Privilege Or Pressure: 3 Myths About Calling
by Sullivan Curtin
Why do we get so anxious when it comes to choosing a career path? You might wonder how a question about calling made it onto a list of urgent questions concerning vocation. I think, like a perfect storm, we have created conditions today that place a crazy amount of pressure on finding the “right job,” “the best fit for me,” or as we often say in Christian settings - “discerning my calling.”
We exist in a time and culture that places an enormous amount of value on the individual. From a young age, I can remember being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I'm no historian, but I'm guessing this has been a relatively new phenomenon. For most of history people did not have the option to choose their careers, the family they were born into dictated their vocation or they did whatever was needed to survive. Many still do not have much choice when it comes to what they do to make a living. The opportunity to choose your own career path is a great privilege. But with the vast multitude of choices has also come an age of anxiety and hyper-individuality. Our culture says you are not living your best life unless you are able to express your “truest self” and satisfy all of your desires. Under these conditions discerning your calling has moved from a privilege to an enormous pressure.
It’s not just the broader culture that has intensified the process of discerning “a call.” The church has also piled on pressure by overly spiritualizing this idea of calling to an unhealthy level. You might have subtly or overtly heard the message that you could choose the wrong vocation and find yourself outside the will of God. The pressure within and without has made the question, “How do I discern my calling,” feel particularly urgent. I want to identify a few myths about calling and outline a simple paradigm to help followers of Christ in the process of discernment.
3 Myths About Calling
There is one specific call for my life and I have to find it. This is a paralyzing sentiment that underlies most of our anxiety about calling. We’ve consciously or unconsciously come to believe that there is one thing that we are supposed to do with our lives when it comes to our vocation. We’re left feeling like we’re in one of those corn mazes trying to seek out the right path to finish well. But this is not how calling is talked about in Scripture. Most often calling is related to God’s work in bringing people to Himself - we are called first and foremost to belong to Him (Rom 1:6, 8:28). After that, we do see God equipping people with certain gifts and leading them in what to do, but it’s very rare in Scripture that God tells someone exactly what He has for them to do. The picture we get is much more about the kind of person God wants us to become in whatever it is that we do. We’re to be conformed to the image of His Son, to depend on Him, and to love and serve our neighbor.
Calling is something I find on my own. As mentioned above, we’ve been conditioned to believe that our calling is hidden and our lives are existential treasure hunts trying to find it. GK Chesterton wrote, “Every good story has a storyteller.” The same can be said of calling. Every calling must have a caller. In our culture we are told to look inward for that calling, but what if calling is something we need to listen for from outside of ourselves? Discerning God’s direction for our lives requires that we seek Him in prayer, immerse ourselves in His Word, belong to a community of Christ-followers, and pay attention to the Spirit’s work in our lives. This is the good news of life in Christ - he is with us and will lovingly guide and direct our lives. We cannot miss our calling if we are continually looking to Him and abiding in Him (John 15:5).
Calling only pertains to my 8-5 job. Again, when Scripture speaks about calling it speaks about belonging to Christ (Rom 1:1-7) and that everything we do should be done for His glory and in His name (Col 3:17). This means that every gift, skill, opportunity, and platform we have been given is an opportunity to serve God and love His people. Calling should be thought of in holistic terms. We might have certain skills that are not utilized in our primary jobs, but we might be able to use those skills through volunteering or serving our friends and family. Calling is much more about the way we work out our lives in Christ than the specific job through which we do it.
A Framework for Discerning Calling
While I want to emphasize the bigger picture related to calling, there is a reality that we are faced with a paralyzing array of career options and it is helpful to have a framework for thinking through them. Discernment about job opportunities can be found at the intersection of who God has created you to be and where God has placed you. Consider how God has created you. What are the passions that motivate you? What are the skills that come easily to you? What are things that you value so much you are willing to sacrifice and work toward? These are questions that look at the way God has wired you uniquely, but we need to also think about where God has placed us. What are the areas of brokenness around you? What are the needs of the community in which you live? How can you contribute to your field or industry? Considering these questions can help in discerning what God might have you do uniquely at this time and place.
The next time you are considering changing jobs, ask someone to process these questions with you. Ask yourself if you are tempted to believe one of the myths related to calling listed above. Finally, God invites anyone who lacks wisdom to ask the Lord, for he is eager to give it. So, ask the Lord for wisdom as you process your calling.
These blogs came out of our Winter 2023 6 Urgent Questions series of talks. You can listen to them on our podcast below.