In life, sometimes we need a deadline to prevent procrastination. In the same way, we sometimes need a deadline to give us a sense of urgency to follow the calling God has in our lives. We are on this Earth for a finite amount of time and we all need to get on with the mission that God gives each of us. So, it is in creating that sense of urgency that I want us to look at three things, today!
First of all, it is important to remember that the mission God gives to each of us is not to make our lives more harried, but more meaningful. Our purpose and mission in life isn’t supposed to be one more thing that gets added on to an already busy schedule. Rather, our mission in life should be the center of our being, those things out of which we operate. Embracing God’s calling on your life shouldn’t make you busier, it should help you sort out what is important and prioritize how you spend your time.
Second, it’s important to remember that our calling and our mission is going to bring us great joy, but it’s not always going to be easy! If you are serious about pursuing God’s calling for your life, it’s going to bring you a deep gladness. But, sometimes it will not make you happy. The place where God calls you to be is the place where your deepest gladness and the world’s deepest hunger, meet. To have something to do that brings you deep gladness provides immense joy, but it won’t always be easy or make you happy.
For example, look at Paul’s journey as a missionary. He was shipwrecked, stoned, beaten with a whip and imprisoned for life. And yet, he would say, I love doing my fruitful work; it is great. There was a deep sense of gladness, a sense of joy even though it wasn’t easy and didn’t always make him feel happy. So, it is for us, as we live our lives. Answering God’s call on your life doesn’t always promise happiness or an easy ride, but it gives your life significance and a sense of meaning.
Third, it is important to understand that our calling is going to continue to evolve as the years go by. Sometimes I think we have a mistaken idea that we will have one calling in life – one mission in life – that must be run from the time we’re 20 to the day we die. I don’t believe that’s the case! We may have a number of vocations or jobs, and we may have a number of different missions in our lives. It may continue to evolve.
To use Paul’s life as an example, again, he started off as a young missionary, traveling between Ephesus, Phillip and Corinth, starting churches. Later, his calling evolved and he spent his last years in prison, writing letters to the church. A calling can change and evolve into something different. Just because you change vocations or your calling doesn’t mean the previous one was invalid. It simply means you learned something and grew, so now you move on to a new calling. That’s life and that’s good. I believe that life is for the purpose of learning and serving. Every phase of life has something for us to learn and ways we can serve. What you learn at 20 and how you serve is going to be different from how you serve and what you learn at 70. It’s not that one is more important than the other, it’s just the stages of life and there’s always something to learn.
