The Calling

Bob Dylan spoke to Rolling Stone recently.

I liked these parts:

You’ve described what you do not as a career but as a calling.

Everybody has a calling, don’t they? Some have a high calling, some have a low calling. Everybody is called but few are chosen. There’s a lot of distraction for people, so you might not never find the real you. A lot of people don’t.

How would you describe your calling?

Mine? Not any different than anybody else’s. Some people are called to be a good sailor. Some people have a calling to be a good tiller of the land. Some people are called to be a good friend. You have to be the best at whatever you are called at. Whatever you do. You ought to be the best at it—highly skilled. It’s about confidence, not arrogance. You have to know that you’re the best whether anybody else tells you that or not.

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If you’re suspicious of words that sound religious, don’t get hung up over the word calling. Embrace the spirit of it—there’s something you need to do, but at every opportunity, you’ll have countless other opportunities to do something else.

Two key points:

1. Everyone has a calling.

2. The central problem is discovering that calling amidst a sea of distractions.

And one more point that’s implied:

3. Despite the distractions, it’s very important to find the calling.

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*I’ve been enjoying Donald Miller’s Storyline project, an extension of one of my favorite books, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

Image: Sarah-Ji