Know Your Why: Finding and Fulfilling Your Calling Shembull

Taking God’s Perspective

One of the greatest problems facing Christianity today is a refusal to believe that God could possibly care about our individual futures, that God could care about our day-to-day lives or have plans for us outside of a particularly religious call. We’re often fine with the idea that he might call other people, but there can be a deep insecurity about whether God could possibly use us. When it comes to my calling and my future, we fear that God has forgotten us.

We can easily imagine that politicians, teachers, charity workers, and doctors find it easier to rest assured that their work is an embodiment of their Christian calling. But what about those who are not going to cure cancer, deliver aid, or evangelize from a platform? How can they see a calling that is unique to them?

Part of the answer lies in trying to view our work through the eyes of God, rather than through the eyes of the world. The world is utilitarian in its judgments and standards. The more obvious good we do and the more people we positively impact, the more the world will judge our efforts worthwhile. But this is not God’s perspective.

In the end, even the greatest of our works will be forgotten by the world. All our efforts will be dust and ashes in the face of God’s eternal glory. There is a beautiful simplicity to that verse in Isaiah 40: “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever” (verse 8). When it comes to the worthiness of our callings, we need to take a divine perspective and remember that God’s standards are not like those of the world.

Some people are called to do great works—govern countries, direct relief efforts, evangelize millions. And some people are called to do small acts of service—pour coffee with a smile, sweep the streets, bake a cake for their neighbors. But God does not look at these things and see them as inconsequential. To him they are beautiful outpourings of his spirit.

A calling to serve God in the workplace might be to revive a failing company. Or perhaps it is to be a loyal and faithful friend to a coworker going through a tough time. Though the world may judge one as more significant than the other, God does not.