A Que Dedicadas?

There's been a phrase going through my mind all evening (which admittedly wasn't very helpful when trying to take my Canon Law test!).  The phrase is one I learned many years ago while preparing to go to Mexico for a semester.  It's a phrase used by the Mexican people which really highlighted, at least at the time, a huge difference in philosophy between our two countries. 

Here, in the United States, if we meet a new person, we might ask them, "What do you do?"   We are fishing for professional information;  where they work, their history, their 5-year plan.  And they tell us that they're an engineer working for x company, or a nurse working for x hospital or clinic, etc.   And we nod and smile and they ask us the same question right back, prompting us to give a similar answer. 

But the question, in Spanish, was "A que dedicadas?"   meaning, "To what do you dedicate yourself?"

That has an ENTIRELY different connotation and meaning.  

They weren't asking for employment information with that question. Rather, their query would go right to the heart of our humanity:  who are we, really?   

If we were to ask someone here what they DEDICATE themselves to, they might be taken aback, thinking it too intimate a question for a stranger to ask.  And yet, they might just answer, and in that answer, tell us a lot more about themselves in even a shapshot than the employment question could EVER capture.   And it's a wild card - one never knows what the other is going to say. 

I had to wonder, then, if someone asked me that question, what would my answer be? To what DO I dedicate myself?  

The implications of this question are amazing. It can help us do an examination of conscience as we look over our day and what we dedicated our time to doing.  It can help us identify our true passions in life, and perhaps help us gain perspective and direction in determining what's really important.   It can help us realize that maybe we aren't living up to our potential. 

For...if we are honest and admit we don't dedicate ourselves, in the very practical sense, to what we are truly called to be doing, then it means we must make a change.  

Tonight I'm going to go to sleep with this thought.  I know what I OUGHT to be dedicated to, and to whom, but...is my life bearing that out?  Even more deeply, I need to consider what I do dedicate myself to; my truest, most profound decisions, those things that bring me the most joy, those things that lead me closer to God.  

I cannot ask this question outside of the context of the will of God, for in order to become holy, I don't want to do anything outside of His will or anything that will prevent me from cooperating with His grace.  

So, to all of my readers.....to what do YOU dedicate yourself?   ?A que dedicadas?  

Answer if you like....or just ponder...