Despite having largely lost his Calvinist religion by the time he reached adulthood, the 19th-century Scottish satirist Thomas Carlyle famously noted that the idea of "calling" was all pervasive in broader society.
"The latest gospel in this world is, 'Know thy work and do it,"' Caryle said.
When we consider the idea of "calling," most of us think of ordained ministry. Pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and clerics of all traditions are supposed to have heard and heeded a divine "call" that leads them into a life of religious service.
Still, religious leaders from Martin Luther to the founder of Opus Dei, St. Jose Maria Escriva, have insisted that we all have a sacred calling, whether it leads us to don a clerical collar, a hard hat or tap shoes in the service of the Divine.
This idea of a universal calling is perhaps best articulated by a line from the film "Evan Almighty," when a freshman congressman (Steve Carell) named Evan is asked why God (Morgan Freeman) "chose" him to forsake his duties and build an ark in his backyard.
"(God) chose all of us," Evan answers.
It is precisely this take on calling that filmmakers explore in the stellar new documentary film The Calling, which airs nationally on PBS stations Dec. 20-21.
The Calling follows seven emerging religious leaders as they embark on their journeys as pastors, preachers, priests, chaplains, imams and rabbis.
The Calling does not limit its exploration of "calling" to explicitly religious endeavors. In 220 minutes, the filmmakers paint beautifully articulate and intimately nuanced portraits of what a modern life of faith looks like, inside and out of the pulpit.
Last week, I had the honor of getting to know the five men and two women profiled in The Calling when they all gathered for the first time in person for an event in Chicago.
They are: Bilal, an African-American convert from Pentecostalism who serves as a Muslim prison chaplain in Connecticut; Shmuly, a charismatic young man raised in a secular Jewish/Christian home who embraced Orthodox Judaism in his early 20s and subsequently entered an Orthodox yeshivah; Steven, a Mexican-American born and bred in San Antonio who is now a Roman Catholic priest; Yerachmiel, a cradle Orthodox Jew and recently ordained rabbi serving his first congregation; Jeneen, an African-American single mother and freshly ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church searching for her first "call" to the
pastorate; Tahera, a young Muslim woman studying at Hartford Seminary to become a university chaplain as she plans her wedding; and Rob, a new father who struggles to balance his work as a Protestant minister in Los Angeles with his passion for rap music and his obligations as chieftain in his native Samoa.
After spending a day with the subjects of the film, I was most struck by how much they had in common, despite their vast cultural and theological differences: Each has an abiding love for God and a desire to help others encounter the Divine in a meaningful way.
While their paths to religious vocation are as varied as their personalities and personal histories, their spiritual orientation is the same. They crane their necks and cup their ears to discern their call -- whatever turns it may take.
Each of the seven faces obstacles -- cultural, institutional, familial and of their own hearts and minds -- in heeding their calls. Time and again they confront questions and doubts, both external and internal.
Their journeys take surprising turns (as, sometimes, the call changes and evolves over time.) To a person, their soul explorations are fascinating -- never taking turns into the trite or what we've come to expect in typical one-dimensional depictions of "religious" folks.
The filmmakers have a wonderfully fresh and tender eye for stories (and people) of faith. The subjects of The Calling are portrayed as honest, vulnerable, funny, compelling, sometimes maddening and unfailingly authentic.
Whether you are a person of faith, a skeptic or a seeker -- of religion, the Divine or your purpose in life -- The Calling will have something profound and perhaps transformational to say.
As a compendium to the documentary, the filmmakers have launched a website, What's Your Calling, to continue the conversation. They cast a wide net to include people with callings as disparate as musicians and writers, entrepreneurs and activists, Thai boxers and tattoo artists.
No matter what it sounds like, we all have a calling. Those with ears to hear will find it, so listen carefully.
So, what's your calling?
Follow Cathleen Falsani on Twitter: www.twitter.com/godgrrl
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We who Are Wide Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land, and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist POV.
My calling also led me to send this Christmas Message To: Obama, Biden, Hillary, Bibi, Peres, Knesset, Ahmadinejad:
http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1918&Itemid=240
There is no god, there is no heaven or hell or even purgatory, Dead is dead. There is no life after death. How can there be? We are not the cause of our existence, we are the result of our environment. Remember the Spanish discourse on whether Indians had souls or were just animals. Animals don’t have souls? For that matter, all animal life, insects, plants, bacteria, viruses? 230,826,365,trillion ants exist on earth. They are all life, they all eat, defecate and reproduce, all have some sentience, what makes us better than them?
We cannot fathom just how infinitesimal we are. All 106,million, million, million of us since the beginning. We think we are the be all and the end all. How stupid.
But we are less than nothing. Our essence is contained in the neurons and synapses in our brains, but there are about 70 thousand billlion stars that we can see, 10 times more than all sand grains on all the world's beaches - some think it is infinite. Most stars probably have planets, and some probably have life:
Our Milky Way galaxy contains about 300 billion stars, of which about 30 billion are like our Sun, and at least 1.5 billion theoretically have orbiting planets the size of Jupiter, and there are 125 billion galaxies in the universe.
There are more than one hundred thousand million sparrows. If his eye is really on the sparrow, then he doesn’t have time for the rest of us.
But that said, I have a little tough nut to crack for you. You're obviously free to respond to the challenge.
Is it good or bad to be living in times in which people who have a 'calling' are needed?
And what does it mean for those who answer to their alleged calling?
Because, you know, it seems, that the problem of fundamentalism is somewhat strongly entangled with your agenda.
I'm not saying you're fundamentalist. Of course not. All I'm saying is that you need valid criteria to tell. It's not an easy thing, that's for sure. But it's necessary.
God is beyond concepts but always 'calling'
How I discerned my calling is the something that was put in my heart and on my conscience to do something about, daily awakes me with the desire to struggle for it.
As long as I am provided the energy to pursue it-no matter how hopeless an effort it appears to most-I know I cannot NOT do anything other than continue to pursue my 'calling' and so that is why there is http://wearewideawake.org and 3 books published- so far.