Everybody asks themselves, "What am I supposed to do?" at some point in their life. That's because we all feel lost. Sometimes it's when we are 16 and trying to decide where we want to go to college. Other times it's halfway through college trying to pick a major. For most of us, it happens sometime between 25-35, and we sit back to look at our life to see where we are actually going.
We may have planned on going to Med school or starting a family. But is that where I'm actually going, and is that what I really want?
This question can leave us spinning because there is no definitive answer. Any answer can be the right answer if we decide it is. You can be a doctor, lawyer, contractor, or stay-at-home mom. All of these choices are yours, but what will fulfill you? According to the New York Times, having all these choices is actually a bad thing. It paralyzes us because we are afraid to make the wrong choice.
But, intrinsically, we all know we have a specific purpose. We are put on this earth for something, but that can be hard to find. It's like the itch you get on the roof of your mouth that you just can't scratch.
The best place to look for purpose is to the maker. A designer can tell you how to use something and what it's function is because they made it. I’ve got an iPhone, and it’s got a lot of uses or purposes. But what you know about something changes its purpose. If I only see a heavy piece of plastic, I could use it as ammo for a slingshot and get that cardinal that teases my cat on the fence. I could use it as a paperweight on my desk. If I know a bit about technology, then I could even use it as a glorified voice recording machine. I could even use it as a computer to browse social media. All of these things could be done but is that its purpose? Is that what it was originally designed for? Mostly no. If we take all those things I listed, it will look kind of like this target.
As you move further and further into the target, you get closer to the true purpose of the iPhone. It’s not that it can’t be used for any of those things. You can 100% chuck your phone at the bird on the fence, it just won’t be as effective as a rock because that’s not the purpose. It is designed as a phone. It’s built for the main purpose of communication with other people, and you won’t maximize your iPhone if you don’t understand the purpose.
The same is true for you. You can do lots of things in your life but the center of your target is to be called by God. To be “called” as far as the Bible goes means to be chosen for certain purposes.
And In the Bible, there are only 3 types of callings:
The Calling
Our Calling
Your Calling
THE Calling is to a relationship.
When God created us, we had a perfect relationship with Him. There was no sin to separate us. But Adam and Eve just had to eat that fruit and forever separate us from that relationship. This breaks God's heart. So the entire Old Testament is the story of God giving us ways to get back into that relationship.
Enter Jesus
The most famous verse in the Bible says that "God so loved you, that he gave his one and only Son, so that if you believe in him, you should not perish but have eternal life [or relationship with him." I'm paraphrasing a bit so that you can see what I'm talking about. His desire for a relationship with you is so monumental that he sacrificed what was most dear to himself. So the first way we fulfill our purpose is to have a relationship with him because you can’t enjoy what you don’t know. That is THE call because it’s for all of us. THE call is for relationship or salvation.
OUR Calling is to reproduce.
Once you have a saving relationship with Jesus, that should be the greatest thing in your life. And if God's greatest desire is for a relationship, the best thing you can do with your life is to fulfill that purpose by helping others get into that same relationship. You glorify Him by taking your enjoyment and giving it to others.
In fact, it was so important, it was the last thing he said to his disciples. After Jesus had taught and lived with these men for 3 years, the last thing he said to them was what we call The Great Commission. We call it that because he commissioned them to go and do something. In Matthew 28, it says this Matthew 28:28-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The last thing Jesus said was, “Hey, God gave me the authority, so God and do what I did with you with other people.” It’s why the church still baptizes people, it’s why I am this post, and it’s why churches across the world try to disciple people. We are all trying to reproduce for others what has been done for us. Every Christian since Jesus’ time can trace their spiritual lineage back to 13 guys who were closest with Jesus.
If you’re not a Christian, You can lean back and take a breather for a second cause I want to talk to my Christian family. Christianity is not a sideline sport. When we have a saving relationship with Jesus, we give up the right to have a quiet devotional faith. Cause the temptation is to go to church when you can, maybe you have your quiet bible reading time and pray a bit. But that kind of believer doesn’t exist in the New Testament. It’s not the Christian Jesus had in mind when he gave the great commission. Because how do you reproduce if you never tell anyone?
YOUR Calling is to remake.
If the first two things are true for you, then the way you glorify God is by doing the things you enjoy that bring the world a bit closer to Genesis 1 that we talked about in the beginning. If God’s decree was to make things and make them so that all was perfect and good, then we follow in his footsteps by remaking it as close to good and perfect as we can.
How do you remake the world? The Apostle Paul said the way to do that was Colossians 3:17 “whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” That means if you’re a plumber, put in toilets and fixtures in a way that honors God. Don’t price gouge or do shoddy work. Be fair and honest. If you’re an accountant, deal with people gently and handle money with integrity. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, raise your kids well and make your house a picture of what real Christianity could be. You do whatever you want to and do it in a way that honors God. It’s that inward push, the desires you have for life. And the outward pull of what makes the world more like Genesis 1. Inward push and outward pull.
In my short time on earth, I've had the following roles: college student, family member, fighter, landscaper, Pastor, and now father/husband.
I fulfilled my calling in all those roles because my inward push is to love people. I might not be the greatest preacher you've ever heard, and I’m probably only like the 3rd of 4th best-looking guy you’ve seen, but I absolutely love people. During college, I learned to write because I wanted to tell stories so that I could connect people with people. Playing games with my cousins was a way to show love and create memories. My fight teams have been like brothers throughout my life. We went through wins and losses and fight camps together. Even writing this post and being a youth pastor were attempts to fulfill that inward push to just desperately love people so that they could know they’re loved by God by extension.
The inward push to remake a world where people felt loved and connected and the outward pull to places that let me fulfill that role. Cause truth be told, I was a pastor when I was a fighter, and I’ll be a pastor long after my church figures out there are better people for the role I’m in. haha But I’ll always be following that calling because it glorifies God and it causes me to enjoy him more.
So what? So what do you do now? Well, you’ve basically got 3 options: relationship, reproduce, and remake.