Adulting for Jesus: Purpose, Trusting God and Obviously BurritosSample

What's Your Calling?

We don’t often think about what God is calling us to do in the smaller, ordinary areas of life. For example, I’ve never once asked God what He was calling me to eat for breakfast. (For all the intermittent fasters, just pretend this whole analogy is about the one meal you do eat... which I guess would still technically be breakfast.) I’m hungry in the morning, so I pick something that sounds good. I know I’ll get another shot at breakfast in twenty-four hours, and therefore I don’t overthink it. I also know choosing something relatively healthy sets me up for a better day, but unless I decide to eat a bowl of glass shards, the immediate consequences of a poor breakfast choice aren’t too far-reaching. I may feel queasy or lethargic if I consume half a cake and a liter of Mountain Dew, but I know I can redeem myself at the next meal, should I choose to do so. All that to say, I don’t spend a ton of time wondering if the heart of God longs for me to eat a bagel or yogurt for breakfast.

In bigger life decisions, however, we tend to do the opposite: we think, rethink, and over-analyze what God might be calling us to do (probably because we know the long-term consequences of picking a career, a spouse, or where to live are much further reaching than simply adding a vegetable to our next meal). While it’s wise to approach big decisions with thought and prayer, we sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves to perfectly discern God’s calling and make flawless decisions. 

In our day and age, we most frequently associate the word calling with our occupation. We feel called to medicine, missions, teaching or engineering and devote a lot of time, energy, and resources establishing ourselves in a certain field. We’ll talk more specifically about work later, but in order to understand and appreciate the purpose of our job-related efforts, we must first understand God’s ultimate call to His children: the call to holiness.

The will of God isn’t meant to be a mystery you have to decode in order to live a full and purposeful life. Details of His exact plan for your life remain mysterious simply because He knows the end at the beginning and you do not. God already knows the future, and you’re still trying to figure out how to squeeze both an oil change and a dentist appointment into today.

God has always been clear, though, about what He wants from His children: our devotion.

This devotion to God means seeking Him daily and obeying His commands. Keep in mind as we talk about obeying God’s law; we don’t obey it as a way to earn His favor. We already have God’s favor through our faith in Jesus Christ. God’s love for His children is unwavering and unmovable. It’s our understanding of this love, and of God’s gifts of salvation and grace, that should fuel our desire to obey His moral law.