Monday, July 25, 2011

Called to Serve - Part 2

Continuing on my theme of what it means to be 'called' ...

What is a calling? You could describe it as a voice in your heart that asks you to do something with total focus and dedication. It is something you feel you are born to do. The example in the online dictionary was "Samantha felt 'called' to be a doctor", or you could want to be a dentist or a car mechanic. For a Christian it can be a 'calling' to follow Christ. For an athiest it could be the exact opposite, a great desire to prove that there is no intelligent awareness in the universe? I think, sometimes, the problem with a 'calling' is the intensity in which it governs your life.

As a child I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, and yet I grew up 'knowing' I would follow God, and Christ, and help people with paranormal problems, and demonic ones. What a thing for a child of five to have to think about - particularly as it defied the teachings of the church that I went to. And then there were the thoughts and memories in my mind, of other lives, and other times, when I had done the same sort of work - and so my 'lessons' were more like memories than any formal teaching, and my teachers were angels, as well as people in the street. So the 'child' never really felt like a child, but very old, and was never sure she knew 'enough'. And yet I served, from the age of seventeen, and people, old and young, would come to me and talk and ask questions, and I generally had an answer that satisfied their need - and I bless the angels for that gift, and thank God for the angels.

To serve, or be of service, means that you must help people to find your own peace of mind. Pretending that you don't have to provides no satisfaction, nor relief. You cannot turn your back on the need to serve, anymore than you can turn your back on the desire to following your calling. People who do can become small, mean and shallow.

Following your calling means giving your heart to humanity in some cases, or to animal welfare, if that is where your calling lies. It means knowing the inside of a car upside and backwards, for a true mechanic, or being able to read the soul of a tree for those called to serve nature. It's more than an ordinary knowledge of your subject, its an indepth understanding of how the world works .. in relation to where you serve.

When you find your true purpose you 'know' it in your heart. You find a peace there that can be found in no other place, and when you do good for others, it touches the whole world .. not just the two of you .. but the love created by peace of mind ripples out into the ether, sparking other moments of enlightenment and helping others find their true hearts as well. Remember the old chinese saying 'a butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause hurricanes in the pacific' (or words to that effect), it applies here because one deed of goodness leads to another, and another .. snowballing ... and another saying, before I sign off. "It only takes a moment to make a difference."

And last of all, one of my favourites, for which we can thank Gandhi .. "be the changes you want to see in the world".

Ok .. so follow your heart and BE them.

Love & Peace
Ama

1 comment:

  1. Is calling an internal or an external thing? Meaning do you regard it as something God asks of you, or is it something you choose to do? I guess the two are not exclusive, but I'm wondering if you have a different name for something God asks of you and something you feel compelled to do?

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