Do you have books you return to over and over? Books that continue to inspire you, challenge or help you remain grounded? I have several but this morning I was particularly drawn to Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer. If you haven’t read it, I commend it to you.

The book begins with a poem by May Sarton:"Now I become myself. It’s taken time,many years and places.I have been dissolved and shaken, Worn other people’s faces……" A perfect poem for a book about living an authentic life and listening for what Palmer describes as "the voice of vocation…(to find) the deep joy of knowing that we are here on earth to be the gifts that God created."

I think of all the times I have tried to wear other people’s faces, tried to live a life that is not really me. Of course, those times never turned out well. It was only as I was "dissolved and shaken" that I came to a deeper understanding of my unique gifts, my true self, and how I might offer them to the world. It was only with time that an understanding of letting my life speak began to emerge.

Claiming our voice and our authentic self is difficult in a culture that continues to tell us all the things we should be, should do and all the things we are not…..not smart enough, not thin enough, not rich enough, etc, etc. But, I believe, each of us comes into the world with a particular set of gifts to offer. Palmer puts it this way:"Vocation does not come from a voice "out there" calling me to be something I am not. It  comes from a voice "in here" calling me to the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God."

In the season of Lent, we are invited to a reflective life, one of prayer, meditation, silence, introspection. We are also invited each Sunday to hear again the stories of the life of Jesus. These stories allow us to glimpse the way a life can be "dissolved and shaken" and to see the power, danger and promise of claiming vocation.

Jesus lived his own life authentically follow his understanding of God’s call for his life and the world. During these 40 days we are not invited to wear the face of Jesus or anyone else- only our own. In these days we can follow the invitation to let our life speak.

Have a blessed weekend.