The Echo Within: Finding Your True Calling [Hardcover]

Robert Benson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2009

“I can remember the words people said that meant so much to me and my own sense of who I was and who I might become…. You know you have heard such a sentence when you hear inside a corresponding Yes. The Yes is an echo of sorts, or at least it is the same voice as is the Echo that you have come to count on. Such a sentence takes your breath away…. It tells you something about yourself that you suspected or hoped, something you glimpsed but were too shy or uncertain to name aloud.”

To Hear and Live Your Calling

When one day a friend wondered if he was being called to a certain field of work, he asked Robert Benson, “Do you think I am?”

The Echo Within is Robert’s illuminating answer, a thoughtful, honest, profoundly-affecting account of his own search and failings and eventual discovery of the Yes he describes–what it is one truly is called to do and be. Written out of a lifelong search and response to the callings on his life, The Echo Within explores:

•how to love the work you do, and the process of doing it.

•ways to sense God’s pleasure in your pursuits, both in the pursuits and in you.

•whether you fall into your vocation as a destiny or you chart that course.

•how to begin living with added dimensions of meaning and purpose.

Through the ups and downs of the changes inherent in family life, professional choice, and spiritual experience, Robert shares with wisdom, humor, and heart what he’s learned–and how you can discover your calling too.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In this so-beautiful book, Robert Benson provides the sky in which your soul can soar. You can fly.”
–Leonard Sweet, author of the The Gospel According to Starbucks

“A rare treasure of a book. Robert Benson invites us into a heartfelt and humble journey of discovery of our calling via brokenness. Benson’s generous language fills the reader’s heart with godly wisdom, humor, and care. A must-read for all those struggling with the gap between deeper longings and the day-to-day struggles of our lives.”
–Makoto Fujimura, founder of the International Arts Movement, and author of River Grace and Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture

“The Robert Benson whom so many of us trust and enjoy has never been more open or wiser or funnier about vocation than he is here. Alternately candid and droll, lyrical and entertaining, he lays out the fruits of a lifetime and invites us to feast at will upon them. You will love this book.”
–Phyllis Tickle, author of The Words of Jesus: A Gospel of the Sayings of Our Lord and The Divine Hours


“Benson makes a convincing argument that the voice we hear urging us to do the work we love could actually be the voice of the greatest lover of all. By the book’s end, readers will smile to think that the vocational boxes we would like to check on our life resume are the same boxes God has already selected for us.”
-Nancy Hull, book reviewer for Horn Book Review and The Grand Rapids Press, and author of On Rough Seas

“An insightful and sensitive book about the all-important subject of vocation.”
–Marcy Heidish, author of Soul and the City and A Woman Called Moses

More Praise for Other Books by Robert Benson
“Benson’s tone remains chatty and down-to-earth, and the analogies he draws hit the mark ....”
–The New York Times Book Review

“Benson writes mellifluously with original insights and welcome humor .... [He] captures a world in which time slows down and material things become of less importance .... Charming and elegantly written . . . that rare gift, a thought-provoking record of his own spiritual quest .... Willa Cather’s phrase, ‘They will be done in art as it is in heaven’ could serve as an epigraph to (his) fine work.”
–Publisher’s Weekly

“In looking at his own life with candor and hope, Robert Benson helps us to look at our own. His words have the ring of truth.”
–Frederick Buechner, acclaimed author of more than 30 novels and non-fiction books, including his latest, Secrets in the Dark

“Robert Benson reminds us of what we too often forget–that the ground we walk upon is sacred. With the creative eye of a novelist and the playfulness of a poet, he tutors us in the art of really knowing the place where we live and celebrating the wonders in our own backyards.”
–Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, coauthors of Spiritual Literacy and directors of SpiritualityandPractice.com

About the Author

Robert Benson has written more than a dozen books about the discovery of the sacred in the midst of our ordinary lives, including Between the Dreaming and the Coming True, Home By Another Way, and Digging In. His work has been critically acclaimed in a wide range of publications from The New York Times and USA Today to Spirituality & Health and The Benedectine Review. He is an alumnus of The Upper Room’s Academy for Spiritual Formation and was recently named a Living Spiritual Teacher by Spirituality&Practice.com. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400074347
• ISBN-13: 978-1400074341
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #705,798 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I come from a family of writers and publishers and other folks who spent much of their lives working with and around writers and musicians and producers and artists. One of my grandfathers was a poet and a publisher and my father was a writer and a speaker. My grandmother loved poetry and novels and used to invite me to her house to play Scrabble. Words and sentences and stories have mattered most to me for most all my life
I grew up in a small bedroom community just outside Nashville, Tennessee. I left once to study English literature in California and again for a couple of years and a couple of cold winters to write advertising in Chicago, but all in all, Tennessee is home to me. While I was in Chicago I published my first book, Private Visions in Public Places, a coffee table book with someone else's photographs of the city. I got off the escalator one day in Water Tower Place and saw a bookstore window with a big display of the book. I have never recovered.
In between California and Chicago, I spent almost ten years heading up the marketing team for The Benson Company in Nashville, the major religious music firm that bore the family name. There followed several years as a freelance writer and editor, and two years on the staff of Upper Room Books. I graduated from The Academy for Spiritual Formation, a two-year program of study and prayer in community with some sixty people from across the South and also became a member of The Friends of Silence & of the Poor, an international prayer community.
Somewhere in there, I began to find my own voice. I had always written ' journals, bad adolescent poetry, advertising, even ghostwriting a couple of books. I even made a living at it. One day I discovered that I could no longer write for hire, because I could not get my own voice out of my head and it was time to begin to write my own stories.
I write two kinds of books about one thing ' paying attention.
I write about paying attention for the things that can point us to the Sacred in our lives. About the longings that we have for home and community and a sense of belonging in our lives. About practice and ritual and work and contemplation and the way that such things can be constant reminders of who we are and who we are to become.
One kind of book that I writes is overtly religious. They are books that are written for readers who are interested in discussing such things in the traditional language that the Church uses ' the language of spirituality and prayer and liturgy, the language of religion.
The second kind of book is less overtly religious. They are written to try and discover the holy, if you will, that is to be found in the ordinary. They are written about more general subjects, everything from baseball to gardening to travel
So now there is a body of work that has been published to favorable reviews from The New York Times, USA Today, and other major newspapers, critical acclaim from the publishing community as evidenced by the reviews in Publishers' Weekly, BookPage, and other reviewers, and notable comments from other writers in the field of spirituality. All of which is pretty surprising to me.
I have somehow managed to stumble into living almost exactly the kind of life to which I have been drawn since I was old enough to wonder about what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I live in Nashville still where I write every day in a small studio in our back garden, see my children and their friends every time I get a chance, and take seriously the call to participate in the prayer that sanctifies the day and the work of the world. I am married to the literary agent Sara Fortenberry, for whom I am gratefully yard man, travel companion and head librarian. And I get to say yes a few times a year to opportunities to lead seminars and retreats on prayer, silence, writing, and spirituality, subjects I have led dozens of retreats on around the country in recent years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I hear it too..., February 25, 2009

By 

Jeffrey Borden "Pastor" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Echo Within: Finding Your True Calling (Hardcover)

I'm so glad I got to review this book. Len Sweet commented on it in an endorsement saying, "In this so beautiful book, Robert Benson provides the sky in which your soul can soar. You can fly." He says it much more poetically than I could, but the end result is the same; this is a wonderful and beautiful book. I'm sure I will be processing it for some time. There are so many profound "one line" thoughts...that capture the essence of a lifetime of experience and conversation.

Over and over, with each turn of the page, my heart was resonating with affirmation, agreement, and understanding of the words that I read. I realize this is the goal of the poet-writer, to elicit this type of response, but I also know this is not a gimmick for this book. The Echo Within is real. The Whisperer and the Voice is real; I have heard it and I am following it even now as I write this review.

I enjoyed the casual and friendly writing style of Benson. Coincidentally, I recently had ordered and received another book by Robert Benson. I have yet to read the book, In Constant Prayer (Part of the Ancient Practices Series Edited by Phyllis Tickle), but it is on my bookshelf having recently arrived just a couple weeks before the opportunity to review The Echo Within presented itself. It is interesting to me that this sequence of events has unraveled in the context of the story of finding one's calling and life vocation. Interesting indeed.

There are wonderful nuggets throughout the book that were bonuses for me. I loved the excerpts and quotations from Thomas Merton, Annie Dillard, and Robert Mulholland in particular. I was also introduced to the Academy for Spiritual Formation (I was unaware this organization existed prior to reading The Echo Within). I have no doubt that I'll be sharing other words influenced by this book in my journal and on my blog; still lots to be unraveled in my head and heart from this read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Neat Book, February 20, 2009

By 

Barbara Warren - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Echo Within: Finding Your True Calling (Hardcover)

I think most of us have struggled with understanding God's plan for our lives. We've listened for that still small voice, only to end up wondering if it was really God speaking, or if we were just trying to convince ourselves to do what we wanted to do.
The Echo within is about hearing that voice and recognizing it. It's also about discovering ourselves, learning what we were created to do. The Echo Within isn't an instruction book with a list of things to do. It's about one man's journey to understanding himself and finding his calling. As Robert Benson points out, he can't tell us how to live our stories, he can only live out his own. This book caused me to review my own life story, pitfalls, detours, and all. I ended up with a better understanding of who I really am and how I got to be this way. I'd like to sit down with Robert Benson over a cup of tea or coffe, and just talk. I'm sure it would be a very enjoyable experience This book has a special spot in my bookshelves and I have a feeling I'll refer to it more than once. Recommended

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book about finding your purpose, February 26, 2009

By 

Christina Lockstein "Christy's Book Blog" (Oconto Falls, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Echo Within: Finding Your True Calling (Hardcover)

The Echo Within by Robert Benson is a lyrical and thoughtful look at the quest to find your calling in life. Benson is a colorful character who lived a full life before finally discovering and acknowledging the calling God had placed within him to be a writer. Through short, yet powerful essays, Benson takes the reader through his own journey to peace while planting seeds for thought for the reader's own quest. The echo within is the voice that resonates inside each of us about what God has put us on earth to do. It's the thing we get excited about, that moves us, and that when we find brings a deep sense of peace and purpose. Because Benson is a writer, he tends to focus on writing, and because writing is my own dream, I found much to relate to within the pages. The reader is left with the impression of a man who is deeply in love with God, and who revels in the fact that God is just as deeply in love with him. His message is one of encouragement for everyone to find that kind of peace and love by listening to the echo within each of us. It's beautifully written with a touch of whimsy.