Finding Your Calling – The Micro and the Macro
For a long time, I’ve mused over the idea of calling. What does it mean to have a life calling? In school, they had an entire center devoted to Life Calling (it was a Christian College…..obviously). But at the end of the day, all of this talk of calling led me to more confusion than clarity.
They positioned calling as some grand adventure in which you go and find what you are really called to do. Ironically, saying it that way sounds very similar to a lot of eastern religious ideas of finding yourself.
But somehow my calling as a part of my profession never really materialized. There was no light in the sky, no burning bush, no flipping through scripture and landing on a particular one. No clear, unwavering divine guidance.
And to be honest, I think that’s how most of us live. Most people I know never had a voice from heaven telling them that they needed to get into a particular profession.
You see, the modern church has distorted and minimized this idea of calling. If you are a follower of Christ, you have a calling. Read through scripture, I think it will be pretty clear. Here are some of the things you are called to:
- Go and make disciples
- Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
- Do not worry about your life
- Take care of the least of these
- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
- Love your neighbor as yourself
And there are dozens more. Those are all part of your macro calling. No matter what occupation you work in, these are always the same. If you are a Christian, this is your calling.
Now you can also have a micro calling. This is your job, your occupation, your purpose more specific than the above calling. Maybe it’s to work in a non-profit. Maybe it’s to be a nurse. Maybe it’s to be a stay at home mom. It doesn’t matter.
But what you have to realize is that to truly be impactful in your micro calling, you need to excel in your macro calling. If you want God to use you in your job, you need to first learn to let God take everything in your life.
Without working on your macro calling, you will only have a small impact in your micro calling.