The Complexity of Calling
A Multilayered Approach
“What am I called to do?” It’s a common question for Christians (and non-Christians), and it’s often layered with baggage.
The answers can vary, wildly, even from similar traditions. Here are just a few popular answers to this question:
Calling is something you find by praying about decisions. When you feel a sense of peace, that is the correct decision.
Calling isn’t about any particular thing you do. The Bible says we’re called to Jesus. So be a Christian, then do whatever you’d like to do and don’t worry about what you’re “called” to do.
Our calling is to make disciples of all nations. So anytime we are doing evangelism, we are fulfilling God’s calling in our lives. Everything we do must ultimately be a way to make disciples and evangelize.
Calling is where your deepest desires and the world’s greatest needs meet one another.
I’m not going to pick apart any of these answers, because I think they each offer something helpful to the conversation about calling. But each of these definitions of calling, I think, fails to account for the multilayered way the Bible itself talks about calling. When we fail to see the ways the Bible talks about calling from different angles, we’ll inevitably reduce calling to something less than God intends. To that end, I find it very helpful to think of our "calling” as Christians in terms of three layers of living the Christian life.
Layer #1: Calling is about who you are.
By far the most common way the Bible talks about “calling” is in terms of our calling to salvation: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:28-29). Here, “calling” refers specifically to Jesus’ calling us to Himself. For Christians, this means first and foremost that in all things, we’re called into our true identity as sons of God.
This means that in one sense, “calling” isn’t something fixed, but something formative. Practically speaking, that means in every life situation we’re in, living into our calling requires us to ask, “How is Jesus using this to form me into the person I already am in Christ?” Or, “How am I called to become holy through this situation?” Let’s think of the way this might impact the way a Christian thinks about marriage. Instead of merely asking, “Whom should I marry?” or “Did I marry the right person?” - which would reduce marriage to ‘the thing that would make me the happiest’ - we can ask, “How is this marriage (or celibacy) making me holy?”
In one sense, this is freeing. But it would be problematic to stop here. If calling is only about who we are, this diminishes the importance of wisdom, stewardship, gifts, pleasure, circumstances and creational goodness. If we reduce calling to the call to holiness and identity, we’ll be in danger of being “innocent as doves”, but fail to be “as wise as serpents.” (Matthew 10:16) So taken by itself, calling merely as an identity can become a kind of pietism, which prizes Christian activities but diminishes excellence. However, if it’s the first of three strands, it adds a layer of holiness and identity to our sense of call.
Layer #2: Calling is about what you do.
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul uses the word “calling” to refer to the particular circumstances lower class Christians find themselves in: “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” (1 Cor. 7:17) This is a remarkable statement, because “calling”, in both Paul’s Jewish and Greco-Roman context, is a term normally reserved for those called to high status roles: prophets, priests or kings. But Paul turns this word on its head: the lowliest of day laborers has an “assignment”, Paul says, to which they have been divinely appointed by God.
In a very basic sense, then, our calling is also about all of the responsibilities in life that God has assigned to us. If you were to take an inventory of everything you are responsible for: your home, job, neighborhood, family, friendships, etc, you would discover, in one sense, the situation to which you have been called. Paul’s counsel about this is incredibly helpful. On the one hand, Paul tells the lower-class day laborers not to despise the situation to which God has called them: “Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it.” (1 Cor. 7:20). Even this lowly position is a calling from the Lord. At the same time, in the very next verse Paul advises these lower class workers to take any opportunity they can find to win freedom from their circumstances: “But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity!” (1 Cor. 7:20-21).
Do you hear the nuance in Paul’s description of calling? On the one hand, focus on what’s in front of you. Your calling isn’t “out there”. It’s right in front of you. So take care of the situation in front of you with all of your heart. At the same time, he says: “But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.” In other words, it’s good and right to be on the lookout for ways in which you can lean more into the gifts God has given you. The call to care for and be content with our current circumstances is not a call to passivity. Christians don’t need to be shy about seeking better educational or occupational opportunities, provided they will enable us to serve others better. And so, the second question Paul encourages us to ask is:
What are all of my responsibilities (both internal gifts and external circumstances) and how can I fulfill them with excellence?
Again, it’s important that we don’t reduce calling to this second category of circumstance. If we did that, we’d end up with a kind of health-and-wealth gospel, in which “calling” is simply a deeply pragmatic way to pursue worldly ends. If circumstances are the only determining factor in our calling, then we’ll fall into pragmatism. However, if it’s the second of three strands, we can add to our call to holiness a call to excellence.
Layer #3: Calling is about God’s mission.
Again, Paul speaks to the lower class believers of his day in ways that would surprise his readers: “Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.” (Ephesians 6:5-8)
These verses of course have a terrible and storied history, as they were used for spiritual manipulation in the context of American slavery. But in context, these words were not written to give an excuse for masters to domineer others. Rather, they are a way to provide dignity to lower class laborers in Paul’s days who did not have an opportunity to find freedom. Here, Paul encourages them by assuring these lower class laborers that even in their low position, they can fulfill God’s mission, provided that they do their work as a way to serve God by offering true service to others. So, no matter your position, Paul is saying, you can be part of God’s kingdom mission. You can practice the way of the kingdom if you are a doorman or a stay at home mother or a mailman, if you do these things in imitation of Jesus. Here, Paul gets at why we do what we do: are we living out our calling as an act of selfishness, or an act of service? Are we pursuing our career merely to make more money than our neighbor and get more goodies or status out of life, or are we pursuing our calling with a sense of service toward others? This is the final question Paul calls us to ask: how can I serve others through the things I put my hand to?
My friend who is a mechanic once shared with me that he often hears Christians say something like, “I don’t care if my mechanic is a Christian. I’d rather him be a good mechanic.” There’s something true about this, because it’s picking at the idea that calling is only about holiness, whereas calling is, in reality, also about pursuing excellence. However, my mechanic friend noted: “Yeah, but if you knew what happened behind the scenes…I think you’d definitely want your mechanic to be a Christian. Mechanics can easily take advantage of people who often don’t know much about cars. It’s easy. I try to pursue my work as an act of service, and trust me, it looks very different.” Not only does my friend do his work with honesty and integrity, but he regularly goes out of his way to help single moms or houseless walk-ins from our congregation having car problems. The work he’s doing might not technically look much different from that of his co-workers, but the heart behind his work is entirely different: he’s pursuing his calling as an act of service.
Now again, taken by itself, this strand of calling can devolve into idealism: if I’m not changing the world, or if I don’t directly see how my work is doing justice and mercy, it’s unimportant. But with the other two strands of calling in mind - holiness and excellence - we can add a third strand to the chord of our calling: the call to service in Jesus’ name.
Conclusion
As I’ve been thinking through calling with a small cohort this semester, this framework has been helpful to me. Some of us have a pietistic bent when thinking about our calling, others have a pragmatic bent, and others tend to be idealists. But if calling is meant to be about our identity in Christ first, our stewardship of our situation second, and our participation in God’s mission ultimately, then I think a lot of the mystique surrounding calling tends to disappear. We can simply ask:
How am I being formed into my identity in Christ through my current calling?
What are the responsibilities before me (including my own internal gifts and external circumstances), and how can I pursue them with more excellence?
How can I do my work in Jesus’ name as an act of service?
Putting these three questions continually before us will allow us to live out our calling with holiness, excellence and service. That, I think, does full justice to the biblical vision of our calling in Christ.