Discover Your Purpose & CallingSample

Let this sink in: you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are God’s masterpiece.

You aren’t a second-rate creation compared with your brother, mom, Instagram friends, Elon Musk, or anyone else who seems to have it all together.

God created you exactly the way He wanted—and for a critically important purpose. We have each been given unique abilities to serve Him and make an impact on the world. God doesn’t make mistakes. Let me say that again. God doesn’t make mistakes.

But the world has tricked us into playing a comparison game. Inside the game are hierarchies and ways to quantify our self-worth and value in society. We assign positions in this system based on SAT scores, grades, job titles, net worth, and dozens of other manmade metrics. Sadly, many of us draw conclusions about our own worth and the worth of others from these lies.

With all the amazing complexities of human beings created in the image of God, why would we ever base our worth (or someone else’s) on a few man-made metrics?

There’s a quote that’s commonly attributed to Albert Einstein that always comes to my mind when I consider the breadth of our individual gifts: “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

As someone who has many times felt like a fish trying to climb a tree, that quote is particularly meaningful to me. I have spent a lot of time working at jobs I wasn’t gifted for. Jobs where I could work as hard as I wanted but it didn’t really matter because someone else better suited thrived while I struggled. It felt like running into a strong headwind; I was working my tail off and had few results to show for it.

For many years I was trapped in the lie that God hadn’t created me with the same intentionality as others. I’ll never forget how liberating it felt when I found my calling. This fish quit trying to climb a tree, discovered a pond, and began to swim.

Steve Jobs, looking back on how he got fired from Apple, the company he had created years prior, said this: “I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. . . . The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.”

If you are a fish, I hope you have found your pond. If you are a tiger, I hope you have found your jungle. If you are a bird, I hope you have found the air. But if you haven’t found your place, don’t stop seeking. When you find it, your life will never be the same. And the world needs you to be doing what you were created to do.

There’s a famous scene in Chariots of Fire where Eric Liddell, a runner who plans to be a missionary, decides to put the mission field on hold while he trains for the Olympics. As Liddell defends his choice, he says, “When I run, I feel His pleasure. To give it up would be to hold Him in contempt. . . . It’s not just fun; to win is to honor Him.”

No matter whether others understand or agree, operating in the giftings God placed in us brings Him pleasure. It benefits us, honors Him, and positions us to make the biggest impact on the rest of the world.