Gordon T. Smith - Consider Your Calling

CONSIDER
YOUR
CALLING

Six Questions for
Discerning Your Vocation

GORDON T. SMITH

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL
60515-1426
ivpress.com

2016by Gordon T. Smith

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple
Images: Job finding icons: Stock vector exdez/iStockphoto
Looking for talents icon: Stock vector exdez/iStockphoto
Fitness icons: Stock vector exdez/iStockphoto
Health icons:Stock vector exdez/iStockphoto
Educational computer: Stock vector exdez/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-9918-0 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-4607-8 (print)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Smith, Gordon T., 1953
Title: Consider your calling : six questions for discerning your vocation /
Gordon T. Smith.
Description: Downers Grove : InterVarsity Press, 2016. | Includes
bibliographical references. | Description based on print version record
and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015036052 (print) | LCCN 2015037343 (ebook) | ISBN
9780830899180 (eBook) | ISBN 9780830846078 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Vocation--Christianity.
Classification: LCC BV4740 (print) | LCC BV4740 .S629 2016 (ebook) | DDC
248.4--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036052

for joella

What is the good work to which you are called? That is a good question, but it is not a simple question.

It is a good question because our work matters to us, to others and, of course, it matters to God. Indeed, the creator of the universe is the one who longs to give us good workto call us into work that reflects the purposes of God in the world. Thus, it is a good question because work itself is a good thing.

For many, of course, work is sheer toil, with cruel and demeaning work conditions. But in that situation the problem is not work but the working conditions. Work itself is good. It is vital to our human identity, and we are most ourselvesmost who God calls us to be, living in what it means to know the salvation of Godwhen we know the grace of work well done.

Indeed, we will only be happywe will only flourish in the way that was intended when God created uswhen we are doing good work. The goal of life is not less work but to know and embrace the good work to which we are called.

But while What is the good work to which you are called? is a good question, it is not a simple question. We are complicated souls and we live complicated lives. There is so much about daily life, our circumstances and the problems we face, that makes it difficult to make sense of the issues that intersect our lives. So many questions swirl through our minds as we encounter the inevitable transitions we have to navigate.

And we will navigate transitions. We hear different statistics all the time around the question of career changes. It would not be an overstatement to say that most of us will have a significant career and life transition every four to five years. We live in a fluid economy; the institutions of which we are a part are in constant flux. Our family situation changes, pressing us to consider what implications this has for our work.

And so, while it is a good questionit is complicated. And we do not wrestle with the question just once in life but rather as a regular part of living in a complex world. Therefore, surely, one of the basic capacities for living well is knowing how to navigate these transitions. Yes, there is the prior and ultimate question (What is the good work to which you are called?) but with that in mind, there are questions we can ask ourselvesquestions that can help us make sense of these transitions and do so in light of the purposes of God in our lives. And that is the key: we want to approach the complexity of life and work through the lens of vocation. We consider the calling of God on our lives and find clarity and purpose in life and work by coming at it all with a desire to know God and discern calling.

We easily view ourselves as victims of our circumstances, of what others have done for us and the ways they have, perhaps, limited our lives. But we are not only victims, which means we have the capacity to be proactive, to not only react but also consider and move in Gods grace into work that God gives us. To considerand that is the wordour world and our circumstances. To think, to think carefully, and to be in conversation with others making the best sense we can of what it means for us to respond to God, for this time and place. We want to be intentional.

We need resources that empower us to take personal responsibility for our own lives and our vocations. We may feel like victims living with the consequences of the decisions of othersor even our own decisions or actions, wishing we had spent more time in school or wishing we had not quit a jobbut the actions of others and our own regrets need not define us. We can foster a capacity to be proactive, to name our reality but also engage that reality with confidence, hope and courage. We need not allow ourselves to be victimized by our circumstances, but can consider how God is calling us to respond with hope.

This means we choose and we act. Our vocation can be thought of as an invitation from God in Christ. It is a calling, something to which we are beckoned, and now it is for us to respondto choose to accept the invitation. And no one will do this for us. Each of us needs to reflect on the particulars of Gods call in the midst of the particulars of our circumstances.

We can take personal responsibility for our lives. We can be stewards of the way that lies before us. We are not alone in this process of discernment and we will fulfill our vocations with others who will both help us along the way and, no doubt, stand in our way and impede us. But in the end, we are called to be stewards of our livesour potential, our giftedness, our opportunitiesand to invest our lives for the kingdom of God. We can, each one of us, look at the stage on which we have arrived and respond to the opportunity to act in response to Gods call with gratitude, hope and courage.