Scraping the Surface

You know you work in a Catholic workplace when you casually bump into a Bishop in the elevator. That's exactly what happened to me the other day when I was heading out for lunch. I hopped into the lift to head down when it stopped at the next floor and in walked one of Brisbane's bishops, as well as another gentleman. They were engaged in a conversation, which finished abruptly as they stepped through the elevator doors.

"We just scraped the surface in that meeting, didn't we? But, that's all we can do in any situation in life really: scrape the surface," Bishop said, eyes gleaming.

Scraping the surface - sometimes it feels like that's all we accomplish when we begin to ask questions about faith, life and calling. Maybe, like me, you're only too familiar with the feeling of having questions answered with more questions!

I feel like in my life I'm just scraping the surface. Later this year I turn twenty-four, which to me is the age when ages don't sound so young anymore! I'm approaching my mid-twenties, yet I haven't finished my degree, I'm not married, I drive a Granny car...All the things that (in my mind) came with this age, I haven't yet accomplished. I guess you could say I'm having a "mid-twenties crisis"!

The question I ask when I visit schools is "where are you going?" The irony is I don't know where I'm going. I have this job with the Vocations team at the moment, but after that I have no idea. I feel like with all I'm doing now, I'm just scraping the surface of what God is calling me to do with my life.

That's not to say that goal setting is unimportant or unnecessary; but what I've come to learn through my "scraping" is that things don't always go according to my plans. But my scraping and questioning and seeking has led to all sorts of wild opportunities I would have never expected. I'm creeping up to my mid-twenties having not met any of my expectations, but sometimes in our scraping we are called to let go of pre-conceived expectations, our perfectionism, and our check-lists.

I believe that when we scrape towards the depths of faith, life and calling; we realise that God's call is bigger, grander and far more awesome than any list of accomplishments we might have for our life. It might not make sense now, but we just got to keep scraping away. After all, that's all we can do in life really, isn't it?