john cotton, in his sermon titled ‘christian calling,’ gives three criteria for choosing a vocation. the top criterion is that ‘it be a warrantable calling, wherein we may not only aim at our own, but at the public good.’ the other criteria are that we are gifted for the job and guided toward it by God – criteria that would surely supersede cotton’s first one on most people’s list today. all who seek to follow Christ and to answer his call should pursue the key link between their giftedness and their calling . . . there is joy in fulfilling a calling that fits who we are and, like the pillar of cloud and fire, goes ahead of our lives to lead us.
but who are we? and what is our destiny? calling insists that the answer lies in God’s knowledge of what he has created us to be and where he is calling us to go. our gifts and destiny do not lie expressly in our parents’ wishes, our spouse’s wishes, our boss’s plans, our peer group’s pressures, our generation’s prospects, or our society’s demands. rather, we each need to know our own unique design, which is God’s design for us.
this compels us to reevaluate if there is disparity between our vocation and our calling. first and foremost, calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service. and our second calling is to a vocation to which God has directed us and for which he has gifted us.
the compelling question is, ‘are you functioning in your calling?’ and while you are contemplating this, do not be distorted by the notion that there is the ‘perfect/higher life,’ found only in the spiritual, and the ‘permitted/lower life’ found in the secular. your calling and vocation should be synonymous.
beware of those who make vocation different from calling. if vocation is ever distinguished from calling and used to refer to ‘clergy,’ it is a sure sign of the catholic distortion; if vocation is distinguished from calling and used to refer to employment and occupation, it betrays the presence of the protestant distortion. just because you wear the title of pastor or priest does not mean you are operating in the calling of God for your life. and just because you wear the title of homemaker does not mean you are not operating in the calling of God on your life.
(reference os guinness’s book the call)
Excellent article!