Job – the thing you do to make a living
· they put bread on the table, help you get your first car or apartment and help you pay off your school loans.
Career /Vocation /Occupation
· the progression of jobs that start to form the long term direction of your occupation.
· e.g. business, medicine, education, law, social work, sales, marketing, law enforcement, nursing, journalism….or countless others.
Jobs and careers are important Col. 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. But jobs and even careers are too small vision and purpose for your life.
Role - the part you play in other people’s lives
· father, mother, wife, husband, son, daughter, brother, sister, friend, co-worker
Again, crucial but not necessarily your calling.
Hobby/pastime/ avocation - the thing you do for joy or leisure
· camping, gardening, cooking, golf, etc.
· this can be important because it reveals your joy and gladness
Now, Some people can live their whole life with simply those things and be very happy!
But, they may or may not fill the deeper longing of your life. “What a person can be they must be” Abraham Maslow
Calling - A calling is an invitation, a summons, or a beckoning
· calling is God initiated and Kingdom purposes oriented
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
Destiny – your final calling
· Convergence – Bobby Clinton in his book Making of a Leader calls this convergence.
· Destiny is calling on steroids
· Destiny is your ultimate/final calling
· Destiny is calling maximized.
· Destiny is ultimately defines your legacy you leave.
· Destiny is that aspect of your calling that leaves a legacy
Destiny is implied here:
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Philippians 3:13-15
How do you discover your calling and eventually your destiny?
Construct and then analyze your Life quilt:
· Life quilt is the composite of your life – to date.
· Life quilt is the fusion of many of your life experiences, and personal makeup.
· The Life quilt changes over time as new experiences are added.
· at any time you can stop and examine your life quilt and with meditation, counsel and insight determine what your calling is at that moment in time and a hint as to your destiny.
The segments of your quilt:
1. the way you were made by God – your shape
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14
a. your wiring
i. your personality
ii. e.g. enneagram score
b. spiritual gifts
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:6-7
2. your journey with God
3. family of origin shaping
4. shaping experiences/moments both good and bad
5. mentors and important people who shaped you
6. 6 broken places passion/ heartburn/ concern
7. the thing that makes you glad and full of passion
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Beuchner
8. This peculiar moment in your life.
a. unusual circumstances
And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14