Calling is a crazy thing. The American Christian perspective, mixed with the perspective of this generation has been the birthing ground of a belief that I find intriguing, but which many people question. Calling, God's plan for your life, your destiny, predestination, are all words that relate to the topic, and about which people have varying opinions on. When people claim that God has a particular plan for your life there are two reactions people commonly have. People are either excited about how God is going to use them to change the world, or people are scared that they will miss God's calling for their life. This applies in all sorts of areas, but I will stick to how calling affects your career in this entry.
Many people in my generation have watched their parents work long hours for decades at jobs they don't like to make a little more money to make ends meet (sometimes for needs and sometimes for wants). It doesn't really matter what the money was needed for, I think my generation is terrified of devoting so much time to something they do not love. It's not worth it! When you add in what we were taught growing up ("you can be anything you set your heart to be!"), we end up in a position where we want to love our jobs, and if we do not, we have failed. That goes for the whole generation. Christians take the same thing and spin it up a bit. God is calling you to a job that you are passionate about, good at, and makes this world look more like he wanted it to be.
From there, some people decide to just pick their job based on those 3 criteria, assuming that if it meets those, that must be where God is calling them. For these people, you learn to understand God and yourself, and then you figure out what to do based on that knowledge. Of course you also pray that God guides you, and then whenever you find something fitting, you can claim that's where God wants you to be. You've found your calling. For this person, perhaps there are hundreds of different opportunities that are equally good from God's perspective. Just take the one you like and it'll be fine.
Another perspective is that you ask God where to go, and he tells you rather bluntly and specifically, probably after weeks, months, or years of prayer and fasting. Maybe it's something you like and excel at, and maybe it's not. If you hear God and follow it, you are in his will, but if you miss it, you're in sin, devoting your life to things God never intended you to do.
By my word choice, you can probably guess that I think these views are extreme and over simplified, and that my perspective is somewhere in the middle. I do believe God made us a certain way with certain gifts and abilities and we are to use them for him. Think of the parable of the talents. On the other hand, I do think God calls us sometimes to do things we do not want to do, and do not have the ability to do or do well. Think of every martyr ever, and also king Saul. I also think God speaks to us clearly today. He did in the Bible, and I do not think that's changed.
Imagine you have the option of 10 career paths, I believe you have the potential to honor or dishonor God with every single one of them. I also think though, that some of them have better opportunity for impacting the world for God's kingdom. Impact is hard for us to measure, but I think God can measure it. He probably has a metric like "number of people interacted with" times "number of people saved" times "percent personal spiritual growth" divided by "the ultimate good". I believe he also somehow knows the future. Not sure if he knows potential futures, or only the actual future, or how that works, but I am certain, he is better qualified to decide which of those 10 career paths is best for us to take than we are. So what does that mean to me?
Ask him!
"God, what should I do? I would like to do this or that, but I don't know the implications of making that choice."
From there, I think God responds in any number of ways, but most often his method of response is such that it is sufficient for us to make the choice with relative confidence that we are doing what God thinks is best. If God wants me to be a coal miner, and that makes no sense to me, he's going to have to slam some other doors in my face. I'd need rejection letters from every other job I applied to, and a friend to come up to me out of no where and suggest I apply at the coal mine his uncle owns. On the other hand, if God is calling me to something I would like to do, and I'm already familiar with his voice, a gentle whisper may be all I need.
All this said, if I hear God wrong? I do not believe that is a sin. If he wants me to make shoes, but I make bikes instead, I might miss a great opportunity I would have had, but there will be other opportunities in bikes. God is not spiteful to his children. If we miss what he's saying, it will not be the end of the world. We do not have to panic. We just need to continue to seek God and take our next steps based on what he is saying at the time.
Oh and guess what?! Sometimes, I believe there are multiple good options. You ask God what to do and he doesn't get back to you on which one is better. Sometimes God just says, "those are both terrific opportunities. Pick whichever you prefer!"
Anyways, much of this has to do with how clearly you believe God speaks today. If your God is relatively silent, you are forced towards the first picture I painted. If you believe God does speak to you, it would seem strange to me, that he would ignore the topic of career as a rule.
I'm in the thick of all this right now. I have experienced a lot in the last months. I'll save the personal story for when the story has a conclusion (hopefully in the next few weeks!). I'll just leave it for now and say, I'm fairly confident where God wants me to be, and I love that feeling.
