Having a Purpose
When I was in high school, I bought a Mason Williams record album. One of the cuts was a tongue-in-cheek song that lasted about thirty seconds. Here are the entire lyrics of the song:
“Isn’t life beautiful?
Isn’t life gay?
Isn’t life the perfect thing
to pass the time away?”
I love the irony. In a time when gay still meant happy, the song trivialized the meaning of life. But in doing so, the songwriter reminded us of how important life really is.
For Christians, life’s importance lies in calling. Our lives are bigger than the sum or their mortal parts. God has created us for a mission. But think about where that statement takes us:
- If God has created us for mission, then he owns our lives.
- We are not the boss.
- We are going to answer to God for what we do with our lives.
Finding Our Purpose in Calling
For some of us these points are obvious. The question is not so much whether we are called, but how. I sometimes hear the question stated, “How do I find God’s will for my life?” The question is innocent, but misguided. It expects God to provide us with the complete set of architectural specs for our days.
The truth is, he just does not show us his particular will for our lives in detail. If he did, the weight probably would crush us. Instead, he calls us to walk by faith day by day and trust him to fill in the details. The literal translation of Psalm 119:105, for example, is, “Your word is a lamp onto my foot, and a light to my path.” God leads us literally one step at a time.
This does not mean that God leaves us in the dark, however. The Bible talks freely about calling. In fact, it uses the term in the general sense and in relation to ouf life’s mission. Both can be found in the book of Romans.
Calling in the General Sense
Let’s look at calling in the general sense first. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans,
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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
--Romans 8:29-30, emphasis added
Obviously, calling in this context refers to our salvation. If we know Christ, we are called according to God’s purpose. We belong to him because he has sought us and called us.
Calling in the Specific Sense
Is that all, though? Are we to be content to receive Jesus and then sit back and enjoy the ride to heaven?
Obviously not. If we truly know him, then we ought to feel a sense of restlessness, a desire to do something greater with our lives. This restlessness to achieve good things for our Lord is calling in the specific sense. Once we settle our standing with Christ, he calls us to walk with him in faith. In this sense, each person’s calling is unique.
An example of specific calling occurs at the very beginning of Romans, where Paul describes himself as “a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God...” (Romans 1:1).
From the day he was saved, Paul was called to preach the gospel. His sense of calling drove him to pursue his mission with single-minded dedication. In the next installment, we will look at the way that God brought his calling about.