Unexpected Callings: With Great Power Comes Lots of Work

Abstract

Abstract This chapter returns to the beginning—the road not taken—but with the unexpected twist of time or aging and detritus or the accumulated baggage of life. As people age, they amass obligations. Callings mean, by definition, mounting entanglements. To agree to this job or to love this or that person means suddenly bearing unexpected duties. Unexpected callings can also emerge at any time of life, however, when duties arise within callings that they didn’t anticipate but must assume, often imposed from outside themselves. The chapter explores what it means to assume unexpected callings, discerning not just desire or talent but the need for service. It considers how to maintain the fine balance between self-care and appropriate sacrifice or sacrifices that are chosen and motivated by love, not forced, that rest on communal support and grace, and that require practice over time.