‘What is your calling?’ Ever been asked that? Ever asked yourself that questions? Do you know what you were put on this earth to do? Are you still searching for the ‘thing’? I have 5 thoughts on this that have helped me, maybe they will help you.

#1. You ARE called to follow Jesus.
When Jesus calls his disciples to ‘follow him’ the ‘calling’ is just that. It begins and ends with following Jesus. Everything else we do, every ambition, dream, thought, hope and aspiration must be submitted to this. The call to follow Jesus. It is a call with a couple of parts – Jesus says,

whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me
Matthew Chapter 16 : 24

That’s the first thing – denying ourselves. To be someone in the Kingdom of God, rather than try to gain a place or BE someone – we must lose ourselves and simply follow. The second thing is this,

if you love me, you will obey my commands
John 14 : 15

Now, I am not being funny – but this seems pretty clear. Every follower of Jesus is called to – er, you know FOLLOW, deny themselves and in our loving devotion to Jesus – obey His commands. That is our primary calling as Christians – I have to say, when I started out in ‘ministry’ at 18 I hadn’t grasped that I just WAS in ministry and I was called to something great and wonderful – simply being a disciple. So, first thing is – don’t wait for a ‘thing’ living your life after Jesus IS the thing. This is the basic vocation for every Christian, the general guidance for ALL of us – applicable right now, in whatever we are doing, wherever we are doing it – summed up nicely here,

and whatever you do, in word or deed – do it all in the name of Jesus – giving thanks to God the Father through Him
Colossians 3 : 17

#2. You will not always see it coming!
I did not know that 28 years after beginning to work with children and young people as a volunteer I would still be doing this work. I did not envisage the path things would take – I have been amazed and humbled at what I have ‘joined in with’ that has had God’s fingerprints all over it! Part of following, letting go of our stuff, pursuing this ‘calling’ is trusting that in it ALL (whatever life throws at you) God is sovereign and leading you somewhere. Those called in scripture whether it is simply ‘follow me’ or they are called for a more specific task – often had no CLUE what was about to happen. Mary had not CLUE; Moses had not an inkling; Paul never saw it coming! Only now, looking back do I see where God was at work – bringing things together, people into my life, experiences that I would draw on, times of challenge and learning and growth – all shaping me for where I am now and what I am doing now. In God, nothing is wasted!

#3. Something MUST be done – the answer might be YOU
I had a friend who was always having amazing ideas about what the church should be doing. They were great! This person often felt that God was showing them some of these things – and he spoke with such passion and intent. However, no matter who these things were shared with – nobody picked them up, they never seemed to happen. He got frustrated, angry and disillusioned. We had a chat about something in particular, his latest thing the church should be doing. He said to me, ‘why has no one caught the vision?’, I said, ‘you have!’ – it hadn’t occurred to him that GOD was telling him about this stuff because God wanted HIM to do it! Do you feel something passionately? Is there something that should be happening – but isn’t? Are you watching and waiting for someone to step up? Are you thinking, ‘why don’t they get it God? I can see what you want to happen here – why hasn’t anyone got the vision and drive to get stuck in God?’ All the while God has been telling YOU and showing YOU what he wants. Crazy! Get up and DO IT!

#4. You don’t need a blinding light or weekly prayer ministry
This took me a while to figure out.
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