Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big, beautiful world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**

The Intersection of Deep Joy and Great Need

Long ago, I internalized a model for thinking about vocation and how we find purpose in our lives coined by Frederick Buechner, the novelist and theologian. He suggested that our calling, our purpose, our way of knowing what we can offer the world is to find the place of intersection between the world’s Great Need and our deepest sense of joy. Others have tweaked this formulation in different ways, but I find this to be a useful way to deal with, admittedly, one of the most difficult questions we face––at least a starting point. 

An illustration was shared, recently, by someone in the UK who received in the mail the image below: 

This image teaches me so much. It reminds me how dynamic and many-faced “need” is. It reminds me that the range of things I can imagine being passionate about do not represent the smallest drop of what there is for people to care about. It teaches me that the instinct to help goes deep, but the instinct to help others who wish to help goes deeper still.

Allan T. Georgia, M.Div., M.T.S., PhD