Stress a little less about big decisions in your life - General Calling

This post is adapted from Brett's thesis in Episode 1.

Christian or not, you’ve probably heard someone say something like - “I feel like I’m called to move here” - or - “I’m called to do this.” A Christian is probably going to say that God is calling them, and a non-Christian is going to have another explanation - it may be something else they believe in, or a principle they ascribe to. But if you really press them on it - whether Christian or not - they are likely going to concede that they feel and think that is what they should do. I’m not saying they don’t believe in the explanation they have - it’s just that there is almost always a personal bias we don’t admit to having.

And I think that’s the first thing to admit about yourself when you are talking about things you think you “should do” or you think you are being “called to.” Am I being called, or am I doing the calling? And once you check yourself - then you can start actually thinking, meditating, praying, talking through these decisions in your life.

So, as we try to think about what it means to explore our calling from a Biblical standpoint, we have to look and see how God has called others in the Bible.

When you take an honest look at it, the current pervasive idea and feeling of calling doesn’t really match with the examples given in the Bible.

All throughout the Old Testament, we see God choosing and calling people to certain things, but we see now that it was an orchestration leading up to a specific purpose - Jesus. We also see in the New Testament how God called specific people for specific purposes. Many of those examples fall into the nature of God’s orchestration of authority - Jesus derives His teaching authority from the Old Testament, and then gives it to the Apostles through the Holy Spirit for the purpose of establishing the Church.

An example of God specifically calling someone to a certain task or ministry is seen when Paul and Barnabas are set apart with a specific call on their lives - to go and preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

So - there are examples of individuals being called to specific things by God. But, if you just do a quick search of the word “call” in the Bible, a majority the passages that you’re going to see - especially in the New Testament, which is the covenant that we live in now - you’re going to see general statements to all Christians. When looking at the vast majority of Scripture you see that our being chosen in our acceptance of salvation through Christ is directly tied with being called. In other words - a genuine repentance and acceptance of salvation always coincides with a “call” on your life from God.

These general statements ring with sentiments of a restoration of God’s design. Themes of sanctification, restoration, and love of God and neighbor are more present than specific commands - and any specific command you see.

So, we can see that for a majority of us who are living as Christians there’s no guarantee that we’re all going to have a specific “call” on our life - as a missionary, pastor, or some other vocation, place, or circumstance.

I want to be clear - that doesn’t mean that specific calls do not exist. But I do think understanding that all are called to a general calling actually opens us up to a less stressful, more fulfilling life in Christ, along with the ability to do more good as God presents the opportunities to us.

No longer must we sit on the small questions of calling, but we can act - knowing that we are all called to Christ-like living, the advancement of the Gospel, and all that comes with it.