Step #1: Identify Your Calling

Why did God place you on this planet with your particular skill set in your particular location in this important moment in history? That’s the question, is it not? 

I have always been fascinated by the disparity in the advice people give to (1) graduates from high school or college and (2) the same graduates a few years into a ministry or a career. To the former, they give cards with tired sayings like “shoot for the stars” or “follow your dreams.” To the latter, the same people give very different advice, such as “be patient,” “you have to pay the bills” and “find a steady job.” This is more realistic advice, but I have always shaken my head at the radically different advice given just a few years apart. This disparate advice raises an interesting question. At what point are you supposed to stop chasing your God-given dreams? In the few seconds it takes to move a tassle from one side of your final graduation cap to the other? I think not.

My greatest fear is not failure; rather, it is succeeding at the wrong thing. I want to make every day of my life count for eternity, and I do not want to build my own prison in the form of a successful business and its trappings-if that is not what God called me to. I want to spend as much time as possible doing the few things that I am uniquely equipped to do that will further the Great Commission. This may sound like a millennial thing. I like to think it is rather a Kingdom thing (James 4:14). 

If you are a mature Christian, I am sure you spend a lot of time thinking about this as well. And, I am sure you are aware of a boatload of self-help gurus and online coaches that want to convince you to pay them to help you become your best self. That is not my point here. I don’t care if you find your best self and change the world in a way that you think is important. Rather, I am only concerned about one thing: that you fulfill God’s purpose for your brief time on planet earth. Why? Because that is what moves the Kingdom of God forward in our times. 

4 Clues for Indentifying or Recovering your Calling

Here are five clues to your specific purpose on the planet:

1. Complete Submission. This may sound like an odd place to start with such an analysis, but I am convinced that this is the prerequisite for identifying your calling (Pro. 3:5-6).  Until you come to a place of complete surrender, God often does not unveil the next step in your life.
2. Consistent Spark. You can probably identify an activity or activities that, for lack of a better term, light you up-you simply love doing it. Though there are elements of this activity that you may not enjoy, you would do this activity for free, despite  a lack of sleep and even if the whole world told you it was stupid. That’s  a strong clue of calling. (Psalm 37:4).  
3. Creator’s Smile. There is an interesting scene in the movie Chariots of Fire in which the Olympic runner and missionary to China Eric Lidell says, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”  Many mature Christians I know echo this very sentiment concerning their calling. When they are preaching, representing clients, working with patients, or teaching students, etc. they feel God’s pleaure. This is a subjective measure, so I will add a more objective one. God will generally bless your efforts and open doors to your calling (though perhaps not on your timetable), and wise counselors will often be able to identify this clue to your calling. (Rev. 4:11; Psalm 40:8; Pro 15:22; Ephesians 2:8-10). 
4. Uncomfortable Student. Calling is a journey rather than a destination (2 Tim 4:7-8). God’s call on your life will take you to strange places, stretch you beyond your current abilities and break you until you trust only in Him. That’s the way it works. As Pastor John Ortberg says, ““God cares more about the person you become than the circumstances you inhabit.”  You may express your calling in many different ways throught your life, so study how tobe a good student and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Calling will constantly call you out.
5. Curious Story.  You are not the hero of your own story. God is. Calling will always lead you to place where God gets the glory for your success. That sounds selfish of Him. But, here’s the trick. You are not clever enough to maximize your impact in your short stay on the planet. Life and history are too complicated.  There are too many moving parts. So, that is why you should follow the One that’s already been to the future (Rev. 22:13). That’s how you live a story that makes people stand up and scratch their head. That’s how you end up at just the right place at just the right time with just the right skills to make an outsized impact (Esther 4:14). So, stop trying to write your own story and follow God’s script. It will be curious, but it will be your calling.

On to Step #2: