The idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or calling, comes from a voice external to ourselves, a voice of moral demand that asks us to become someone we are not yet—someone different, someone better, someone just beyond our reach.
That concept of vocation is rooted in a deep distrust of selfhood, in the belief that the sinful self will always be selfish unless corrected by external forces of virtue. It is a notion that made me feel inadequate to the task of living my own life, creating guilt about the distance between who I was and who I was supposed to be.


Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (1999)

Parker Palmer Quotes

The idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or...

The idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or...

The idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or...

The idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or...