In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Joshua Miller, the Director of Coaching and Programming for the Office of Personal Vocation at Franciscan University of Steubenville, to explore how we discern our personal vocation. We discuss what it means to discover the unique way God has created and called each of us, why discernment begins in the present moment, and how our deepest joys, gifts, and even wounds, can reveal the path He is inviting us to walk.
Reflection and Discussion Questions:
Dr. Miller now works with people professionally, listening to their stories and helping them recognize patterns in their narrative that point to a personal vocation. It is possible to trace our vocations back to the beginnings of our lives because God’s unique call to each person by name is, as he says, constant. What “hints” or prophetic moments can you remember about growing up that you can now see pointed to your particular call?
“In every story of personal fulfillment,” says Dr. Miller, “invariably the person is engaged with other people and things in the world. And invariably, the unique potentialities of those things are also being realized.” That means that when we are operating in our gifts, participating in the work of the Father that we’ve been distinctively designed for and called to, we are also helping other things and people reach their full potential. Reflect back on your personal stories. Can you see how you are not the only one being blessed in these stories? How are you equipped to help other people find fulfillment, or orient the things of the world to God?
Dr. Miller makes the point that no fulfillment story can totally fulfill us. Why? How can our “moments of authentic fulfillment” in this life indicate what we might look forward to in the next? Do you find that freeing? Does it change your idea of what heaven is like?
Resources Mentioned:
Unrepeatable: Cultivating the Unique Calling of Every Person by Dr. Joshua Miller and Luke Burgess
The Motivation Code (contributing author: Dr. Joshua Miller)
The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis
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