Buechner on the subject of answering a call to ministry is so good, he's poetic.

"I hear you are entering the ministry," the woman said down the long table, meaning no harm. "Was it your own idea or were you poorly advised?"

And the answer that she could not have heard even if I had given it was that it was not an idea at all, neither my own nor anyone else's.

It was a stirring in the blood at the sound of rain. It was a sickening of the heart at the sight of misery. It was a clamoring of ghosts. It was a name which, when I wrote it out in a dream, I knew was a name worth dying for even if I was not brave enough to do the dying myself and could not even name the name for sure. Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you a high and driving peace. I will condemn you to death.