Finding your calling
Everyone is searching for a clear direction in life.
Christians get even more specific by seeking God’s direction.
I’m not talking about clear direction, like, “should I tell people the gospel?” Such inquiries get answered plainly in Scripture. What I’m taking about is the vague, obscure questions. So let me put your mind at ease…
There are probably more important things to God than scrutinizing every single minutiae of your life.
- Who should I date?
- What should I do for a living?
- Should I go on a missions trip?
- Should I take that job offer?
- Should I eat at Chipotle or Burger King?
“Ah,” you counter, “but shouldn’t I be doing ALL to the glory of God?” (1 Cor. 10:31)
Yes, but what exactly does that mean? Does it mean that there are limitless amounts of tiny decisions throughout your day that can either make or break whether you are glorifying God? Like, is God secretly hoping that you will choose Chipotle to eat lunch instead of a hamburger? Does it mean that when you eat a sandwich, you should be thinking happy thoughts of Heaven every time you gnaw on that salami? Does God prefer blue eyes over green eyes in your dating life? Boxers or briefs??
God speak to me!!!
Now, I know these are silly examples, but they are exaggerations of what we actually do with our decision-making. Of course, I do believe that the Holy Spirit leads us to make decisions (even in small ones). But I also believe that the He will often do this by simply giving us the wisdom (a spiritual gift) to make those decisions.
Paul once said something to the Romans after he got done unloading a bunch of detailed theology on them that pertains. He said,
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
Let me rephrase Paul’s statement in Lazo-language…
“Hey people, chill! All of your decisions are born out of your worldview and outlook on life. So CHANGE YOUR WORLDVIEW! Renew it, transform it, cause it to align itself with God’s by immersing yourself in His Word, and then you’ll find that even your smallest decisions will be under the influence of God. You won’t have to scrutinize every little mundane detail and whether it is good or acceptable and perfect, just like you don’t have to think about breathing oxygen. You just do, because that’s how your body works. Well, a transformed life works a certain way too: it desires to glorify God, and everything it does follows that underlying desire.”
You’re gonna do what you love the most. And if you love God the most, your decisions are probably going to reflect that.
Of course, be careful to allow God to intervene in your life and direct you in specific ways, if he so chooses. But remember that God just wants you to love him, and live your life out of the outflow of that love.
Your purpose is to love him, and your DNA is to obey.
Augustine put it this way, “Love God, and do what you want.”
Now maybe I’m drunk with liberty, but could some (even much) of our decision-making be as easy as just figuring out what you enjoy doing in life, and doing it to honor God?
Am I off?
Posted on April 30, 2011, in mission, Vocation and tagged Missional living, Missions. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” 1 Peter 2:16 ESV
You are right on. I’m not a Greek or Hebrew scholar, but doesn’t the word “salvation” in Hebrew (Yasha) mean “wide open” and “vast.”
I realize that the above passage is taken a little out of context in the light of what you were writing about, but I think that the principle is that those who belong to the Lord are to live freely.
My point that if we are constantly trying to discern God’s will in every decision from where to have lunch (Chipotle always wins over the BK lounge in my playbook) or where to earn a living, then that MINDSET can become bondage. And bondage is not freedom.
The key, which you said, is having a redeemed perspective.
I’m not trying to take away from the Biblical mandate to seek God’s will in everything we do, we should. But there’s a healthy balance there too, right? I mean, how many people are completely debilitated through the fear of wondering if God is pleased with what they’re doing?
I hope I didn’t come across as thinking you were belittling the mandate to please the Lord. I think youre right on and thats exactly the point: “perfect love casts out fear.” So why should we be afraid of disappointing the Lord if we really desire to please Him? I might even say that when we’re so overwhelmed with trying so hard to please the Lord, we eventually become enslaved by it. And that displeases the Lord. Grace has set us free. When we are genuinely pursuing Him, the Holy Spirit will convict us if we begin to go astray or if our trajectory becomes off. But we need to live in the glorious freedom that has been purchased for us at such a steep cost, while at the same time, not abuse that freedom.
Its a dichotomy. But so is the Law and the Gospel. The tension therein is proof that we love him. There needs to be balance, absolutely.
I’ve actually been thinking about this all day, trying to figure out where the healthy tension lies between agnoledging God in all of our ways and understanding that all of our decisions will flow out of what we love most. And here’s what I’m thinking, maybe our agnoledging God in all our ways doesnt come in the form of specifics like “should I date this person, or take this job, or go to this school.” but rather to agnoledge God by asking the question “in this circumstance I’m I honestly loving God and doing what I want? Or am I loving myself and doing what I want?” because it seems like that is where our true confusion lies, not so much in the actual choice, but rather the motive behind our choice.
Britney,
I like where you’re going with that. I would say that there are many clear things in the Scriptures that do actually dictate specific choices, e.g. “Do not be bound together with unbelievers” (2Cor.6:14). And there are also many grey areas that the Scriptures don’t always address with specific clarification, e.g. “Do you want me to open up my own business?”
I think the latter choices should still be made while seeking the wisdom of God as well as the voice of God, and as you said, it’s probably more about motive of heart than the details of the choice. But then again, there have been many times that I sensed God “speaking” to me to do something I thought was mundane, which turned out to be quite significant…
Ah yes, maybe i should have prefaced my answer by saying that I’ve always been the type of person to believe that God probably does have an exact plan for what school, what job, what person you should date etc. So in attempting to see the truth that lies in an opposing viewpoint, i was taking on a more liberal view of what it means to “acknowledge God in all our ways”. But my thought was, that if God truly is our greatest desire, we would know the word of God and the specific commands like 2Cor6:14. So if we came across a situation like “I want to date this person but they aren’t a believer.” If we asked ourself the question “am i loving God and doing what i want? or loving myself and doing what i want” we would quickly see it was the second.
As for the questions that aren’t so easily answered in scripture (like what career choice to make) I’ve found that sometimes the question i asked above still helps in making the choice. I recently found that there was one area of my career that I was putting all sorts of effort into without seeing any fruit of God using me in that specific area. And i realized that if my true desire was to bring glory to God, and i wasn’t seeing the fruit of that in that area, then i wasn’t truly loving God ultimately by still pursuing it. I was loving myself. So maybe God doesn’t necessarily care exactly which job, or career choice we make. But if we see crazy fruit in one area God has us, and we don’t see fruit in another, it might be a good time to recognize that maybe God desires for us to spend our time on the areas where he is using us most, even if it isn’t the area we originally thought we should spend all of our time in.
Just thinking this all through… sorry for the novel on your blog. haha!
I agree with you. The more I fall in love with God and the more He becomes my everything, the more I see that everything flows naturally out of His transformation. I dont just want to go here the word of God out of an “act”, my soul cries out and truely WANTS to learn the word of God. Cuz thats who God made me.