I’ve been thinking about vocations lately. And I think that a vocation is like a hamburger.
Yes, a hamburger. The vocation, in my case marriage, is the burger and I guess God is the bun holding me in. The bun and patty alone together is good. But, there are other parts that can be added to make it even better. For example you could throw on some cheese and the cheese becomes part of the burger in the same way children can be added to a marriage and never be separated.
Sometimes I can add in some pickles or ketchup, but if I add too much then the bun gets soggy and if my eyes are bigger than my stomach and I add too many toppings I may take on more than I can chew. Still, I think some of the extra toppings, (a job, a volunteer position, an hour of adoration, exercise classes) can be good in and of themselves, but don’t always belong together at the same time. There are times in my vocation when my marriage and motherhood, the patty and the cheese, are enough and about all I can handle.
If I go a little deeper, I think about what makes up the patty. Being a wife, being a mother, that’s my main focus and who I am at first glance but there’s a lot more to me than just that. I am a painter and a knitter, a reader and a writer, a runner and a thinker, a sister and a daughter, a neighbor and a friend. I have so many things that interest me and drive me. God made me perfectly and with many passions and talents and interests. However, like with food, we live in a fallen world so of course there are also very many imperfections that get added in along the way. (Even 100% organic foods have their flaws.)
I think all those parts of me- the good and the bad, make up me – the patty. Sometimes I get to enhance my life a bit but for the most part usually have to be happy and satisfied to be a plain and simple cheeseburger. Besides, eating a huge burger with all the fixings is rather tricky to do gracefully when holding a wiggly baby in your lap.
