It’s that small tug inside of you. That magnetic pull towards a specific skill, an idea, a solution to a problem. An expression that is screaming from within. The mission God has for you in this season. The ringing of a phone that only you can hear. This is what I refer to as a calling. Some people know what their calling is. They know who or what is on the other line. Some pick it up. Others let it ring. And some don’t even hear a sound. There are many reasons why you should pick up that phone and answer it. You might feel there’s something missing in your life. Or you find yourself caring little very about the job you hold or how you spend your time. You might even question your life’s overall purpose. Wondering what you were put on this Earth to carry out. All are very complex questions and deserve answers that take time to find. Below is my attempt at convincing you why you should start that journey of answering the phone and the risks you face when you pretend it doesn’t exist.
Something is Missing
When you’re not actively doing what you are called to do, you will always feel like something is missing. It’s the realization that you’re not very passionate about what you do for a living and how you spend your time. It’s the feeling that you’re wasting your life away. It’s the simple lack of fulfillment. This looks like hitting the snooze button. Not because you’re still tired, but because you don’t have a reason to spring out of bed. Nothing is pulling you out. You’re actually hiding under the blanket from the joyless life you must face. Your mission is not one of great impact, it’s one of simple survival of another day. This feels like misery. Unhappiness. Constant frustration. The vent that never ends. It feels like trying to fit a square peg inside a circle. You might have the belief that this way of living is normal. You might even have very close examples. But I can assure you that there is another way.
Misplaced Talent
There are reasons why your calling is unique to you. It’s born out of your story. Your abilities. Your natural talents. And it’s living inside the things you care about the most. When you spend your days, and ultimately your life, doing work or things that are completely outside of what you are called to do, you inevitably waste your talent. We easily identify “talent” to sports. But talent can be found in people skills, communication, patience, and leading a team. The list goes on. Most of us can recall a coworker or a boss who we could easily see they were wasting their talent. Usually in a negative way, as to say, they weren’t cut out for their role. But in a more positive way, that they’re misplacing their talent. By avoiding the phone, they’re avoiding who they truly are in order to find comfort in the environment around them. Instead of changing their environment to one that they will naturally flourish in. But the real goal should be to have the ability to recognize when we are wasting our own talent. And then to do something about it.
Regrets
If the American Dream is the opportunity to achieve your goals, then the American Nightmare is the untapped potential to achieve what you were born to achieve. It’s the arrival of your deathbed full of regrets. Knowing you had a gift, a special talent inside of you that you didn’t share. A seed from God that you didn’t water. It’s the unbearable weight of two words: What if? What if I wasn’t afraid? We waste too many years of our lives trying to be someone else. Adjusting who we are to find acceptable in the eyes of others. It’s only when we remember how short this life really is do we understand how very little things like this matter. I often think about the Bible talking about the gifts that God has given us (Matthew Ch. 25). It’s a parable from Jesus about a man giving each of his servants a number of talents (or money) based on their individual abilities. All but one of the servants went out into the world and used their abilities (or gifts) to double the money given. The man was very pleased with them and blessed them with even more. The one servant buried his talents instead. He claimed he was afraid. The man was so upset with him and took back his money. The man is God. It’s a reminder to me every day to use my abilities in the service of God no matter how afraid I might be. Because at the end of my days I will leave this Earth knowing I did the work I was called to do. That I gave away the gifts I was given.
Your Gift is For Others
The world needs what you have to offer. I know how cliché that sounds. But it’s true. The world needs the right people in the right places, flourishing organically. It needs more people asking, ‘what can I give this world’ rather than ‘what can I take from it’. And the world doesn’t mean the actual world. It means your corner of it. Being an example for your family. Sharing your gift with your community. And showing up every day, no matter where you might be geographically, as yourself. As whom you were called to be. It doesn’t matter the number of times someone has done the thing you were gifted with. It takes the right person at the right time doing or saying something in the right way in order for it to have an impact on an individual. And at the end of the day, what matters most, is the positive impact you have on someone. Whether it’s through your talent or through your story. If what you have inside of you has the potential to make someone’s life better, or helps them to feel seen or heard, it’s not really yours to keep.
A whole lifetime can hold within itself so many callings, you could turn it into a song. Your purpose changes as the seasons of your life transforms. But as unique as we all are, within the makeup of our lives lies a specific theme. A mission. We can believe that’s not the case. That our story plays out like a black and white movie. Or we can learn to listen for the phone and when it rings, we can muster up the courage to pick it up.
