Calling Is Not A Job Offer

Dan Allender, in To Be Told: Know Your Story, Shape Your Future:

Most people understand understand calling as God’s calling us to a specific job.  Indeed, God called adolescent Jeremiah to preach of his coming judgment.  And God called Paul (then named Saul) to serve the very people that he, blinded by zeal, had been trying to destroy.  God calls us to certain tasks and jobs, but he doesn’t do so because we are uniquely suited to do them.  He calls us to the task of job because we are weak, broken, and ill-equipped for the task.

I don’t believe anyone is called to a job or a profession.  My calling in life is not to be a writer, therapist, speaker, teacher, trainer, or administrator. My calling is to walk through any door God gives me in order to reveal his glory. If I am a graduate-school president, it’s for a season, but my life lasts for eternity.  If I am a physician or an auto mechanic, it is no different: I am called by God not for a mere season or reason but for an eternity to reveal his glory.  What is my calling?  It is to make known something about God that is bound to my unique face, name, and story.  It is to reveal God through my character.

(HT: Jimmy Davis)