Do I have a calling on my life?

 


I am sure everyone, or at least a majority of us has typed something like, 'Do I have a calling?' in to our favourite search engine; hoping that it spits out something that can give direction, so you can, once and for all, have an answer to the question.

I remember getting the text when I was in work. Amy had a friend who had become a Christian.  Her friend was worried because she didn’t feel like she had a calling, or at least couldn’t figure it out.  Her friend explained to Amy that it seemed every Christian had one or the thought was they should have one, and it was beginning to make the girl question whether she was good enough to be in church.

It’s was a struggle that I could relate to but in the moment I was limited in how to helpfully respond because i was asking myself the same question.

I often think about my Amy's friend. 

Years have passed, experiences have happened and now I feel more prepared to provide a constructive answer.

What is a calling? 

For most people it means finding the one thing you were built for. 

But is that it? 
It's just about what I do with my time?
Or is it more?

People see callings as attaining a thing or a position, and although that’s part of it for some, that is not all that a calling entails.

I have went down the road of servitude, taking on roles and doing the grind of being available for as much, and doing as much, as I could.  But as positions passed to others, I started to question what I was doing.

I had become concerned with being acknowledged and it was polluting my motives of getting involved in supporting the people in my life and my community.  It wasn't about serving, it was about having a title to serve.

Taking time to do nothing, helped me realise that my identity was wrapped up in how many different projects I could do in a week, month or year. 

I came to understand that my calling was not my accomplishments, it was what others would say about me when I am not around to hear them. 

Will they say that I am a hard worker or stretched thin?
Will they say that I am kind or that I am kind to the ‘right’ people?

Will they say that I am encouraging or that I am smooth talker?
Will they say I am a team player or a game player?

Will they say that I care about the mission or about the benefits of it?

Pushing for a promotion or position can transform all the great things about our personalities and warp them in to a negative and forced effort.  I believe this can lead to stress.

My calling is to be the best woman, wife and mother I can. 
My calling is to be kind.
My calling is to be fair.
My calling, is to encourage. 

Once I realised, 'encourager,' was my list of personality traits, it was as though I had stumbled upon clarity.

Everything began to click.

I had spent years trying to be what I thought everyone else wanted me to be. 

I strived. 
I changed. 
I compromised.

Now, I have the foundation I have always desired. 
I know who I am. 

I am a Jesus follower 
I am wacky and I like it.
I am loud and fun.
I keep secrets well.
I care about others.
I love to listen to other peoples stories.
I do not like injustice.

And the one thing that takes the lead, is that I love to encourage others.

Knowing these things about my personality made all the difference and helped me take on life fully and confidently.

Because of our personalities opportunities will continue to come, but it’s not because those roles are our calling.  

It’s because we are called to be who we are.
And then we get to ask ourselves, 'Is this role in my wheelhouse?'

We are not what we do.
We are not our positions.

We are our passions.
And we are our actions towards others.


If you need support do reach out to someone or an organisation that can help.  If you would like to share your story or contact me please feel free to private message me on our Facebook page or on Instagram.  You can also email me using theencouragerslife@gmail.com address. 


If you would like to join the list, you can complete the contact form at the bottom of this page.

Be sure to check out our next article here on ‘The Encouragers Life.’


 Article written by J. Bingham

Copyright 2022

Popular posts from this blog

When Will I Feel Ready?

Image
  As the dog toddled beside me sniffing every scent, smell or gross thing that he could find all I could think about was the feeling I had. I thought about this often on our walks. About how I wasn't where I needed or wanted to be. I thought about all the hills I would have to climb to get there. All the mountains in the way. All the things I didn't know. The skills I don't yet have. And the overwhelm of 'cluelessness,' would come meaning by the time I would return home I would be returning to life feeling like those mountains where higher, those hills were steeper and the skills I would have to learn were impossible for my brain to comprehend. I loathed feeling that way. Because the fact is I am a hard worker. I accomplish in the face of my limitations. I am like a Jack Russell pup who refuses to give up the toy. I am relentless. Yet adorable. But I also get tired. Discouraged. Demotivated. Just like everyone else. We are human. And that is both wonderful and a pai
Read more

From Then To Now

Image
As I watched the men throwing the rope out to wrap around the deer's antlers I empathised with the deer all too deeply. It was stuck in mire. It was tired. It was scared. It was breathing heavily groaning under the strain of its ordeal. Sweat and muck on its coat. It was in a bad state. The men pulled. I worried for its neck. The pull forced its nose into the muck making the deer catch its laboured breath. The truth was, if the men gave up. It was done for. But the pulling was also dangerous to its mortality. The deer had wandered in. It relied on its successes in the past to be the foundation of its accomplishment with this crossing. It's trapping was its own instinct gone wrong. Now it couldn't move. Bogged down by the mud drying around it. Encasing it. Surrounding it. The deer just wanted to get to the other side. It just wanted to make it. So it went for it. It took a chance. It believed it could make it. It pressed through. It made it three quarters of the way cross be
Read more

You Have More to Offer Than You Know

Image
  Some of us search. We long for the moment when the calm will wash over us. The a-ha moment. The moment when everything clicks. However, years go by and the pangs within us never fade. We never feel like we made it. We never feel like we can relax. Instead we feel unworthy. We feel as though he aren't good enough. Smart enough. Good looking enough. Well dressed enough. In a world that is fast paced, it can feel as though we are always chasing something. The dream. The goal. The qualification. The job. We say to ourselves, "If I can only get this, then I will feel secure.  I will know that I am good enough.  I will feel like I have finally arrived." And then we get there and its anti-climactic, because we are still us with that qualification charged with sustaining that dream, goal or job.  The pressure never leaves. And for those whose lives take twists and turns. Where reinvention is a melting pot of work experience and service and the unthought-of reality that pops up
Read more