Callings: What if I miss it?

Decisions can be paralyzing. Especially the decisions being made now- colleges, majors, and career paths all loom before us, a million different options that all feel like they dictate the rest of our lives. For some people it looks really easy. They have a really strong calling on their life for a certain career or a certain major. They seem to know wholeheartedly what God’s calling is for their lives and they can follow it, tossing aside all the other options that don’t fit.

For the rest of us it isn’t as clear. We know that God has a calling for our lives. We just don’t know what it looks like. The fear of missing God’s calling on our lives makes every decision carry that much more weight and importance, because with every step we wonder “what if this isn’t what God has for me?” We start to see decisions not only as what they will lead to, but as what they will not lead to. We become afraid to rule out anything completely, leaving doors open just in case we figure out that that’s actually where God really wants us to be. It’s basically Calling FOMO. You can become so afraid of missing God’s calling for your life by making the wrong decision that you stop making decisions.

God’s calling on our lives is meant to be a source of stress, nor is it some spiritual scavenger hunt where we have to decipher clues in order to receive the “prize” of our calling. Rather, God’s calling is meant to bring us peace; we can trust that God has a plan for us and that it will be fulfilled. After all, the God of all the universe is more mighty and powerful than a major or a piece of paper.
 
The only way to miss God’s calling on your life is to not seek it. When we pursue God and actively yearn to align our heart and will with God’s, then we will fall into our calling by nature of following God. Romans 8:28 says “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” The Passion Translation puts it this way: “we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose.”

In both translations it becomes clear that the pressure isn’t on us. As followers of Christ, we are called according to his purpose, and he is the one who weaves together the good plans. We are the instrument of God’s goodness, a way for his love to be shown in the earth. His calling exists to bring goodness into our lives. We just have to be open to his plan and calling on our lives, and that allows him to fulfill that work and bring us into our calling.

Author | Sarah Savoie