Also, I just wanted to share a thought I had the other night. I realized once again that we are alone when we die. We are not taking anything with us. We are not showing our creator all the accomplishments, money or businesses we’ve made at the end of this life. Really all that stuff is just peripheral to the heart of the matter … WHO WE ARE.
When the day ends, who we have become is what is going to stand the test. Really, it’s how we’ve handled the punches thrown at us that will give us life here after. I might not be saying this eloquently but I often feel like I’m in water too deep to handle but then I remember that my heart and my willingness to trust Jesus when I’m at the end of my rope is what matters the most.

I have more or less rejected the notion of “callings” in favor of something more fragile. My reason is more to do with the fatalism of “callings”. A calling, in some aspects, is asking God, “What should I do?” How many times have I seen people wait around for questions like these to be answered…on the other hand, I have seen people make radical moves based on their “call” only to get mad and blame God when things went wrong.

So I figure something more existential is in order—something where we are radically responsible for our every action. Yet, as Christians we believe in a Father who gifts us with various talents—and who has a story for this world from beginning to end. So we are not radically free! So I’m trying to figure some sort of Compatibilism (think the movie “stranger than fiction”). This, hopefully, avoids the lost-ness of the existential, and the determinism of the modern “calling”…

I hope that in joining the story already in play that I avoid the ME-centric view of “callings”, which as you articulate, is often driven by our sense of values (post-Kantian (pragmatic/utilitarian/emotional) sense of good and bad) as opposed to a biblical notion of the Good.
Just some thoughts…

But maybe you should re-read Ken Gire’s book “windows of the soul” and the chapter on vocation.

he asks, what brings you life, what makes you feel alive? He says that those things are road markers to discerning your vocation.

we have been discussing the terminology of
career vs. vocation vs. calling

are they interchangeable? should they be?

there’s a LOT of pressure in our generation to “discover who you are”, then go to school, then find someone to pay for doing what you believe in, and be recognized professionally.
that is THE ideal of our generation.
problem is, people don’t want to pay you to save the world.
they want to pay you to make them more money.

so maybe we should just forget it. get a job that you don’t hate, one that pays the bills.

work as few hours as you can, and save the world on your own time, sans corporate interests.

artists and musicians seem to get this better than academics.
(maybe it’s cause academics are so pissed off that they have all that student debt and no quick way out of it).

news flash folks, times are a-changing and everyone and his dog has a BA in something-or-other.
going to university might make you a better person, but it will cost money, not make it.

(math/science students excluded. they shall rule the world).

i am no stranger to small town life.
most pertinent is my 2.5 year experiment in an average canadian town. for reference, this town was roughly the size of winkler).

i had a car while living there, and it mostly stayed parked. i biked or walked to work 90 percent of the time, carpooled on rainy/cold days with my coworkers, and walked to and from friends houses.
sometimes i dressed for the weather and toughed it out, feeling better for it.

i was not alone. lots of friends and families also didn’t use cars. their kids also had bikes. walking to the store took a while, but it was a slower pace of life, so you adapt.
taking the kids on a grocery outing pulling your purchases in a wagon can turn a mundane activity into an adventure for kids. there’s so many things to explore along the way and people to bump into.

the town had a small cab company and a car rental place for longer trips. the cabs were used semi-regularly — if you were late, needed a ride to the doctor, had to bring a large purchase home, etc.
the rental cars were used to go on trips to beach or to go to the city, or to pick up a friend at the airport.

my point is, if you live in a small town, (country excluded) you don’t really have an excuse to not think creatively about it. future oil scarcity will force you to adapt in time anyway.

overall, it’s not a sacrifice, it’s really a better lifestyle. it’s safer, more sane, and more peaceful. — not to mention WAY less expensive.
and kids are not an excuse either.
(how often people love to use their kids to justify their actions! ex: “we need a bigger house and more stuff, it’s for the children”)

kids love to run, walk, bike — even (or especially) in the rain and snow.
kids DO NOT like to sit in the car and buckle up.
not even if you medicate them with junk food and dvds.

you CAN choose where you live. you can choose not to buy a house far at the edge of town. you can think about proximity to the school and grocery store. neighborhood matters.

look around your small town. there are probably lots of people who don’t use cars.
(you just don’t notice them as you rush by in your minivan with children shouting in the back).