God’s Calling and Your Legacy

God created each of us with a unique contribution to make in our world.

No other person has our same abilities, motivations, network of friends and relationships, perspectives, ideas, or experiences. When we, like misplaced puzzle pieces, fail to show up, the overall picture is diminished.”  

 Richard Stearns: President of World Vision U.S.
Quote from his book: The Hole in our Gospel 

 ●”The Lord created each of us individually with different Spiritual Gifts, Passions, Abilities, Strengths and a Unique Personality with different experiences. Helping each other put the pieces of the seeming puzzle together so we each can be most effective in our families, church, community and the world and finish our lives well and leave a legacy that gives glory to the LORD so when we stand before Him one day, we will hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Isn’t that what we would like to hear one day?

Now we just need to find a good place where we can put the pieces of the puzzle together and bring glory to the LORD. Good prayer.

In the second half of life and still haven’t found your calling?

“The key to a successful second half is not a change of jobs; it is a change of heart, a change in the way you view the world and order your life.”
― Bob P. Buford, Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance

“As you take stock, ask yourself these similar questions: What is my passion? How am I wired? Where do I belong? What do I believe? What will I do about what I believe? Or, as Peter Drucker advised people who were looking for their life’s task: What are my values, my aspirations, my directions, and what do I have to do, to learn, to change, in order to make myself capable of living up to my demands on myself and my expectations of life?”
― Bob P. Buford, Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance

More about calling from The Art of Work by Jeff Goins

Jeff Goins states that “everyone, it seems, is searching for a purpose, for something to satisfy their deepest desires. I believe that “something” is a calling.”
And what is that? It’s the reason you were born!

A calling is not some carefully crafted plan. It’s what’s left when the plan goes horribly wrong.

You don’t “just know” what your calling is. You must listen for clues along the way, discovering what your life can tell you. Awareness comes with practice.

You cannot find your calling on your own. It’s a process that involves a team of mentors. And everywhere you look, help is available.

Your calling is not always easy.. It will take work. Practice can teach you what you are and are not meant to do.

Discovering your calling is not an epiphany but a series of intentional decisions. It looks less like a giant leap and more like building a bridge.

It will take a few tries before you get your calling right. Failure isn’t what prevents us from success, then. It’s what leads us there.

Your calling is not just one thing; it’s a few things. The trick is to not be a jack-of-all-trades but to become a master of some.

Your calling is not a job. It is your entire life.

Your calling is not a destination. It is a journey that doesn’t end until you die.

At the end of life

A calling is what you have when you look back at your life and make sense of what it’s been trying to teach you all along.

Some of words of wisdom from John Henry on “Calling” from a previous post.

A few excerpts below

Memories endure

Life is fragile, but in Christ, it is also eternal. It’s what we do with this life that matters.
Whether young or old, stop to reflect on the road you are traveling—the highs, the lows, and the multitude of experiences in between. Amid the busyness of life, don’t fail to take account of significant memories, the moments that have defined you. Those pivotal moments shape us and inform us of our calling.

We can’t always hear God’s calling, just as we don’t naturally see God. Calling is not primarily about hearing an audible voice or seeing an extraordinary sign. Calling is about knowing our identity in Christ and His purpose for us. But we are hindered from hearing, and obstacles get in the way of our vision. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you” (Eph. 1:18). Paul understood that our vision could be blocked. We can get stuck.

Are you stuck?

If God is calling us and our life’s events are God’s way of informing us of our purpose, then our memories are important. Some memories are difficult to recall, some haunt us, and others are blocked out for whatever reason. Memories are often laced with pain,
sorrow, guilt, and regret; many are traumatic. Traumatic memories are why we get stuck.

Your calling and the future

Conclusion:

As we look back on our lives…from grade school to present…and document our memories….

In all our passions, abilities, gifts, and our experiences, we may or should see a common thread running through all this. How one event lead to another and another. We may call it chance, fate, luck, coincidence of providence.

A word from The Call by Os Guinness

“Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service” P. 29

Some excerpts from:  God’s Best for My Life by Lloyd John Ogilvie 

“What are we daring to attempt which could not be accomplished without His strength and intervention? So often we plan our lives around what we could do without Him on our own.  A sure sign that we are in communion with the Lord is that we are attempting what only He can do? Can you identify that in your life?”

Just a few questions you may want to ask yourself:

What is God calling me to do?  Have I asked Him?

Do we have peace with God?

Our work and our calling.

My other posts on “Calling”