The Fitting Room of Calling | Sam Kipps '23

My “vocational calling” turned out to be (as if always, one day, one’s calling is simply stumbled upon) not a specific job: not a journalist, nor a financial planner, nor a missionary, nor a tent-maker—but rather—just an extension of myself. A collection of my gifts and desires bundled together.

Now, think of these gifts and desires as a person or a person’s body, and a vocation as a coat. A good vocation would fit the body well. It would conform to and cover the arms and torso adequately; it would not be too long nor too short when coming to the waist; and it would provide a certain level of warmth and protection from the elements. It would be a coat that one would feel a sense of pride slipping into most days of the week. 

And, if this bundle of gifts and desires each one of us has were to look like a person, and a vocation to look like a coat, then the person could wear several different coats satisfactorily over their lifetime. Perhaps, they could even wear two or maybe three coats at the same time—though maybe three or more and the load would become too heavy.

A poor fitting coat—that is, one that stops just a little too far above the waist or whose sleeves are a tad too tight or that is thin and ripped in an environment where warmth and protection are needed or that is not water-proof in a climate where it rains often—a poor fitting coat is wearable, and may just do, or have to do for a time, but I think most of us want to find a good coat—a good vocation that is, that fits us well.

So then—for all the times college students get asked by friends and relatives, “What are you planning to do after you graduate?” How can we feel more comfortable and confident, and maybe even take a sense of pride in what we are doing or planning to do in our jobs and careers?

The process that has worked for me has been like testing out a new coat in a department store: “trying on” a variety of occupations, jobs, responsibilities, and positions. Over college, I have put in work as a writer, a researcher, a speaker, a mentor, a house-builder, a waiter, an actor in a movie trailer, a personal-finance blogger, a landscaper, a summer camp counselor and section leader, a politics intern, a reading and math tutor, a cold-calling fundraiser, and a small-business owner. Not all of those “coats” or positions were good fits and being in college, not all of them made money. But each one gave me a sense of what different career paths and industries offer and value. Admittedly, I was too stressed early in college about choosing a major and figuring out my “calling” and “career.” Now though, through those different endeavors, I have come to a sense of peace knowing my gifts, desires, and interests much better, and knowing that I have the ability to be comfortable wearing a variety of different “coats.” 

So, I am very grateful for my time as a Horizons Fellow. I learned much about the concept of vocational calling and that God’s will for my life transcends the day-to-day roles and responsibilities of any one job. Certainly, there are some occupations where my gifts will be used better than others and my interests more nourished, but I have learned through TH, that following the greatest commandment—to love God above all else and to love others as myself—is meant to be lived out all the time, and can be done wearing most any “coat.”