What's Your Calling?
Lately, I’ve been sensing the Lord re-calibrating my life. What I once found important or worth pursuing isn’t carrying the same desire & passion in my heart. Since age 21-22 years old I’ve had this concept in my heart and mind of fulfilling “my purpose” and that at some point my life experiences would crescendo to create my one life purpose but as I age and grow I’m realizing that my life’s purpose is a mixture of smaller, very meaningful paths versus the single path I always imagined. My life is much more versatile & mosaic than a single role or purpose.
Like many of you, I grew up in church. I grew up with the concept of having a “calling” on my life. It was taught to me that my life has this one, all-consuming calling and it was my job to find out what it was. While this did motivate me to pursue things I think, overall, it has done more hurt than help. It has left me constantly wondering if I am fulfilling my true call in life and constantly questioning, “is what I’m doing the call on my life or is this a temporary, in between, secondary calling that would eventually lead me to my primary calling?”, all the while missing the beautiful, God breathed activities & purposes in front of me. I think this mindset tends to foster unhealthy perspectives on our lives and more detrimentally, on ourselves, as if we are “less than” because we aren’t fulfilling this enigmatic “call” and because we have facets of our lives that aren’t fitting this picture we’ve created in our minds of a purposeful life.
We are much more complex than that. I’m not sure where this concept came from that our lives have a single “calling” and that eventually we will be doing the things we are called to if we keep pursuing it. I’m actually starting to think that’s not how it works. I think God gives us lots of things to do. I think we are multi-faceted and that in one season of life we may be tapping into one facet more than the other. One season may feel like we’re tapping into the more creative side of ourselves. Another season we may be tapping into the more driven side of ourselves or some combination of facets.
I think the bigger & more important focus in our lives as believers is recognizing what pursuits carry eternal weight and value. I don’t mean is what you’re doing “ministry”, or are you ministering daily to someone, although that is wonderful, but what I mean is what you’re doing lining up with the heart of the Father for your life? Do you sense the Holy Spirit moving amongst these day to day pursuits & activities? It could be as simple as making a habit of eating dinner with your family every night or signing your child up for a dance class that you know would make their heart come alive. Or, it could be as complex as where you’re investing your money or finally putting together a business plan for the business you’ve been dreaming about.
I don’t know about you but as I age I am craving more and more of a life that is anchored & weighted & FULL, to the brim, of things that carry the weight of Heaven, so much so that it leaves no room for anything else. I don’t believe God is “calling” us to do anything more than follow Him. He is “calling” us to live as Jesus did, hanging onto every word of the Father (John 6:38), loving Him, loving ourselves & loving others (Matthew 22:36-40). If everything we do flows from that heart & that perspective then we are, without a doubt, fulfilling the ”call” on our lives.
