God is Calling and He's Giving You Your Life's Purpose

Many people's calling experience, and their response, are vastly different. David stumbled into his calling (1 Samuel 16), Moses did not think he was adequate enough to fulfill his calling (Exodus 3:1-11;4:10-13), Jonah completely refused his calling (Jonah 1:3), Jesus' disciples were called by Jesus himself as they were living their average daily lives (Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:16-20, Luke 5:1-11), and Paul was called while on his way to kill Christians (Acts 9:1-6).

So, how many of us are looking for a prophet, burning bush, or waiting for the voice of God to discover what our calling is? I don't know about you, but I almost needed all three to happen before I was convinced of what my calling was. The real question is, how do we come to understand our calling?

What is my Calling?

What do we mean by this question? Typically, we are trying to answer the bigger question of, "what am I supposed to do with my life?" We want to discover the meaning of our life, our calling, in a way that gives us clear direction that we can follow the rest of our life, as if our calling were some long-term job that we will one day retire from. What if it was not this way? What if our calling was less like a job description and more about following God? 

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. -Matthew 10:39 (NIV)

I believe that the current means to finding our calling is missing the mark. Finding our calling has become highly self-centered and self-serving, as if we are supposed to find out what God wants us to do with our life so that we can feel better about ourselves. As the above scripture indicates, if we want to discover the meaning of life, we first have to lose it. You mean, if we want to find our "calling" we first have to lose our life? Yes! If we want to live in the calling that God has for us, then it will require us to get rid of what we want our life to look like and start living the way God wants our life to look.

Our calling is not some self-discovered job description that God is waiting for us to crack the code on. No, our calling is only found relative to us first following God. Remember when Jesus was calling his disciples? We read the story as if it was a seamless: Jesus asks them to follow, then they comply. I am curious, did Jesus ask anyone else to follow him and they not comply? What if Peter had told Jesus, "no thanks, I've got a full day of fishing ahead." Peter already had his life purpose in fishing. It was not until Jesus said, "follow me" that Peter became the leader of the first century church. If we desire to understand God's calling for our life, we first have to be willing to follow Him.

You Want me to What!?

Do you think that Jesus' disciples knew what they were getting themselves into? What if Jesus told Peter all that would transpire over the next three years the first time they met? It'd be like you going on a first date and your date telling you about how they want to get married, buy a house, get a dog, and have four kids together. Slow down! I do not think Jesus' disciples knew what they were getting into. Peter couldn't handle Jesus telling him that he would deny him (Matt 26:33-35), much less if Jesus told him everything that would happen over the next three years (John 21:18-19)!

My point is this, if God were to tell us the full extent and experience of our calling up front we would tell him no thanks! Reason being, our calling will require us to lose our life in this world and find it in God, and this can be gritty, dirty, sacrificial, selfless, painful, joyful, fulfilling, confusing, and worth it all!

I believe, like Jesus called the disciples, he is calling us toward one goal--to follow him, and in following him we will see our "calling" unfold before us. We need not to over complicate things by taking quizzes or looking within; rather, we need to begin by simply following Jesus.