By Keith Louthan StarNews Correspondent

Come on Amy...Finish!! The call? An urgent whisper. Encouragement to continue. Exhortation to endure. The command to finish rather than quit. We should relate. Who has not heard the bellowing voice of Bela Karolyi urging 1996 Olympian Kerri Strug as she stared down the runway with a broken leg and Americas gymnastic hopes riding on her last vault, You caan doooo eeet! You caaan dooo eeet!? Through pain and tears and memories of past failures, Strug stuck her landing, vaulting into Olympic fame.

But what if the eyes of the world are not watching? No world class coach urging you on? What if the necessary heroic effort will not make you a hero? What if the payoff for all your hours, and all your exhausting training is merely the possibility of maintaining a grip on daily activities most adults consider mindless and easy?

This is the daily regimen for my wife and other brain cancer survivors. The grind is exhausting. The gains miniscule compared to the effort required. The dis voices -- discouragement, disillusionment, disappointment -- shout with greater clarity than the quiet, privately urgent calling to continue the treadmill, barre, yoga, visual training, and core work necessary to combat the cumulative effects of brain cancer, surgery and the radiation to kill any remaining vestige. But radiation kills more than just cancer. The brain stem and cerebellum are agonizingly slow to heal.

When Karolyi called to Strug, his words carried the encouragement of possibility, but also the urgency of obligation. He called to an Olympian, the last remaining competitor in the last team event. Strug did what an Olympian should do. When my wife exhorts herself, her voice carries the same encouragement and obligation, voiced through weary breaths. Amy ought to continue. She wants to walk unaided. She has an active family. She wants to teach and speak. With no medal to strive for, she should finish. And she does. Every day.

It is not just Olympians and survivors who get called. Everyone needs both momentary and life defining calls. Everyone wrestles to understand their calling. We sense there is something we should be doing, some purpose for which to strive and live, uniquely prepared for each of us. Doctors and carpenters. Landscapers and homemakers. Teachers and designers. Artists and athletes. Uniquely equipped. Uniquely talented. Uniquely called by a voice which both encourages and obligates.

But there is a crisis of calling in our day. Forbes says that 53 percent of the American workforce feels out of place in their careers. Parade indicates that only 38 percent feel that they are doing what they were meant to do. And Business Insider says that a shocking 80 percent actually hate their jobs. What call do these hear? What voice encourages their efforts? What words reinforce their obligation? The next column will deal more specifically with these numbers, but for now, lets deal only with the discouragement evidenced there.

Kerri Strug responded to the call with a broken leg, on which she would have to land in order to fulfill her purpose as an Olympic athlete and teammate. Amy responds in the loneliness of our home, her private brokenness no less an obstacle as she fights for daily normalcy. The called must inevitably respond through the brokenness of life. The statistics indicate a broken workforce, but the response seems saturated in bitterness, not resolve. Amy never urges Come on...FINISH! at the beginning of a rehab session. The call always comes near exhaustion, at the point of decision. Finish or quit.

Consider YOUR calling, brothers the Bible urges. The words of Paul echo through history as his letter to the Corinthians is read. This calling is uniquely suited for and ultimately answered by YOU. 1 Corinthians continues, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world...and because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, 'Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.'

God chose...God chose...God chose. The essence of calling thrice repeated. God calls. Encouragement and responsibility issue from the same cross. Not reserved for the talented, but rather to each, individually. Our response invited. Our brokenness seen and shared. Our endurance supported. Come on! You can! He calls, FINISH! Dont quit.

Keith Louthan is a husband (to Amy), a father (to Austin, Hunter and Ellison), a former high school math teacher and coach, and most recently, a pastor. Send your thoughts and questions to him at Keith.Louthan@StarNewsOnline.com.

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Spirituality: Consider your unique calling - StarNewsOnline.com