Everyone Has a Calling  (But It's Probably Not What You Think)

I believe Everyone has one…

It's a Calling…

Now if you were like me and grew up in a church, you only heard the word calling when it came to preachers. A person would declare they have been called to preach.  They would go through a process and at some point become a preacher.

Well, A calling is not reserved for preachers. Everyone is called to serve others.

You doubt it.

I will prove it to you.

 In 1 Peter 4:10

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." NIV

Let's review the word Calling.

There are two definitions as defined by Oxford languages:  Definitions

         1. the loud cries or shouts of an animal or person.
"the calling of a cuckoo"

         2. a strong urge toward a particular way of life or career; a vocation.
"those who have a special calling to minister to others' needs"

Depending on your church, definition 1 may apply.  

However, I want you to focus on definition 2.

A strong urge toward a particular way of life or career; a vocation.

This goes along with one of the lessons my mom taught me about purpose. You’ve probably read this from me before.

She said people have a purpose. The purpose is not something you seek. The purpose is already in you. It was given to you at birth.  It is that deep down desire that you want to do that you can’t seem to shake off. Now in 1 Peter 4:10, it says “Each of you should use whatever gifts you have received to serve others…”

If purpose and gifts are something we receive, our calling is to use our gifts to serve others.

That is your Calling.

Your calling is where your gifts, desire to serve and your passion intersect.

I think a lot of people think a calling has to be this grand effort. But it doesn’t have to be. 

For example: Alex (nickname little guy). In our real estate business, many people perform various tasks. The little guy finishes drywall with a process called mud and tape. They call him Little Guy because he is the youngest of the group. His family all work in construction. 

One day my wife and I were walking a project and noticed his work. We noticed he was working faster than his older family members, yet his work did not require any rework when he was done.

He took a lot of pride in the process. As I mentioned he was the youngest of the group.  Sure that is simply a skill he learned but his proficiency was amazing.  We had to point out areas that required touch up around the house but it rarely was a result of Alex's work.

But now here is where the magic happened.  My wife was curious about the process.  So we asked a couple of people to show us. They went over the process really fast and joked when we didn’t do it right.

Alex saw it and came over to us.  Gave us different tools.  He said because you are starting you should probably use these tools instead.  They were smaller and easier for us to manage.  He changed my wife’s again to an even smaller tool.

He began to give us a philosophy of what we were doing and why. He provided demonstrations of the various techniques we would need to finish the section of the wall we chose to work on.

He then provided guidance and encouragement as we were working.  He did all this while still doing his work, by the way.

He approached us with grace and patience. He knew where we were starting and guided us to mediocre mud and tape technicians. 

Although he was the youngest person in the room, he had become the leader.  

Although we were considered the bosses of the project, we followed his lead and he served us with his experience, knowledge and guidance.

We could feel the passion he had for doing this project well and making it easier for the next group of people to come in and texture and paint the walls. While correcting the imperfections of the sheetrock hangers that came before him.

In my opinion, he was stepping into his calling. I know he had other skills but he took my wife and I from no knowledge to being able to handle small jobs ourselves if needed. Perhaps more importantly, we can identify when sheetrock hanging or the mud and tape portions of the project are being performed poorly and incorrectly before we get too far down the process.

In my view, this was Alex’s calling or at least a portion of it.

Have you identified your calling?

Look at the intersection of your unique skills, unique desires, and unique passion.

One thing to remember is your calling is for you. It may be hard to find someone to model because we all have something different.

It is something uniquely given to you.

We can give you an assist to help you start your journey towards your calling.  We created an assessment that will help.

its called the success path assessment and It is 100% Free.  Simply click here to get started.

Until Next Time…