Near the end of my freshman year at Taylor University, we had a chapel service commissioning all the students who were participating in ministries around the country and world for the summer. I was planning to go home to work for the break, so I was sitting in the audience as hundreds of students walked across the stage to be honored. I sat there feeling like my plans to find a summer job were definitely not God’s best for me, and I decided at that moment I would find a higher calling for the following summer.
Determined to do something big for God, I applied and was accepted to a summer ministry in Maine the following year. As I had my turn to walk across the stage during that year’s commissioning service, I thought I was finally doing what God wanted. Yet the summer didn’t go very well, and when I tried it again the following year, it was a miserable failure. My idea of what I was being called to seemed different than God’s.
Reminds me of the Wendell Berry novel Jayber Crow. When the title character was a young boy in a Christian orphanage, the group-think of the place made every young boy consider whether he was being called into ministry. Jayber hadn’t felt any particular call, but he wanted to so badly he thought he must surely have been called and missed it.
Over and over again, I saw that those who made commitments and sacrifice for full-time ministry were given support and encouragement in their calling (as they certainly should), but those who were entering the more traditional workplace as teachers and mechanics and doctors and accountants were not. And these observations left me wondering if my life-long desire to be a writer should be set aside in order to pursue the higher calling of being a missionary or working in a church? I even made career decisions based on these questions.
Oh, how I wish I would have had a resource like thehighcalling.org earlier in life to help me sort out what it means to be called. And, oh, how thankful I am now to have access to all of the articles and blogs and Bible studies on the site as I continue to figure out what it means to incarnate my calling.
Articles like “Work’s a Gift and There’s a Giver” explore work as a gift, in whatever field we may find ourselves. “What I Do For a Living” talks about the difficulties one man faces as he tries to explain his work to others. I really related to this — both in my day job, and in my writing pursuits. And in “What Does God Want?”, the author wrestles with what it means to love others at work, in his work and through his work. I’ve been praying similar prayers for years now.
Here’s something else great about this website: I signed up as a member, so now I can mark these three articles as “Favorites” and read them again when I need a reminder of my calling. Also, I can search for other articles like them, by category, or I can search for other articles by the same authors. The website is really easy to use.
I hope you will take a minute to visit the website. I have no ulterior motive in sending you there except that I think you’ll love it. And I also hope that you will continue to consider what it means to live out your high calling today, as you do your work.
And don’t forget . . .
– if you’d like to become a member of thehighcalling.org, visit their membership page. (It’s free!)
– or, if you’d like to learn more about The High Calling Blog Tour, visit the other tour guides:
Gordon Atkinson
L. L. Barkat
Gina Conroy
Craver VII
CREEations
Milton Brasher-Cunningham
Mary DeMuth
Karl Edwards
Emdashery
Every Square Inch
Amy Goodyear
Marcus Goodyear
Al Hsu
Jennwith2ns
Chalres Foster Johnson
Mike McLoughlin
Eve Nielsen
Naked Pastor
Ramblin Dan
Stacy
Camy Tang
By the way, my post today on Barclay Press’s Daily Journal is about pursuing the resurrection life in our work. (After all this work, I need a nap!)
It’s interesting, Charity, about your experience in Maine. I can relate. It seems like so much of my life has been wasted though I had good intent. But somehow in ways I still know not, surely God has been at work in all of that.
Just to give ourselves to the humble hidden work is great in God’s eyes, though often counting for little or nothing. But we need to learn to see more through God’s eyes and have that perspective more. I’m working on that.
Thanks.
Every Square Inch — I totally agree with you here. It’s the keeping score that I fall into so easily. Not only should I not be interested only in the “big” things of ministry, I shouldn’t really be trying to measure any of the callings God places on my life. I ought to just go do them.
Thanks for stopping by on the tour.
Eve — Glad you stopped by! Would love to hear more of your thoughts on this. I’ll head over to your site in a little bit.
Stacy — I would LOVE to be added to your blog roll. I’m glad we’ve run into each other through this tour.
LL — What would a blog tour be without a few quotes by WB? I can’t wait to see what you have from him. He has so much to say about the blessings of work. AND, about that country song, how about “Jesus Take the Sponge”?
Craver — At it again, I see? That’s the last nap I pretend to take! Funny thing that you mentioned people who know what they want to do since age 4 — that’s about right for me. Every since I learned to read, I think I wanted to write. Though I also wanted to do a lot of other things along the way too — like meteorologist, archaeologist, lawyer, teacher. (I don’t have a very long attention span, apparently).
Craver… yup, you inserted the chuckle at the precise location!
It’s funny how as Christians, when we want to “do something big”, it’s always “vocational ministry”.
Yet, we may end up doing much more by serving God in the marketplace, faithfully using the gifts he’s given us. Perhaps, we’re all too interested in keeping score when we should simply be faithful to our call and let him tally the score at the end.
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Okay, here’s the plan, when she falls asleep, let’s change the clocks all forward three hours. No Eve, put the krazy glue away, that’s just mean. Funny, but mean.
Oh, you’re still awake.
I kinda envy those people who had a clear impression since the age of four of what they wanted to be when they grew up. That was always fuzzy for me, I couldn’t get a clear impression… not even a claymation one (insert a chuckle from LL).
Be careful about falling asleep around some of these folks. They like to play pranks.
Oh, and I just read your Daily Journal. Makes me think we should write a country song on “Dishes for Jesus”, or something like that. (Sorry, is that too cheeky? I really just mean that country songs always take the real lives we live and give them voice… )
Charity, I chuckled when I saw that Wendell Berry reference here, because, as usual, you and I are on the same page. My Day Three post will include a quote from the Great WB. Thank you SO MUCH for finally getting me to read him. (See, your calling is also to friendship and you challenge your friends to expand their brains!)
I thought the same thing when I read your review: “Maybe I should change it. I missed so much!” ha! Thank you for the kind words.
May I add you to my blog roll? I like reading your blog. 🙂
Great post, Charity! Really got me thinkin’. Must ponder a bit.