Part 5 of 12
A Practical Guide to Prosperous Living
J Douglas Bottorff
I discovered vocational guidance in my own meditative process. I can say, without any hesitation, that my choice to enter the ministry unfolded from within me. It was not a choice I made based on family prompting or even on a particular interest I had in the profession. In fact, from a purely intellectual standpoint, the ministry would have been one of the last choices I would have made. The stereotypical image I carried of the people who chose the ministry as a profession was not an elevated one, to say the least. And yet the emerging new dimensions of my spiritual essence dictated clearly that the ministry was indeed the most suitable vocational environment for me.
Years ago, while attending classes at Unity Village, Missouri, I remember sitting on the patio drinking a cup of coffee and contemplating my future. In full-blown creative survival mode, I was frustrated with what I was doing and I was not at all happy with the direction my life was going, mainly because it was going nowhere. In this soul-searching moment, I asked myself what I would really like to do, what interested me the most. The answer came quickly. The thing I loved the most, the thing that was always on my mind, the thing I was devoting all my spare time to exploring was my own developing spirituality. I was completely captivated by this new dimension that was unfolding from within. I wanted to do something that allowed me to devote all my time and energy to further open my mind to this inner process and to share my experience with others. The Unity ministry became the logical answer. Now, after three decades of doing this work, time and experience has proven that it was the right answer.