Finding Your Calling, Without Changing Your JobMostra

I used to think “calling” meant finding the picture-perfect job. Before I entered the working world, I thought the perfect job would have to be either something really creative, like a trend spotter for a luxury fashion brand, or something really self-sacrificing, like a vaccination specialist in a war-torn country. My task in finding my calling was to keep an eye out for the one job that was either extremely cool, or overwhelmingly benevolent, and also matched my unique set of skills and gifts perfectly.

So, you can imagine my disappointment at 25 years old when I graduated from my MBA program, all fired up to find my calling, and the only job I could get was in the customer support division of a huge, faceless, IT services provider. There, eyes wide and full of promise, I spent my days scrubbing data reports, fixing the code of html emails, and shuffling between endless PowerPoint meetings.

I started to ask myself: “Did I miss my calling?”

The problem was, I had the wrong definition of calling. I had never asked anyone: "What is calling, exactly?"

In the Bible, “calling” doesn’t refer primarily to a money-earning position. Biblical calling most often means God’s work calling people to Christ.

At the beginning of his letter to the Romans, Paul says that God has given him “grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith” (Romans 1:5) Then Paul addresses the Romans directly saying, “And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:6)

According to Paul here, the word “calling” means God’s call—the call to belong to God’s family.

By this definition, I was already called, and I was already following my calling, regardless of where I worked. By saying Yes to Jesus, I was following my calling every day—even if the only place it took me was to the boring conference rooms of a data center.

Prayer: God, thank you for calling me to belong to Jesus. May I live out my calling to follow you wherever I am today.