This Thing Called Calling

Maybe I've known what it was for a while. But it wasn't available. I couldn't get to it yet. 

I wasn't ready. 

Much of my life has felt like preparation. Preparing me for what? I've never been sure. I have never believed the season I was currently in was going to be long term. Some seasons were certainly longer than others, but none of it seemed to be 'the thing'. 

Recently, I read an article about how to find your calling. (You can read it here.)

This ending paragraph stuck with me:

"Unlike a job that is for a season, a calling will beckon us for a lifetime. It creates an inner drive and restlessness when we live outside of it and peace when we are embracing it and living inside of it. A job is printed on your resume. A calling echoes in your epitaph."

I have lived in that restlessness most of my ever changing vocational life. (Ask anyone who has spent much time with me. I am always looking for the next thing. A little envious of those who have found their 'thing'.)

There have been glimpses of this peace that comes when you do what you are meant to do. Short lived experiences volunteering here or serving over there. Spending a day or a week gaining blisters and being exhausted in service to others. Going on this service learning trip or a brief glimpse into what that thing over there might be like. But I have never gotten to keep it. 

And maybe this side of eternity, I never will. 

But maybe, just maybe, the thing is right around the corner. It is waiting there. Waiting for me to be ready. For us both to be ready. Waiting for when my gifts, talents, abilities, desires all line up in just the right way. Waiting for me to take that next step around the corner to look it in the face. 

The article ends with this:

"Consider your calling and diligently pursue it. It will make all the difference."

So that's what I will do. 

Even if 'the thing' never happens, I will pursue the use of the talents and abilities I have been gifted with in the hope I know to be true. The hope that the One who calls is faithful and when we align with Him, those deep felt longings can be satisfied.  

My mom once said to me, 'you have to go through what you go through in order to get to where you get to.' So I'll keep going through in hopes of getting to.

Because 'the thing', my calling, might be waiting for just the right moment for me to finish going through and to actually get to. 

And maybe, just maybe, it might be right in front of me right now.

(You can read the full article on calling via Relevant Magazine, here.)