How Do You Know Your Calling(s)?
In my last post, I explored the answer to FOBO (the “fear of the better option”). It seems to have replaced FOMO (the “fear of missing out”).
Hopefully, you’re on your way to being cured of both FOBO and FOMO. But, once liberated, a question remains:
“How do I know what I’m supposed to be doing with my life?”
The key is discovering your callings.
Usually, when we speak of a “calling,” we think of the mission field, ministry, or some great enterprise. But “calling” simply means “that to which you have been called.”
Another word for calling is “vocation,” which comes from the Latin vocare, meaning “to call” (think of English words like “voice” or “vocal”).
I’m sure you have multiple callings in your life. Perhaps you have a paying job that is also your calling, but that’s not the case for many. The Apostle Paul made tents for a living, but his calling was to be an ambassador of the Gospel.
You might have a calling to raise children or care for an elderly neighbor or serve in the youth ministry or become a foster parent. But how do you know? The powerful call of Isaiah offers some insight.
“Completely Garbage Advice” — a Clash of Worldviews
Usually, at commencement addresses, celebrities or scholars give speeches telling students what to do with their lives.
Most of these speeches fall along the lines of Steve Jobs’ iconic address to the 2005 Stanford graduates.
“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice,” Jobs advised.
And, he added: “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”
It sure sounds right.
After all, who among us hasn’t had dreams squashed by others’ doubts or longings muted by the demands around us?
But there is an almost opposite view, as seen in NY Times columnist David Brooks’ 2015 Dartmouth commencement address. He told the Ivy Leaguers:
This may be your first college Commencement, but you probably know these addresses have a certain formula. …
…we’re supposed to give you a few minutes of completely garbage advice: Listen to your inner voice. Be true to yourself. Follow your passion. Your future is limitless.
Do you see the clash of ideologies?
Follow Your Heart
“Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. You do you. The answer lies within you. So look deeply within yourself. That’s where you’ll find your direction in life.”
Listen for the Call
“If you are ever going to know what to do with your life, you need a wiser, more knowledgeable, more loving Voice beyond you to speak and guide.”
Brooks summed up this view in his Dartmouth speech: “A vocation is not a career. A career is something you choose. A vocation is something that summons you…. It’s not found by looking inside you for your passion.”
A call implies
a Caller.
Isaiah Wasn't Looking Inside Himself
Isaiah 6 begins during a national crisis: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.” (Isaiah 6:1)
Uzziah had reigned for 52 years. An earthly throne was suddenly empty. But Isaiah entered the temple and saw that heaven's throne was very much occupied.
He saw the Lord “high and lifted up.” He saw the train of God's robe filling the temple. He heard the seraphim thunder back and forth:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
The thresholds shook. The temple filled with smoke.
And Isaiah came undone.
“Woe is me! For I am lost.” (v. 5)
Isaiah didn't discover his calling by taking personality tests and examining his passions. He discovered his calling when he experienced a glorious revelation of God. It was in seeing God, gazing upon His majesty, and feeling small and ruined that Isaiah began to understand what his life was all about.
Calling starts with gazing upon God rather than staring at yourself.
Though the encounter with God’s holiness threw Isaiah into a life-altering awareness of his sin, God didn’t leave him in his sin-consciousness.
Immediately, unhesitatingly, a seraph flew to the altar, took a burning coal and touched Isaiah's lips: “Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Only then did Isaiah hear the voice: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
And Isaiah blurted out:
“Here I am! Send me.”
Calling Is Born from Grace, Not Guilt
If Isaiah's story had gone like this—
Isaiah sees God. Isaiah realizes he's sinful.
God says, “See what a miserable person you are? You'd better go do something useful for me!”
—that wouldn't be calling.
That would be striving. God doesn’t drive us with guilt (“do what I want or else”). God leads us with a compelling voice, drawing us toward the right path.
Many people spend their lives being driven by shame, fear, and the need to prove themselves.
But look again at Isaiah. Before God sends him, God cleanses him.
Before there is mission, there is grace.
Call isn't: I feel bad, so I should do something important.
Call is: I am loved, so I have love to give. I am gifted, so I have something to share. God is at work in my life, so I can participate in His work in the world.
If there is something that you feel like you “ought” to do only because you would feel guilty if you don’t do it, that’s probably not a call. If there’s something that you want to do because what you really want is fame and fortune and you think this path will bring it, that’s almost surely not a call.
God very well might bless you and prosper you in your calling. But aiming for success is merely ambition, not calling.
God Knows How to Make Your Heart Beat With His
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pro tennis player. I wanted to be Bjorn Borg. When I was seven, if I saw tennis on TV, I’d watch for fifteen minutes and then call my buddy Bob across the street and see if he wanted to go hit tennis balls back and forth in the street. By the time I was 10, I was playing tennis every day of my life, sometimes all day.
My oldest brother was way better than me. I struggled to ever win a single game off him. I was sure he would be a pro. I remember the woeful day I watched my brother get destroyed by one of the best junior players in the state (my brother didn’t win a game). I started wondering if I’d be good enough to be the next Bjorn Borg.
I wasn’t.
I wanted to be a professional tennis player, but God wanted me to be a pastor. In my junior year of college, I experienced an Isaiah-like moment of call to the ministry. For a few minutes, the Lord let me sense His holiness. He allowed me a glimpse of my own sin. I was undone. It wasn’t audible, but it might as well have been. I heard the Lord say, “Alan, you know I’m calling you into the ministry, don’t you?”
I said, “Yes,” and I wept for three weeks.
Today, if you asked me if I would rather be a professional tennis player or a minister of the Gospel, I wouldn’t have to think about it. My life passion became the sharing of the Good News. It can be draining and daunting and disappointing, but I’ve never doubted that call, and I’ve never loved anything so much as the ministry.
If I thought I’d find my call by simply looking inward and asking, “What’s my passion?” I’d have never discovered it.
Once Isaiah experienced the call of God, every fiber of his being wanted what God wanted. “Here am I. Send me!”
I do think that, in the end, your calling becomes your passion. But it becomes your passion because it is first God’s passion for your life. Your heart learns to beat with His.
In that sense, I think Frederick Buechner is right: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
So, How Do You Know Your Calling?
Here are the takeaway principles from Isaiah’s call:
Call comes from outside ourselves. To be “called” implies there is a Caller.
Call isn’t discovered by looking inward, but by looking upward.
Call is fueled by grace, never guilt.
Call joins our passion with God’s passion.
Most people don’t experience calling as dramatically as Isaiah (though some do!). But the process is the same. A Voice beyond us draws us into His holiness, where we experience the depth of our sin and the riches of His grace.
Then, fueled by that amazing grace, we become attuned to His heart and eager to be aligned with Him. His heart becomes ours.
And the Voice gives us our vocation.
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