I completed my first 12 years of formal education without the benefit of any career guidance from the school district I attended. My parents engaged in the educational process instead, providing many opportunities for extra curricular activities and summertime travel — as well as routinely discussing how I might support myself and my family someday. All of those experiences helped me to formulate ideas about my career options.

To say we have made vast improvements in career education is quite an understatement. Secondary educators now readily use terms like career pathways with students early in the process and provide regular opportunities for them to begin to identify their interests as well as their aptitudes. Encouraging students to become self-aware, introducing career information, then offering coursework providing hands-on experiences is the method of the day. It is one way to help students make sense of the required classes. It is also the way we, as members of this society, can begin to help students envision careers providing personal satisfaction and financial independence.

Little could I have imagined that thoughts of interests and aptitudes and how God interplays into all of this would enter my mind this week as I hopped into the car with my husband to respond to a marine mammal stranding call.

The calls came in a flurry last Saturday on a day I had thought would be unscheduled and quiet. My husband had just returned from an extended trip that included a week in Spain. Despite all his efforts to pace himself jet lag was hitting and just as he eased onto the couch for a quick catch-up snooze the phone began ringing. A badly injured California sea lion was discovered lying at a high tide mark and people were concerned. It was time for the Stranding Network to jump into action.

Network volunteers were alerted, but they needed direction as to the animal’s exact whereabouts on the coastline. They needed some assurance the landowner was amenable to volunteers walking across his property to access the injured animal. And they wanted clear direction from the state as to their options once they assessed the animal’s condition.

They needed my biologist husband and off the couch he jumped. Jet lag and all.

I first approached the growing fervor with a bit of irritation, I am sorry to admit. I had not seen much of my husband and thought taking a nap with him and hearing more stories of Spain sounded wonderful. I wanted to spend a day at home with him, to reconnect and relax — for when he is gone I resemble my friends who are Navy wives. We’re a blur!

When it became apparent I needed to table my plan for the time being, I buckled up and prayed, just as I learned to do years ago when I first married this guy with a passion for animals. And because God is faithful — He began His work, right before my eyes, showing me the value of the big picture and how it would feed my own personal desires.

First, He reminded me that life may call us to act when we are tired but the call will surely fill us with energy and satisfaction. And least we think God cares little about such things as careers and hobbies, take a good look at those people around us who are the most content. They are able to identify those things in life they find fascinating and soul nourishing. Their financial coffers may not be filled to the brim but their gift is a love for the things they do. They languish in the knowledge that they are filling a need. They are also assured a place in this world and this is God’s gift when you step beyond your own needs and listen to the call. After all, He brought us into being for a distinctive reason and with great purpose.

Next, God showed me the best is produced when people with a shared interest work together. Under the sun and by the surf a marvelous team of men and women gifted that stretch of the beach with themselves. During the intervening hours the volunteers tended to the animal and bonded as a team. They educated a concerned public and unselfishly gave of their time to face a tragic injury and the animal’s eventual death.

While God frequently asks us to quickly switch plans and sacrifice something of ourselves, out of passionate interest will come energy and fellowship. Best of all, God will work practically in our lives, providing skill for life’s great adventures that commonly sneak up on us with little warning.

Joan Bay Klope is a freelance writer and a former editor of Christian books. Contact her at jbklope@hotmail.com