“Vocation does not come from a voice ‘out there’ calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice ‘in here’ calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.”
(Let Your Life Speak, Parker J. Palmer, p. 10)
Howard’s story
As a high school senior my pastor told me that God was calling me into ministry. At that time this message wasn’t one I was ready to hear. Yet, as I entered college I understood Christian social work as my call and what was drawing me. Working as a recreation aide at a state psychiatric hospital in my early college days I had close association with chaplaincy interns and long conversations about their work and their training. It was with experience that the counseling seed within me began to germinate. In seminary, my call toward counseling ministry became clearer as I took my first course in pastoral care. My professor embodying the good shepherd drew out the very best in me. I was connecting with my authentic self and further sprouting my call to counseling. That truth joined with being the oldest child in a chaotic family helped me to develop a great capacity and compassion for people in pain. During my early parish work it had been and continued to be very natural for me to listen to troubled parishioners and couples in distress. I quickly learned that the greatest gift was to be fully present with people and to bear witness to their lives. My call to ministry, which had earlier felt unclear and uncertain, now became that voice "in here." I now felt certain of God’s call.
Rev. Howard Humphress, Office of Pastoral Care and Counseling
Terri’s story
Sometimes when you arrive at a destination, you realize that you have been on a life-long journey. My call to be a pastoral marriage and family therapist unfolded in just this way. Throughout my life I often have found myself invited to listen to people’s stories and to sit with people in times of sorting out their lives. In my family, each person’s story was treated as sacred and the stories of life were shared in a way that shaped and expanded my understanding of the world and God. When I completed my seminary training as a counselor I felt increasingly compelled to providing a safe and supportive place for people. As the daughter of a minister I had experienced the specialness of the world of church ministry and the pain of church ministry, and in some quiet way God invited me to this journey. God challenged and prompted me to become a pastoral presence, giving me the great opportunity to offer a sacred space to others during times of hardship, times of celebration, and even during the routine parts of people’s lives. Pastoral counseling has been God’s call to provide a space for others to seek the face of God along life’s journey as we are called to live our best lives.
So, for both of us surrendering to “a voice ‘in here’ calling me to be the person I was born to be” really has been how we have come to know our calls to the ministry of counseling. Sometimes others have seen our gifts and graces before we experienced God’s call. Sometimes we’ve felt God’s call but may not have named it that.
As we wrote this reflection we were meeting with our colleagues who direct conference pastoral care and counseling programs, and we asked them about their own calls to ministry. We heard them speak of their understanding of counseling as “sacred,” “a place where people experience the divine” and emerging from “a deep urge to respond to a hurting world.” Seems that is indeed what the ministry of counseling is all about.
Terri Dalton, Office of Pastoral Care and Counseling
