Designed for Life

"But this I do believe . . . That at each man's birth there comes into being an eternal vocation for him, expressly for him."
- Soren Kierkegaard

"We have, each of us, an essential biologically-based inner nature, which is to some degree 'natural', intrinsic, given, and…unchanging."
- Abraham Maslow

"The acorn theory proposes, and I will bring evidence for the claim, that you and I and every single person is born with a defining image."
- James Hillman

"Within each person at his birth …Hidden masterful something…Unique…Unalterable."
- Friedrich Nietzche

"Nor does [God] blot out, in His intense light,
the detail of our earthly aims,
since the closeness of our union with him
is in fact determined by the exact fulfillment
of the least of our tasks."
- Pierre Teilhard De Chardin

"The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
From the place of His habitation He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;
He fashions their hearts individually;
He understands all their works. . . ."
- Psalm 33:13 -15

"The primal fact is that each human being is separate, distinct, and a unique individual, with a nervous system as particular as are fingerprints."
- Frederick Herzberg

"In every concrete individual, there's a uniqueness that defies all formulation . . . . We can feel the touch of it and recognize its tasks, so to speak . . . . But we can give no ultimate account of it, and we have in the end simply to admire the creator."
- William James

"No man is born into the world whose work is not born with him."
- J.R. Lowell

Each human being has some original and unrepeatable 'measure'. We are all called to live up to our originality."
- Charles Taylor

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you…."
- Jeremiah 1:5

The only true temple of God is man and through man the world….To be truly man means to be truly oneself.… his ordination to be himself, to become what God wants him to be, what He has loved in me from all eternity. It is the gift of vocation.
- Alexander Schmemann

The bigger the world economy,
The more powerful are its smallest players.
The study of the smallest player,
The entrepreneur,
Will merge with the study of
How the big bang global economy works.
- John Naisbitt, Global Paradox

Globalization has progressed in three phases:
1.0 Up to 1800, when it depended on nation-states
2.0 1800-2000, when it was driven by multinational corporations
3.0 Since 2000 . . . when it has been up to brilliant individuals

- The World is Flat (2005), by Tom Friedman

...vocation is that original divine call addressed to each individual at the moment of his creation and reiterated in all the circumstances of his life. It is God’s creative summons, calling forth from nothing the very being of the creature. It is that same divine love which continues to actualize the potential of the individual inviting him to become what he is meant to be; to realize that unique being which he alone of all creation can express.

[Regarding individual vocation] God has provided each individual with unique talents. These talents of mind and body signify God’s call to the individual, indicating by specific function his part in the total fulfillment of the divine plan. Every human person is uniquely designed to “body forth, each in his own way, God’s being” ... these talents are invitations to personal responses.
- Sister Helen Marie
[Sister Marie was a Carmelite mystic, author and scholar martyred by the Nazis]

Can a lifetime represent a single motive?
- T.S. Eliot

All of us have a unique eternal calling to count for good in God’s universe.
- Dallas Willard

You can get all A’s and still flunk in life.
- Walter Percy

Apart from a Creator-inspired calling, all hope of discovering purpose (as in the current talk of shifting from’success to significance’) will end in disappointment.
- Os Guinness

QUOTES