, teachers, engineers, and other persons pursuing a variety of occupations. The avenues of service go on and on.

Let's start from a place of thankfulness. Let's start by lifting up the daily work of those in our communities in a way that acknowledges that what we do is not separate from whose we are. Let's create space for conversations that allow for creativity and playfulness. Let's pray for the gift of hopefulness and the courage to seek justice as we begin to imagine what is possible by God's grace.

Vocational discernment can be a very romantic notion — full of church speak about prayer and the Spirit. And while I absolutely count on and trust in prayer and the Spirit, there is still a lot of work involved. This process of becoming is more than a little messy, and the answers we seek are rarely as clear as we'd like. We need each other for support and consolation and for encouragement and strength. We need each other so that we can continue becoming who God is creating us to be.

Megan Jones is campus pastor at Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia State University, both of Atlanta.