What’s Your Calling?
We’ve been discussing calling in my internship class, and this week, I had a near breakdown. Between the book we’re reading, the discussions we’re having, my devotional, and a podcast I’m listening to, I feel so far out of my element.
Supposedly everything we do is preparing us for our calling. If someone can tell me how my lettering business, my job at Hobby Lobby, my neuroscience research experience, and my graduate degree in higher education can combine into a calling, please enlighten me! To top it off, I sense some distinct calls from God that are unrelated to the above experiences, and I have no idea how they will come about, nor can I afford a business or life coach to help me out.
In The Art of Work, author Jeff Goins writes that the vast majority of people don’t know what their calling is. Those people who dream of being a professional ballerina from age 5 or being a doctor like their father are few and far between. Most of us need to do some heavy searching and discerning; we don’t generally “just know” our calling.
So, what do we do?
I wish I had an easy, 3-step plan for figuring out and embracing our calling. But I don’t. It’s different for everyone. And that’s part of the frustration.
I think the first and most important step is leaning into God. I distinctly remember a moment in chapel during my freshman year at college where God told me that I am called to be a repairer of broken walls and a restorer of streets with dwellings (Isaiah 58:12). That’s still vague, but at least I know that I am meant to bring about reconciliation in whatever I do.
It’s funny: as I write this, I’m actually getting the insight that I prayed for last week in my frustration. A few days ago, I sat down with my journal and wrote out alllllll my dreams–big and small–and every significant life experience or job I’ve held. I was looking for a common thread between them all. In aggravation, I proclaimed, “This is useless. None of this relates to higher education. Why am I doing this?”
I quickly jotted down that all my dreams seem to be sewn together by a passion for nurturing and cultivating others out of my own life lessons and experiences. In hindsight, I realize that if this statement doesn’t point back to the verse from Isaiah, I don’t know what does!
Great, so my dreams are in line with my vocational calling from God I received seven years. But these dreams that I am still too scared to share seem impossible to achieve based on where I’m currently situated. However, I am confident that I have followed God’s lead to this point, so my internship, my graduate program, and my plan for the next year are all in line with God’s will. What’s missing? Where’s the disconnect?
Ask me again in a few years, and I may have an answer. But for now, I’m trusting that as long as I align my heart with God’s, I will be walking along the path He designed for me.
This is a constant battle of learning to surrender my dreams to God, because His plans are far bigger than anything I can ever imagine. A few days ago, I saw an Insta-story of all the interns on a group conference call for an internship I didn’t get. Wow, that hurt much more than I anticipated. I have no answers for why I wasn’t selected, and that’s the part that stings. Presumably, it is not what will bring me closer to my calling in this season.
And so I enter this next week, renewing my vow to surrender my dreams to the Lord, trusting that He has my best in mind.
Your turn:
What tips do you have for discerning your calling?
How do you surrender your dreams to God?
