My mother took a weekend trip recently and left me a simple note: “You know the house rules.” The note brought a smile to my face because I do know the rules and they have been the same since I was a little kid: 1) Be Kind, and 2) Don’t be Stupid. Simple as these rules may seem, as I got older I learned that following through on them can be anything but. What do you do when telling your friend “No” would be a good idea but might hurt their feelings? How much kindness outweighs stupidness? Whose definition of stupidness do I defer to?
It took me several years, but eventually I boiled down the idea (which I suspect was my mother’s original intent): To do what is right but set realistic limits. I still sometimes struggle with answering tough questions about ethics and morals, but with experience as a guide this principle serves as a firm foundation on which to start the decision making process.
Sometimes I think academia tries too hard to bundle the process of experience into a few guiding principles. While it is true that we would never be able to build upon past works without doing so to some extent, through this process large and difficult ideas can sometimes lose their power, value and original intent.
As I prepare to graduate from Calvin this spring, it often feels like vocation has fallen into this trap. It’s so easy to hand out the concept of vocation as a prosperity gospel, a yellow brick road to the perfect career after college. If you follow your passions and listen to God, life will work out. It presents vocation as destination, a place where you will settle into who and what you were made to be.
But if Dorothy’s adventures along the way to the Emerald City are anything to judge by, we all know that “following the yellow brick road” is a lot harder than it sounds. Along the way we run into fields of poppies, forests, friends and enemies. Through all of these experiences, our desire to “get home” continues to drive us, but we are also called to help others and make the world a better place.
Learning to balance these calls (for that is what vocation is at heart) can be difficult, but this was the scope that the church fathers hoped the concept of vocation would help people navigate. It wasn’t meant to be limited to an occupation or a particular task. It was meant to help capture all of life, love and desire. Through struggle and learning the Christian community was to orient itself toward their loving and just creator in all areas of life. They were called to follow through the forests, on to adventures and eventually home.
As we approach the end of the year and enter new seasons of endings and new beginnings, it is this idea of vocation that I hope our community learns to take up. A recognition that it’s not just about the destination: it’s also about the journey. And perhaps in the end all we can do is go out into the world, try to be kind and not be too stupid.