What was Christ’s calling? To be a carpenter, a son, a friend, a teacher, or a servant leader?
Gary Barkalow, in his work on calling, posited that we have the following.
ROLES: These exist by virtue of our existence or by our decisions. We are a son or daughter, a father or mother, a brother or sister, a . . .
ASSIGNMENTS: These are our work, our ministry, or our hobbies. They change over time.
So which of these is our calling?
Was Christ’s calling to be a carpenter or a teacher, or was His calling to be who He was AS a son, brother, carpenter, or teacher, as a humiliator of Pharisees, as a flipper of commerce tables, as an approacher of a scorned woman, as a healer of the ill, or as one who will return on a white horse with the words KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS written on his robe and thigh?
Can you see? He offered his unique and authentic self, His being truly God and truly man, in all of his roles and assignments. His calling was to offer Himself wherever He was, even on a cross, in a tomb, and again with his disciples.
You are saying that my calling is not my assignment nor my role? My calling is not to be a mom or a CEO or a minister? Then what is my calling?
CALLING: To offer your unique and true self in your Roles and in your Assignments, whatever they may be.
It is to offer your genuine identity, your core and good desires, your unique gifts and talents, and your purpose, as no one else can, as a father, or manager, or volunteer, or pastor. And, when you live out of your true and good desires, your roles and assignments tend to align and have significant purpose. You may also see them quite differently.
This does require that you know who you are, that you live out of and towards your true and good desires, that you know your purpose, and that you are giving permission to be fathered into all of these.
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Leave your comments on what you think below, and check our Gary’s book It’s Your Call to learn more about calling.