Ascension Mission

This is a 10-minute reflective writing practice on vocation. The aim is to let your life speak through engaging in writing as method. 

This simple practice will invite you to uncover a vocational common thread as you revisit your most meaningful professional stories and experiences.

Step 1: List the various jobs you’ve had, and include volunteer work if necessary. Allow yourself at least a minute and a half. 

Step 2: Draw a table with two columns. In the left hand column, list four or five of your most fulfilling jobs. Allow yourself at least thirty seconds. 

Step 3: In the right hand column, describe something rewarding or fulfilling about each job. For example: community, friendship, respect, financial stability, etc. Allow yourself at least two minutes. 

Step 4: Next, look at the right hand column and try to find a common thread. Write about what you find. For example: it might be a recurring word or phrase, or even similar language or a feeling. Allow yourself at least a minute and a half.

Step 5: “Vocation is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner

The common thread that you’ve uncovered points towards your deep gladness, a fulfillment of a need by the core of who you are. To dive one layer deeper, fill in the blank:

My vocation is to ____(common thread)____ for ____(who?)____. 

For example: 

• My vocation is to relieve suffering for all people.
• My vocation is to listen deeply for those needing their voice to be heard.
• My vocation is to create community for those seeking connection.

Allow yourself at least two minutes to reflect.

For further reflection:

• What might this exercise be calling you to do or be? 
• What was this experience like for you? Are you surprised?
• How does your common thread or vocation influence (or not influence) your current job?
• Where else in your life do you already tap into your common thread or vocation?
• Read and reflect with the poem, The Way It Is, by William Stafford.