Have you ever found yourself confused about your purpose?
You’re not alone. In fact, many people wrestle with understanding what God’s will for their life is. As a Pastor I have met with many people who genuinely want to understand the direction they ought to take in life, but have a hard time figuring it out. I struggled for years wondering if I had “missed it” when my music career didn’t turn out like I thought it would. I had a definite moment where I realized that the sum total of my life was not going to be expressed in one singular thing that I did, which is what most of us think of when we use the words, “I’m called to this.”
Ultimately, through the stories from scripture my understanding of what I was called to do or be was reshaped. Yours can be too, when you understand this: we aren’t called to something, we are called to someone.
Let’s start here: your calling is to follow Jesus. Period. That’s it. No matter your age, background, or job title, every person shares this one unshakable calling—to know Christ and become like Him. When Jesus met Peter, he didn’t say, “Come, be a preacher.” He said, “Follow me.” Peter followed him and learned how to be like Jesus every step of the way.
Jesus was a Rabbi; Rabbi means teacher. Now, we have all had teachers in life. When you think about your favorite teacher, you don’t think about the quizzes you took, the homework you did, or the tests you prepared for. You think about how your teacher impacted your life. That’s what it should be like when we think about our calling to be in relationship with our great teacher, Jesus. Of course, every teacher you ever had gave you assignments. Every assignment has a due date. And after you turned in the assignment you still had a relationship with the teacher.
Your assignment right now is your current role in life. You might be a doctor, running a business, working in the food service industry, or working from home. Just like when you were in school and turned in the assignments to the teacher on a specified due date, so too will you one day turn in your current assignment in life.
What will you have after you move on from that assignment? A relationship with Jesus. And that is why your relationship to Jesus is your true calling! Wouldn’t it be silly if you stared at Jesus holding onto your assignment and pleaded for him to push back the due date because you were called to that little sheet of paper? When we place our assignments from Jesus above our calling to Jesus we become users of his grace instead of disciples for his name.
This is where many of us get stuck. We confuse our assignment for our calling. We say things like, “I’m called to be a teacher,” or “I’m called to business,” or we worry with thoughts like “What will other people say about me if I step out in faith and make the change I feel led to?” But the danger of assigning permanence to a temporary role is that when God tries to shift you, it can feel like betrayal. It’s not betrayal—it’s transition.
