What Is God Calling You To?

This question can be difficult for me to wrap my head around.  I fall into the camp of people who tend to view “calling” as something that encompasses my entire life, that requires a complete change or upending of my life now.  And the difficult thing is, sometimes this may be true.  There are numerous examples in Scripture of God calling people in such a way that their response entailed a total paradigm shift in their lives, the great example here being someone like Paul.  Paul’s paradigm shift was so great that he literally had to change his name after he was given his calling.  That is quite drastic.

However, it is also fair to say that solely viewing “our calling” in this way can lead us into the trap of defining our commitment to Christ by what we “do” and how grand it might be.  Our culture already puts stress on us to define our lives by our jobs, or our athletic prowess, or our intellectual gifts.  It is the things we “do” that are visible to others that entails who we are – at least that is what we are told.  If our calling can only be something as all-encompassing as moving overseas to become a missionary or selling all our possessions to become a full-time street preacher, then most of us would not be “called” at all. 

The good news is that God’s calling on our lives is not just about what we do and how grand it might be; it is also about who we are and how we live our lives.  It is as much about the small, seemingly inconsequential decisions we make daily as it is about the monumental decision we make once in our life.  Our calling encompasses our entire lives, which includes what we say to people in our relationships and the decisions we make that can upend our lives.

We are called, ultimately, to follow Christ, and the great thing about this is that each of our callings will be unique in that way.  For me, being called to follow Christ may mean giving up certain things for a season that pull me away from him, while for someone else it means engaging in a service like making food for someone in need, while for another it means moving overseas for a season.  We are all called, since we all follow Christ.  One could say that we are to live into our calling daily.  The most important question, then, is how are you being called today?

-Zach