Monday Matters: What vs. Who?

Welcome back to Monday Matters! You’re here because you care about the intersections of faith and work, and you care about the flourishing of your community. 

Each week, we share a brief quote or passage related to these topics, and we offer a few thoughts for your own personal reflection. 

This week, Fellows read a new addition to our curriculum: excerpts from the book This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley. Riley is a writer, poet, and NYT bestselling author. She is also the creator of Black Liturgies, a space that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Curator.

In Chapter 4 of This Here Flesh, Riley reflects on the idea of calling. The start of the chapter aligns with last week's reading from David Benner, in which we consider that our primary calling is to be children of God, and to know ourselves well is key to uncovering the work of God in our lives. Riley then challenges us to consider how the language we use around "calling" is often exclusionary and perhaps even unjust. She offers these thoughts:

"There’s a story in the Bible of God calling Samuel so clearly he thinks it’s the priest Eli calling out from bed. He hears a voice and goes to Eli three times before Eli finally tells him it’s God doing the calling. When first heard this, I thought how interesting it is that the question was not What do I hear? but Who is calling? ...

It can be difficult for me now to belong to rooms where people’s chief idea of discerning their calling is deciding what job they’ll choose. I’ve spent the past eight years working in Christian spaces within academia, often among people whose primary sense of calling is whether they were meant to be an engineer or a physicist. Defensively, I’ve found myself silently asking, Do you think you’re the only ones God has “called”? What of the vast majority of the world, which does not have the liberty of making such a discernment? Do the little Black boys running the streets not have callings? And I have never heard a college student tell me they “feel called” to work at McDonald’s. I remain very suspicious of this.

We cannot talk about work as calling without contending with the fact that there are those who have been denied choice, equity, and dignity in their work."

For personal reflection:

1. Think about your life and how you have conceived of "calling" over the years. Where--and better yet, from whom--did your sense of calling come? How do you know?  
2. Spend a few moments in silence and prayer, holding in your heart and mind those who do not have much agency when it comes to choosing their work. Ask God to grow your awareness and compassion in this area.  
3. How can we continue to expand our idea of calling beyond simply our roles, jobs, and careers?

Next week, we'll take a break from Monday Matters as we observe the Christmas holiday. Wishing you a meaningful, peaceful holiday!