Archives: April 2010

Calling your calling

By Gemma Foster

What am I supposed to do with my life?  What is my calling? Ever thought about that or asked God these questions? Or frankly is thinking about what to do at the weekend a big enough decision, let alone the rest of our lives?!

From when we were small children; aunts, uncles and nice ladies in the queue at department stores would ask us ‘what do you want to do when you grow up?’ If you are anything like me you will have listed a number of different things through the years, from teacher, to nurse, to actor to accountant (well ok, maybe not accountant!) The thing is often, the closer we get to ‘growing up’, the more confusing this question becomes.  Then we read in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

‘I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received’ (Eph 4v1)

So no pressure there then! But how are we supposed to do that if we don’t know what we have been called to?

When I think about calling I often find it helpful to split it into two categories – general and specific. By ‘general’ I mean things we are all called to do. In Micah 6 the answer to the question of ‘what does God require of us?’ [or call us to] is to act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with God.

But what does that mean? Basically to put flesh on the stuff written about in the Bible; to help fight injustice, to love others, show mercy (compassion) to people, to live day by day with God and to share our faith with others. This might mean sticking up for someone who is being bullied, signing a petition against unfair practices and seeking God as we listen to the latest Soul Survivor live album.

But what about specific calling? More often than not, as we walk in our general calling, we will find that we are getting passionate about a particular thing. Or we find ourselves doing something which we seem to be quite good at. Or you might find that you can’t stop doing something – you have probably seen this in others; worship leaders as they play Whoooooa on their guitar for 30 times in one evening when you are trying to watch X Factor! Or evangelists who will not shut up about the lost! When we find ourselves doing these things, they can often be clues about what we are called to.

Over the years I have come to see my specific calling is in evangelism – although I was one of the last people to spot it! I have always invited friends to Christian events and nothing gets me more excited than the church getting out there and sharing their faith. Eventually I kept finding myself serving at different outreach things. But it wasn’t until I heard a talk about evangelism where the speaker described how we could spot an evangelist that I thought ‘hang on a minute the person he is describing sounds just like me!’