# Chapter 74

What we work at, our vocation and passions, they change us. You become something different than you would have been, by your work and labors. This is true no matter whether you are a theologian or a painter. The theologian will develop intellectual muscles than others won’t, and likely an emotional complex as well as he or she realizes that they won’t reach the moral levels that God wishes for them, or at least that was my experience. My moral compass is weak and easily swayed compared to other parts of me. The painter on the other hand will develop muscles in his or her arms and shoulders that the theologian can’t compete with at all. I can’t speak to the emotional complexes that painting might induce in the painter, but I want to clearly say that the painter can be an intellectual and the theologian can be a weightlifter. Being shaped by our vocations is a trending action, not a prison cell, you can be more or less along the lines of the trend within a vocation.

Our work shapes us in the fact that it almost always determines our network of relationships and the people we meet in life. This may shape us more than the content of the work we wrestle with each day. While I was and am a mediocre theologian, I have been highly impacted by the people I have had the privilege of working with along the way. I am not sure that the painter would have the same experience because painting seems to be a solitary task compared to the intense people-orientation of the work I have been involved in over the last four and a half decades. Not only the people I get to work with, but the geography of my work has dragged me all over the planet and that has changed me immensely. From the temples of Angkor Wat to the mega crowded cities of Yangon and Bangkok to the coasts of Turkey and Greece to the business districts of London and Malta, these are formative travels.

So who do you want to be?