MAY 16, 2005

WHAT IS YOUR CALLING?
By Pastor George Van Alstine

We often refer to someone’s job as his or her “calling.” Actually, the word “vocation” is a direct loan of the Latin word meaning ”calling.” It was once used only with reference to religious positions, but now we use it to describe anyone’s career work by which they earn a living. There’s something nice about this, because it suggests that any job, no matter how secular, can be ennobled when we do it in a way that honors God. Paul encouraged even slaves to do their demeaning work “as done for the Lord and not for your masters” (Colossians 3:23).

But when the New Testament uses the word “calling,” it usually has a much more profound meaning. In fact, there is no passage in the Gospels or Epistles that refers to our “calling to do” something or other. Every use of this term that I have discovered speaks of our “calling to be” something.

We live in a “do”-oriented society. We focus on what a person accomplishes. The Lord seems more interested in who a person is.

Consider this salutation in the beginning of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes. To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints . . .”
Paul was called to be; the Corinthians were also called to be. God had a purpose that involved all of them, but they were not primarily called to do the things that would further his purpose. They were called to be people of a certain quality. He would accomplish his purpose through them as they became the kind of people he could use.

Our calling is always referred to as a gracious gift from God, never as a burden to be borne. It is described as a “high calling” (Philippians 3:14), a “holy calling” (2 Timothy 1:9), and a “heavenly calling” (Hebrews 3:1).

We are called to be all we can be—and more! Our highest potential, our personal best, is magnified by the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit, so that our calling can be described as “holy,” glorifying to God. He doesn’t call us to do something; he calls us to be something. He gives us souls of substance prepared to live God’s eternal life here and hereafter.