I have spent the better part of the last year wondering what I am going to do with my life.
What are my skills, interests, talents? What I’m most interested in knowing the answer to is–what is my calling?
I take this notion of calling as serious business, one that I am ready to orient the whole of my life around fulfilling. Indeed, if I was sure of my calling, I would be entirely willing to live differently, sacrificially and purposefully. (Pain and sacrifice make sense when they have meaning, and I long for that meaning to be imparted to me via a firm call…one that would steady me on dark nights and in times of heart ache).
Os Guinness writes of calling as a primary and secondary thing. My primary calling as a follower of Christ is to live for Him above all else and I can indeed be sure that to live differently, sacrifically and purposefully for Him is the right path.
My late twenty-something angst surrounds that secondary calling. You could think of it as a desire to know my vocation, my place in this world that may express itself in my work life. Will it involve Art? Students? Writing? Teaching? Performance? Missions? All of the above?
This question is of deep interest to me. I wonder if my vocational calling will also be what puts bread on my table and student loan repayments at bay. Living without a clear sense of calling in this regard feels like anguish. What holds me together is the ability to continue being faithful to my primary call – to love Christ and this world full of neighbours.
Whatever it is that I end up doing, I want it to be something He will be proud of.
1 response so far ↓
Paulman // January 19, 2009 at 12:02 am |
I bought Os Guinness’ follow up book, I think, from the used books table at Eastern Winter Conference
Two dollars! It’s called “Rising to the Call.” I’ve skimmed through a bit of it for now, but hopefully I’ll get to look more in depth into it.