Understanding how our calling and vocation relate to our lives
What is your calling in life? If you have some background or experience in a church, you may think I’m asking, how do you serve in the church? I’m not.
The idea of a life calling isn’t limited to some role within the church or associated with ministry. It has to do with our vocation or profession.
When my wife and I were young, we were on staff at a church and retreat ministry in southern California. We filled the role of worker bees. We served in a lot of different ways but weren’t in charge of anything.
During one of our retreats, a well-intentioned woman asked me when I would “graduate” to the role of a pastor. I told her the same thing as I said to a pastor who asked me that question when I was a janitor at a previous ministry. “I’ll serve the Lord in whatever way He calls me to serve, as long as He directs.”
But this woman’s perception of my lowly role of service troubled me. Why do so many Christians think full-time ministry as a pastor is the high point of God’s calling?
God’s calling in different vocations
I knew God called me to serve Him full-time, and I knew He called me to pastor a church at some point in my life, and I did. But I needed to work another job to provide for my family, mostly in construction, the first several years I pastored.
Much later in life, I led a men’s ministry at a small local church. I didn’t have an official role on staff, nor was I paid for this ministry. However, the men in the group recognized my calling and experience as a pastor.
Once again, this persistent notion among the men that every believer should aspire to full-time ministry bothered me. I spoke to this misperception often and encouraged the men to honor the Lord in their current vocation as their calling from God.
What defines our calling and identity?
Over a few decades of life and ministry, I’ve seen plenty of failures and missteps of people trying to be ministry leaders, missionaries, or pastors without God’s gifting, calling, and equipping to do so.
However, not everyone needs to have an official role in ministry to fulfill the calling of God for their lives. This is especially true if our vocation or profession is not in a formal ministry.
Whether we are plumbers or doctors, servers at a restaurant, or lab technicians, our calling and identity aren’t just what we do for a living. God is where we find our identity and calling.
Consider the great apostle Paul. He was trained for full-time ministry as a rabbi (Acts 22:3; Philippians 3:4–6) but his means of support, his vocation, was as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3; 20:34). Even Jesus was known and worked as a carpenter for most of His life (Mark 6:3).
What we do as our profession or vocation in life is often the same as God’s calling for us. What we do to support ourselves shouldn’t define us or be our identity. Our identity and calling are only found in our relationship with God.
Disruption or opportunity?
During the coronavirus pandemic, millions of people in the US and around the world found themselves unemployed. Most pastors couldn’t serve their churches in their usual roles and ways.
A lack of opportunity to fulfill our vocation in the usual means of work to support ourselves and loved ones doesn’t negate our calling from God. We are still the Lord’s emissaries of redemption to the world around us.
Again, consider Paul the apostle. Towards the end of his life and ministry, he wrote to Timothy while in prison. He called Timothy his son in the faith (1 Timothy 1:2). Paul was in prison for his faith and commitment to God’s calling on his life. He also couldn’t make any tents.
Here’s how he encouraged Timothy—
I was appointed to be a messenger of this Good News, an apostle, and a teacher. For this reason, I suffer as I do. However, I’m not ashamed. I know whom I trust. I’m convinced that he is able to protect what he had entrusted to me until that day. (2 Timothy 1:11–12, GW)
Look for opportunities, not at your circumstances
If you felt like the Covid-19 quarantine was like a prison sentence, it wasn’t. Not even close. Jail and prison are a lot more restrictive. Maybe you could claim it was “house arrest” but for some of us, even that’s not true (I live in Florida).
Do you know what’s never restricted by our circumstances? God’s call on our life! We just need to look for opportunities to fulfill it. More than ever, people need encouragement and hope. Look for ways to convey and demonstrate the encouragement and hope you have in the Lord.
This is what I see Paul do in his letter to Timothy. It wasn’t just about doctrine and theology. Much of it was to encourage Timothy to continue trusting in the Lord and his calling from God.
Continuing to trust in Him
I may not be able to do all I did before, but I still trust in the Lord who gifted and called me. I’m unashamed of Him, His message, and His calling on my life. I have no regrets.
I will continue to trust in God just as Jesus trusted in His Father, as the apostle Paul did who encouraged Timothy, and the many other believers who’ve gone before me.
What about you?
“I’ll serve the Lord in whatever way He calls me to serve, as long as He directs.”
Great line, Trip. Yes, why would I want to be where the Lord hasn’t placed me?