GOD JOB: A SHORT STORY

When he was in Sixth Grade he wanted to be a minister, just like his favorite pastor at the local church.  He wanted a God job like Rev. Nielsen had.  By the time he was an adult, though, it was clear to him that while his heart was in the right place, his head was not.  There were forces pulling him in other directions than the ministry, not an uncommon story.

The biggest force drawing him in other directions was what turned out to be his nature.  He found that he was introverted, introspective, interior, shy even, not what ministers needed to be.  Ministers had a congregation to serve and they could not do so if they were in a shell like him.

He decided that an Eastern religion was better suited to him, one that emphasized meditation.  The place to begin, it seemed to him, was yoga, hatha or physical yoga, and raja or mental yoga.  Especially raja yoga appealed to him as it was mystical.
 
Thus, he practiced yoga for a year, after which he took a World Religions class, studying Taoism, Jainism, Vedantism, Shintoism, and Buddhism, thinking that this would intensify what by now he was feeling.  Alas, though, it did not.  It was all interesting, intellectually, but it was not what he was after, really.  Again he turned his attention inward.

What he was feeling, he concluded, was the rise of the Atman in him, to borrow the Vedanta model.  The Atman in him was being drawn to its source the Brahman, on a quest that would only end with the Atman’s awakening.  Enabling this awakening, not resisting it in other words, was what he now needed to do.  This would be his God job from here on.