Identity: Becoming The True YouSample

Calling

I attended my very first Women of Faith conference in my junior year in college. I was a big note-taker, but when I got home that evening, my notes had nothing that the speakers spoke on. Instead, without intentionally doing it, I took notes on how they moved on stage and their different speaking styles. What did this mean? Why would I do such a thing? That same night, I had a very clear dream. God had revealed to me I was going to be up on that stage one day as part of The Women of Faith teaching team. The very thought of standing there in front of hundreds to thousands of people, forced to be vulnerable and funny without actually having the gift of humor sounded like torture.

Nine years later, still chasing the dream of becoming a Women of Faith speaker, I found myself approaching a second fear of mine: the proposal! After a local mission trip, I found a ring sitting on my bed with a sweet letter asking for my hand in marriage. I readied to give my rejection speech. I was focused on my calling and never wanted to truly tap into getting married.

I just sat my boyfriend on the couch to hand him back the ring when an audible voice spoke out, “Stephanie, how will you ever be a Women of Faith speaker if you are not a true woman of faith? If you want your calling, I need you to marry this man.” “What? But God, this wasn’t the plan!” God continued on with, “You will be better with him than without him. Which will it be?” As scared as I was, I accepted my calling God’s way. I didn’t like it, but grew to love it. He was right. I am more skilled, confident, ambitious, and successful with this man by my side, living “our” calling together.

“I know the power obedience has in making things easy which seem impossible!” -Saint Teresa of Avila

Another word for calling is life work, and the Hebrew word for life is soul. When you choose to walk in obedience, your calling (life work) doesn’t become something you do; it becomes who you are from the deepest part of your soul. Only when your calling lives in your soul can it be from the Lord.