Article May 17, 2010 Issue

Time to listen

Summer employment takes a unique form as this author listens for, and hears, what God wants for her.

BY LARISSA SNOREK-YATES

ONE OF MY RECENT READS is titled, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker Palmer (San Francisco, CA:Jossey-Bass, 2000). On page 4, the author states: "Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about—quite apart from what I would like it to be about."

This has rung true for me throughout my life, and my study of Christian Science has shown me how to put this concept into practice through prayer as deep listening. Whenever I've made plans for my career, they've usually resulted in a completely different and unexpected opportunity that could have come only from sincere listening to God. I learned at a very early age that prayer in Christian Science was not about asking God for new toys or a pet, but that it was about listening to hear God speaking to me. But how to discern between thoughts that are coming from God and other thoughts, perhaps well intentioned but willful, has been a continual discovery.

One experience during college stands out as an example, when a job I had expected fell through. When the voices of disappointment, confusion, fear, and doubt were silenced, the spiritual sense or divine intuition that had always been present, guiding and directing my path, was heard.

About the author

Larissa Snorek-Yates currently applies these insights in her work with graduate students in the United States as well as during her frequent travels to African countries.

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