Thursday, July 6, 2017

On Calling

If you're anything like me, you've invested a lot of time and energy into figuring out what God wants you to do with your life (for His glory, of course). And if you're anything like me, you go to bed a lot of nights not feeling like you're anywhere closer to that call than you were when you woke up that morning.

The trouble is that there are far more voices in this world than just one, and it's so easy for others to speak distraction into our lives under the guise of holy work. It's so easy for others to say, "Oh, but I see this incredible gift in you for ______," even when the very thought of ______ leaves us dry.

Those voices are different in different seasons, sometimes even coming close to the heart of what God's truly called us to do. Sometimes enticing us into the almost, but not quite of calling. And that's what's dangerous.

It's so easy to jump at the opportunity to be good at something. It's so easy to get excited about something that it seems that others are excited about for you. When someone says they know exactly where you fit in this world, it's easy to want that to be true because isn't that what we all want? To know exactly where we fit in this world? And all the better if we fit somewhere where we are doing something good for God.

Something good, but not necessarily holy.

See, not everything we do for God is holy, no matter how much we want it to be. And I think that's one of the key clues that can help us figure out where it is God truly wants us to be - when we start to feel something holy about the place where we stand. When we recognize, in awe, that our shoes are an abomination here, then we know we're standing on holy ground. When that quiet little whisper breathes a sigh of relief, we know we're where God wants us to be.

It's not always as glamorous as what the world may seem to offer. It's not always as adventurous or exciting; at least, it doesn't always seem that way on the surface. But it's always beautiful.

It's something I wrestle with a lot because there are so many things I could be doing in this world. Good things. But I don't want to waste my life on good things; I don't want to spend my days chasing the wind, as the Spokesman from Ecclesiastes would put it. I want to do holy things. I want to do sacred things. I want to do the things that God has uniquely created me to do. I want to kick my shoes of not at the end of the day with weary toes, but at the beginning of the day on holy ground.

And as I continued to let these questions, these passions, burn inside me recently, feeling the tension between a good thing that sounded adventurous and rewarding and exciting and a holy thing that felt blessed, but quiet, a little whisper inside my heart said this:

Are you looking for a challenge or are you looking for calling?

And that's it, isn't it? Are you looking to push yourself toward something good or are you looking to offer glory to something holy? Do you want to do a special work or a sacred one?

I want to do a sacred one. Thankfully, that's the very work to which God calls us. 

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