You Have Already Been Called

We question God’s calling all the time. Am I called? Where do I belong? What should I do with my life? We wait, and we wring our hands like a wet rag, and we worry; we tell people what we think God wants us to do, we follow our emotions and second-guess ourselves.

Regardless of whether or not God can or does “call” a person in a prophetic, prospective way, we need to be more careful about how we use the word. It is neither normative nor prescriptive in the Bible to expect specific marching orders from the Lord about where, when, how, and whom to serve. You don’t have to wait for God to give you an intense desire to go overseas to “do mission work” and you don’t have to justify yourself for wanting to stay in the States and build a family and minister to your local church as if it’s a lesser important role in the kingdom.

Why? Because the Bible is so very clear! You have already been called. You are part of the household of God, having placed your faith in a crucified and resurrected Jesus, and by grace through faith, you’ve been adopted by the King! So what is your calling? Salvation, firstly, then purpose, adoption, inclusion in the people of God; you are called to an inheritance that is unfading, called into the household of faith, and, not peripherally, called to put your hand to the plow and help with the kingdom work God is already doing – he is saving people and making disciples. How that happens might be a little less like finding a professional, paid ministry position and more like living faithfully for God’s purposes no matter what you do for a paycheck.

Some people might have a Jonah moment or a Saul-to-Paul moment where they get swallowed up by a fish or struck down blind in order toto get them on track with God’s specific plan. I do believe there are a few men and women I’ve met who seem to have this story. But we can not conclude that it is prescriptive for the rest of us. If we wait for a specific “calling” in this manner, we will miss what God is already doing in and through us.

To use the word “called” in the particular way in which someone might mean that God has actually ordained a circumstance means that most of us will only know what God has called us to only retrospectively (looking back).

Considering this usage of the term, I know that I have been called by God for the last 20 years to mentor and encourage young men in the faith. Why? Because that’s what I’ve been doing with my time and money and words and other resources. I know I was called to write a Christian fantasy trilogy. Why? Because I did it. I’m also called to a particular job currently, a particular community and church currently, and to current particular friends.

With this usage of the word, I am also currently called to singleness. If I were to happen to procure a wife, I would only then be called to marriage and to being a good husband. But I can’t, as a normative biblical principale, know that I am called to singleness next year. Or to become an electrician. Those things become clear as they happen or after they have already happened.

But I have heard many young people who use the word “calling” prospectively and tentatively like, “I don’t know if I’m called to missions.” This is a misappropriation of the word as we find it in the scriptures. Do you have a strong desire to tell people about Jesus and his salvific work? Do you connect well with people? Do you find yourself doing evangelism and practicing hospitality? Maybe you should consider doing it more locally and/or moving overseas! Or, maybe you should simply consider that that’s how you’re built and talented, keep your day job, and love the family, church, and community to whom you’ve already been called.

What are the ramifications? If we throw around the word “calling” as if we can prophetically, prospectively know without a doubt that we are going to go, we set an unfortunate expectation to the other believers around us that they must wait for God to do the same for them. Consider the following scenario:

James says he is “called” to Bangladesh. He and his wife Kris have been waiting for seven years for the IMB to get them trained up and sent out. Meanwhile, James and Kris are telling everyone that God has called them to Bangladesh. By the time the IMB gets around to sending them, they end up in Amsterdam. Did God lie? Did they hear God incorrectly? Or was it simply that they weren’t “called,” and only that they strongly desired to go to Bangladesh in order to do good work? That last hypothesis is likely the clearest answer, and while it’s not necessarily that they intended to do harm, they were also speaking on God’s behalf about something they didn’t know for sure. It would have been much truer and more loving to the community of faith if they said they felt “led” or that they “aspired” to do mission work and “were hoping and praying” that it would be in Bangladesh. But now, God has actually, clearly “called” them to Amsterdam. (You should not say tomorrow we will go here or there, but only, “If God wills, we will go here or there.”)

Some people employ the idea of “calling” to vet potential spouses, and some people feel called somehow to paid positions within church structures that didn’t even exist a hundred years ago. People have thrown the word “calling” around so much that some brothers and sisters are waiting for extra-biblical revelation before taking action. The antidote is in the book “Just Do Something,” which in summary states that God has already saved us, and, like St. Augustine said (roughly), “Love God and do what you want”! What these dear saints should do is take account of their giftedness, pick a career path (even if it’s something like accounting or teaching), and love their families and coworkers and the other people they meet no matter what they’re doing. If they choose youth ministry, it will be teenagers. If they choose carpentry, it will be clients, coworkers, neighbors, church members, and family.

Many Christians have been deterred from ministry to their neighbors and family because of a lack of a sense of prospective “calling,” while I’ve also seen men and women develop a sense of pride surrounding theirs – at least according to the general air about some guys. They end up in a place where they’re so caught up with being special that they can hurt and harm those around them incidentally from atop a self-made pedestal. But, to paraphrase a point from Tim Keller’s, “The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness”: We’re all looking for validation from something other than Jesus, but only in Jesus do we get the stamp of approval first and then later just try our best.

You already have gifts, you already know the gospel, and you’ve already been told to worship God in part by serving and loving others. You have already called to all of that. Let’s get to work – together!