In an article called "Calling is More Than Your Job," writer Steven Zhou suggests that while figuring out your vocation and career path is important in life, there is more to discerning God's calling. He writes that simply "finding a job that fits" isn't enough. In fact, he even writes that this assumption that our job is the same as our calling can be "misleading at best, perhaps even harmful" because it can cause friction, disappointment, and a sense of failure when the job that we thought we were called to do does not work out (even if the new option ends up better for us).
And I completely agree not just on principle but from my own experience. As Zhou states, our understanding of calling is "due for an update... that disentagles it from modern views of career success and broadens our understanding of work and time." Doing just might give us the "healthier approach" that we need - one in which we realize that we can "glorify God... without having identified a specific vocational calling."
This more radical or fundamental line of thinking about calling reminds me of Paul's instruction to the believers in 1 Corinthians 11:1 to "imitate" him as he follows Christ. In addition to preaching, starting churches, and prison ministry (that last one wasn't really his choice), Paul seemed to have other vocations throughout his life, including making tents (as seen in Acts 18:3). But no matter how he ended up making money, he recognized that his main calling was to first follow Christ and second lead others to Christ.
This is a very basic way of understanding the "general calling" that every Christian has in their life: to follow Jesus in all areas of our life and lead others to Jesus. This calling is not unique to us and does not need to be “discovered” because it is already revealed to us in Scripture. Dave Harvey wrote in his book titled Am I Called?:
"One’s identity should be grounded on the gospel... Based on this identity, ministry is then able to flow out of one’s weakness (and even fears) rather than abilities and performance..."
If we are not first following Jesus by surrendering ourselves daily, humbly obeying God, and loving him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind (as Jesus said in Luke 10:27), then our sense of calling must start there first. The next step of our general calling is to obey Jesus's Great Commandment and Great Commandment to "love others" by using our words, actions, and attitudes to lead others to Jesus as "fishers of men" (like Jesus called his own disciples in Matthew 4:19). My favorite example of this is in the first chapter of the Gospel of John when Andrew went and found his brother Simon and took him to Jesus immediately after meeting Jesus himself by the Sea of Galilee from the testimony of John the Baptist.
But just as a coin has two sides, calling does, too. On the other side of general calling is our "specific calling." In contrast, our specific calling is unique to us, must be discovered, and is worked out as we live for Christ and follow the Spirit. It is our “sweet spot” (as Max Lucado calls it) at the intersection of who we are, where we are, and what we can do. It is the special position that God wants us to play on his team.
However, our specific calling is not typically obvious. This often confuses us and keeps us from serving and leading courageously. This is what happened to me early in my adult life until I "updated" my understanding of calling, just as Zhou suggested.
So, how do we discover our specific calling? Will God give us clear direction in a miraculous way like he did Moses, Samson's parents, Abraham, or Mary? Probably not. Instead, he normally gives us tools or indicators to determine his calling on our life so that we can each be empowered by God to use our gifts, service, and activities for "the common good," as Paul clarifies in 1 Corinthians 12:4-27.
How Can You Use Your Needs, Abilities, and Vision to Discover Your Calling?
These tools or indicators that God gives us on the journey of life to help us discover our specific calling can be seen as these three navigational markers: Needs, Abilities, and Vision (or NAV for short). To get clarity on these three markers, we need to ask three questions:
1. What is happening around me? Asking this question helps us examine the situation that our church, community, and world is in order to see what dire needs we can meet or what holes we can fill. Henry Blackaby calls this simply "joining God in his work." Many people find their life's calling by jumping in to help with a spiritual emergency around them.
2. What can I do best? As we start noticing what needs are around us, we will probably realize that we do not have the abilities to meet all of them. At this point we must find out what we do best and where we fit the best. Sometimes we already know the answer to this question and other times we will need to ask the opinions of others that we trust.
3. What do I love to do? This last question fine-tunes our understanding of our specific calling. While we might recognize many needs around us, and we might even realize that we have multiple abilities that we do well, nailing down what we are most passionate about and what motivates us the most will help us hit the bullseye on our specific calling by discovering the vision for our life. When we have certain desires always on our mind that are in alignment with Scripture and have as their ultimate end the glory of God (not personal satisfaction), then we can deduce that they are from God, who gives us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4)!
This last question is important to ask also because a vision from God has the power to propel us forward no matter the obstacles in our way. Vision breeds action, but a lack of vision results in inaction (Proverbs 29:18).
So no matter what job we have or career we end up with, we can find purpose and fulfillment in life by adopting these "general calling" imperatives to follow Jesus and lead others to him as well as these "specific calling" markers of our needs, abilities, and vision. When we do, Pastor Wayne Cordeiro explains that:
"We will know amazing joy, enjoy healthy accountability and experience accelerated spiritual growth... The more you understand the way the Lord designed you to be, the better you will be able to cooperate with HIS design."
And as author Todd Wilson writes:
“God the Creator has uniquely designed each of us to function in ways that bring us purpose and significance... [and] to play a specific role in accomplishing his mission on earth as we make disciples. When we focus on our unique calling without rooting it in our primary calling to make disciples is a form of idolatry.”
God bless you your journey to discover God's calling on your life. And as you find it, may you go all out to make the kind of difference that God wants you to make in this life!
Photo Credit: Unsplash Saulo Mohana
