Not too long ago, I was distressed. My calling and vocation involve a lot of people work and care. It’s something I love for sure, and look forward to doing until my dying day. But there are times where… well, I’m distressed.

On this particular day, I was feeling a certain type of distress that I had not felt before. A lot of it probably came from a lack of being connected spiritually to Jesus.  The thought crossed my mind, “maybe I should just leave this call, this vocation.”

While dealing with this,  I decided to take my oldest, 2.5 year-old daughter out for a date (I had to bail on a hang out time we usually have, so I thought this was a good thing to do).  We went to the mall, got some Ben & Jerry’s, held hands and walked around, talked about random things, watched a toy speed boat in the mall fountain, and…  well, we had a great time.

And it hit me- wow, this is my first call, first vocation, in my journey of being a Jesus follower.  Sure God has entrusted me to care for a spiritual family at the church I love.  I would die for those people, I would.   But my wife, and my daughters- there’s nothing quite like the calling I have to love and care for them.

Thankfully, after our date, God met me in a time of prayer and got me to a place of emotional and spiritual health concerning the mentioned distress.  But I think He started His healing before that, through a bubbly two year old, excited about a date with Daddy.