The Core Elements of Your Calling

For a long time, I have been fascinated by the question of calling.

I have talked with many people, especially young adults trying to figure out what comes next in their lives, who desperately want to know:

What is God calling me to do?

Should I be a missionary?
Should I go to university?
Should I become a teacher?
Should I start a business?
Should I work in ministry?
Should I move to another country?
Should I get married and raise a family?

Sometimes we treat calling as though there is one giant answer hidden somewhere out there, and if we can just discover it, everything will suddenly make sense.

But I don’t think calling is quite that simple.

I believe God is walking with us through our lives. He invites us to know Him, to become more like Him, and to participate with Him in bringing His goodness into the world. He wants to work through ordinary people in ordinary places to bring His kingdom, beauty, truth, justice, creativity, healing, and love into the spaces where He has placed them.

And I believe that each of us carries within us core elements of a unique calling.

Sometimes we can see those elements clearly.

Sometimes we can’t see them at all.

In fact, sometimes they are so obvious to us that we don’t recognize them as clues to our calling.

They’re like the nose on our face—we can’t see them because they’re right in front of us.

So perhaps instead of asking only,

“What is my calling?”

we could start asking,

“What are the core elements of the way God has uniquely created and invited me to participate in His work?”

That question is much easier to begin with.

Three Layers of Calling

I think it helps to understand calling in three different layers.

1. The Calling We All Share

There are things we don’t have to wonder whether God is calling us to do.

If we follow Jesus, we already know that we are called to know God and make Him known.

We are called to live as people who belong to Him wherever we find ourselves.

That might be in a church.

It might be on a university campus.

It might be in a business.

It might be in a hospital.

It might be in a government office.

It might be in a school.

It might be in a neighborhood.

It might be in another country.

The environment doesn’t determine whether we are living out our calling as Christians.

Wherever we go, we are called to know God and make Him known.

This is important because it means we don’t have to wait until we discover our “big calling” before we can start living purposefully.

You can start now.

You can learn to know God now.

You can love people now.

You can serve now.

You can represent Jesus now.

You can bring His character, goodness, creativity, truth, and love into whatever environment you are currently in.

You don’t need to know your entire future to be faithful today.

2. The Tools God Has Put in Your Hands

The second layer has to do with how God has uniquely created you.

Each of us has been given a particular combination of gifts, strengths, personality, experiences, passions, perspectives, relationships, and interests.

These things aren’t necessarily your calling.

They are often the tools you will use to live it out.

This distinction is important.

For example, someone might have a gift for music.

That doesn’t necessarily mean their calling is “to be a musician.”

Someone might be an excellent communicator.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they are called to be a speaker.

Someone might be exceptionally good at organizing people and projects.

That doesn’t necessarily mean their calling is “administration.”

Someone might have a deep ability to understand people and help them grow.

That doesn’t automatically mean their calling is “counselor.”

The gift is the tool.

The calling is what the tool is being used for.

Think about it this way:

A hammer is not a house.

The hammer is a tool used to build something.

In the same way, your gifts and strengths may tell you something important about what you have been equipped to build, contribute, influence, or cultivate.

This is why personality assessments, strengths assessments, spiritual gift assessments, and even paying attention to the things you naturally do well can be useful.

They aren’t necessarily going to tell you:

“Here is your calling.”

But they can help answer:

“What has God already put in my hands?”

And once you know what is in your hands, you can start asking:

How could God want me to use this?

3. The Unique Way You May Be Called to Impact the World

Then there is a third layer.

This is the part we usually mean when we talk about “calling.”

It is the unique way God may invite a particular person to participate with Him in His work in the world.

Sometimes God gives someone a very specific assignment.

Noah was told to build an ark.

Abraham was told to leave his homeland and go where God would show him.

The disciples were called to follow Jesus, and Jesus told them that He would make them fishers of people.

William Carey became convinced that he should take the gospel to places where it had not yet been preached.

These are examples of people receiving a particular direction from God.

But not every calling arrives as a detailed five-year plan.

Sometimes God gives us something much more like a direction than a destination.

And I think this is where we can become unnecessarily confused.

We want God to give us the entire map.

But sometimes He gives us enough light for the next part of the road.

You May Know More Than You Think

Consider Abraham.

God told him to leave his country and go to a land that God would show him.

Abraham didn’t receive a detailed itinerary.

He didn’t know exactly where he was going to live, everything that was going to happen along the way, or what his life would eventually look like.

But he knew some important things.

Go.

Listen.

I will show you.

I will bless you.

You will be a blessing.

Those were core elements of what God was asking him to do.

They were enough to help him make decisions even though he couldn’t see the whole story.

Joseph is another fascinating example.

As a young man, Joseph had dreams that seemed to indicate that he would one day have significant authority—even authority over his own family.

He didn’t know how that would happen.

He certainly couldn’t have predicted slavery, prison, Egypt, famine, or becoming second in command to Pharaoh.

But he had been given a glimpse of something about his future.

He had a sense of leadership and influence long before he understood what that leadership would look like.

So what did he do?

He learned to lead where he was.

He learned how to manage Potiphar’s household.

He learned how to lead in prison.

He learned how to interpret dreams.

He learned how to administrate.

He learned how to serve.

The calling was bigger than any one season.

And each season became preparation for the next.

David experienced something similar.

He was anointed to become king long before he actually became king.

But being anointed king didn’t tell him exactly what Tuesday afternoon was supposed to look like.

So he learned to be faithful as a shepherd.

Then he learned to fight.

Then he learned to lead.

Then he learned to navigate relationships, conflict, responsibility, failure, and authority.

The destination was not immediately visible.

But the direction mattered.

Calling Is Often More Like a Compass Than a Map

This is one of the biggest shifts I want people to make when they think about calling.

Calling is often more like a compass than a map.

A map tells you exactly where you are going.

A compass tells you which direction to keep moving.

Sometimes God gives us a map.

But often He gives us a direction.

You might know:

“I want to see young people discover who God has created them to be.”

But you don’t know whether that means coaching, teaching, writing, creating an organization, working at a university, leading a ministry, starting a business, or something you haven’t even imagined yet.

You might know:

“Something about the music industry is broken, and I want to help change it.”

You don’t know what your exact role will be.

You might know:

“I want to help families flourish.”

You don’t know whether that means becoming a parent, developing resources for parents, working in education, becoming a therapist, starting a nonprofit, writing books, or something else entirely.

You might simply know:

“I want to build things that make people’s lives better.”

That may not sound like a calling yet.

But it could be an important piece of one.

Look for the Things That Keep Showing Up

One of the reasons calling can be difficult to recognize is that some of the clues are so normal to us that we don’t think of them as clues.

Pay attention to what consistently shows up in your life.

What problems bother you more than they seem to bother other people?

What kind of brokenness makes you think,

“Someone needs to do something about this”?

What kinds of people do you naturally notice?

What kinds of conversations energize you?

What do people consistently come to you for?

What do you find yourself wanting to create, improve, repair, understand, organize, protect, teach, or build?

What makes your heart come alive?

What makes your heart ache?

What do you naturally see that other people seem to miss?

What abilities seem to have been placed in your hands?

And perhaps most importantly:

What happens when you bring those things into relationship with God?

Because calling isn’t simply about discovering yourself.

It is about discovering how who God has made you to be can participate with Him in what He is doing.

Your Calling May Not Be a Job

This is another important distinction.

Your calling is not necessarily your occupation.

Your occupation is one environment in which your calling may be expressed.

You could be called to help people become healthy leaders, and you might do that as a coach.

Or a teacher.

Or a pastor.

Or a business owner.

Or a manager.

Or a parent.

Or a missionary.

Or a friend.

The job may change.

The location may change.

The ministry may change.

The season may change.

But something deeper may remain.

That deeper thing is what I mean by the core elements of your calling.

Those elements can travel with you.

They help you recognize opportunities.

They help you evaluate decisions.

They help you notice when something fits—or doesn’t fit.

They help you recognize the kinds of problems you are uniquely equipped to address.

And they can give you continuity when your external circumstances change.

You Don’t Have to Know the Whole Thing

I think we sometimes put enormous pressure on people—especially young adults—to figure out their entire calling.

What if you don’t need to?

What if the question isn’t:

“What am I going to do with the rest of my life?”

but:

“What do I know about God’s invitation to me right now?”

Maybe you know you’re called to know God and make Him known.

That’s enough to begin.

Maybe you know some of your gifts.

That’s useful.

Maybe you know the kinds of people you care about.

Pay attention to that.

Maybe you know a problem you can’t stop thinking about.

Explore it.

Maybe you have a sense that you’re supposed to build something, lead something, create something, or help someone.

Start learning how.

Maybe you have a very specific word or direction from God.

Then steward it faithfully.

You don’t have to manufacture clarity.

Sometimes clarity comes through obedience.

Sometimes it comes through experience.

Sometimes it comes through failure.

Sometimes it comes through community.

Sometimes it comes through Scripture.

Sometimes it comes through trying something and discovering, This isn’t it.

And sometimes you simply need to keep walking with Jesus long enough for the pieces to become visible.

The Goal Is Not to Find a Perfect Calling

Ultimately, I don’t think the goal is to discover a perfect sentence that describes your entire life.

The goal is to become the kind of person who can walk closely with God and recognize His invitations.

Your calling will probably have seasons.

It may change in expression.

You may live out the same core calling through several different careers, ministries, locations, or relationships.

You may understand pieces of it at twenty-five that make much more sense at forty-five.

And that’s okay.

Abraham couldn’t see the whole story.

Joseph couldn’t see the whole story.

David couldn’t see the whole story.

They simply had enough information to take the next faithful step.

Perhaps that’s what we need too.

Not a perfectly defined future.

But enough clarity to know:

Who am I becoming?

What has God put in my hands?

What do I care deeply about?

What kind of impact do I sense God inviting me to make?

And what is the next faithful step?

Those answers begin to reveal the core elements of our calling.

And once we can name those elements, we can begin to make choices with them in mind.

Not because we have figured everything out.

But because we have begun to recognize the direction of the One who is leading us.