Responding to God's Call/Deacon Karl Meyersick

Intermountain Catholic

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Editor’s note: This is one in a series of personal vocation stories from seminarians, religious women, deacons and priests in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

“God will guide you to where you need to be to serve him as best you can.”

The Bible helps us to understand that we all have a place in God’s Kingdom on earth. Many of us struggle to find that place. We don’t see our-selves as having the strength or capability we think it might take to make a leap of faith. As a deacon at St. Henry Parish in Brigham City, I am no exception.

I came to my faith as an adult. At my baptism, a close friend of mine looked straight into my eyes and said, “You are going to make a great deacon.” I was totally lost for words. How could that ever be possible? She saw in me what I could not see in myself.

Now, eight years into my calling, I am doing what I have always done in my adult life: I am a teacher, a spiritual director, a planner, and a doer – I get things done. In one sense I am no different than I was before I was ordained, but in many other ways, the ways of the Lord, I am a totally different person. That is what God asks of all of us. As a priest, a deacon, a sister or brother, God asks you to be changed into a person who builds up his Kingdom, to give yourself to a vocation that serves Him and his people, the people of God.

You may think you do not have the tools to do such a thing. I answer that God will give you those tools; he will guide you to where you need to be to serve him as best you can. Be patient and, most important, look for God’s hand in all that you do in your everyday life. That is where I found him: beside me every day, helping me serve him. He is beside you every day, waiting for you to find him.

It will take courage; he will give that to you. It will take wisdom; he will give that to you. It will take a loving heart far bigger than you have now; he will give that to you, too.

Trust him and you will find your vocation that serves God.

Deacon Karl Meyersick is assigned to St. Henry Parish in Brigham City.