Calling vs. Destiny (Part 2)

So if our destiny is our future course, what about ‘calling’ and how’s it different from  ‘destiny’?

Destiny is something you wake up to. Calling is something you find. Back to the expressway analogy. Finding your calling is like driving down the expressway and approaching “spaghetti junction”. There’s multiple “off ramps”, several highways to choose from. A lot of people choose the easiest road, either because it pays the most money, requires the least risk, because their Daddy did, because they won’t have to go for more schooling…things like that. A lot of us go down a road, pursue a certain ‘calling’ but end up recycling ourselves onto a different road. Others seem to grow into their ‘sweet spot’ one job, one organization, one role at a time. Sometimes gradually, sometimes all at once, they grasp what they love to do and be.

My friend Rusty says lots of different voices “call” out to us when we’re young.  “Come, do this…you’ll be famous.” “Come, pursue this…you can change the world.” “Come, join up with us and we’ll get rich together.” “Come do this and your parents will be really proud.” “Go to this school, get this degree and you’ll be CEO material.”  We hear these voices calling out and we’re moved to respond. Our ‘calling’ is found in the voices that we ‘hear’ and respond to. Most of us listen to several in our early years. But over time, we learn to recognize God’s voice, respond to it, and find our calling. Or we just keep doing what we do and one day realize it’s our calling…and our destiny.

Calling is connected to our design and our desires. God ‘wired’ us all differently, but He ‘wired’ each of us to do meaningful work and contribute to a community. He gives us “the desires of our heart”, meaning He’s ‘coded’ certain motivations, affinities, and skills into us. When we trust Him enough to pursue those motivations, to find ways to do what we love and what we’re good at, we’re moving toward our calling.

And there are those who’ve experienced a definitive ‘calling’ from God to be pastors and vocational ministers. A cynic once quipped “Why are pastors always called to bigger churches and higher salaries?” On the other side, there are thousands of missionaries and church planters who leave high-paying, secure jobs to work for next-to-nothing as they work to spread the Gospel all over the world. The ‘calling’ to vocational ministry… those ‘set apart as apostles’ (Acts 13:1-3)…that’s a supernatural thing beyond my pay grade.

A few words from David Benner₁ on finding your calling….

1. Our unique calling will be based on our gifts and abilities, will grow out of our deepest desires, and will always involve some response to the needs of the world.

2. We discover our calling in community.

3. My temperament, my personality, my abilities, my interests and passions all say something about who I was called to be.

4. God wants us to follow and serve in and through our individuality.

If you haven’t found your calling, you’re not alone. Most of us are ‘just doing a job’ and can’t connect what we do every day to a calling. But hang around people who know they’re called…who know what they’re doing AND know why….they’re a different breed. They bring a new meaning to the words “working for the Man”.

Question: If you’ve discovered your calling, tell us how you did it here. 

¹ The Gift of Being Yourself – The Sacred Call to Self Discovery  David G. Benner, IVP Press, 2004