“The voice we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice of our own gladness.  What can we do that makes us the gladdest?  I believe that if it is a thing that makes us truly glad, then it is a good thing and it is our thing.”

Frederick Buechner – The Hungering Dark

I haven’t read this book by Buechner, but I’d like to.  Especially because I’d like to know the broader context of this quote.  I like this idea about following one’s gladness in career options, but the cynic in me wonders if this is really possible for most people?  A lot of people just have to pay the bills and make ends meet for their family.  A lot of people right now don’t even have a job.  Many don’t have the luxury of choice.  On the other hand, I’ve worked with miserable people who have stayed at their unhappy jobs for too many decades when they probably would have been better off finding something more suitable to their passions.  Suppression of passion can lead to a malformed character I think.

This seems like an issue that is also more specific to affluent societies with a great degree of freedom and a wide spectrum of career options.  I think this quote is laughable when I think of its application in a country like China.  I am not saying that the Chinese cannot pursue gladness of vocation, but the competition and the limitations placed on one’s aspirations are much more formidable.  You’re happy to get what you get in most situations.

I also look at this quote in relation to how I see God relating to people in the Bible (and probably in the broader scope of history as well).  Do you think people like Joseph and Gideon were following their inner gladness as they listened and obeyed the Lord?  I don’t know.  That’s a tough one.  So many of the biblical accounts show people in very difficult situations reacting to the circumstances and then being asked to do things that only God could accomplish through them.  So I think there is a definite tension here.  There are definite restraints (internal and external) placed on our pursuit of gladness in vocation.  We are born with certain skills and talents into a particular family, class, socio-econonic bracket, and environment.  There are a lot of factors that are outside of an individual’s control.

Buechner probably covers all this in his book though.  He’s a pretty sharp guy.  That’s why I’d like to get the fuller context of this quote.

But, as much as one is able to, I still think it is important for us to pursue gladness anyway.  Because without passion (either for the work itself or for what the work produces outside of itself) I think our soul tends to get deadened–bit by bit.

Any thoughts on this?