What Is A Spiritual Calling?
Everyone talks about living their spiritual calling and finding a purpose in life. Yet few people understand what a spiritual calling is. One reason there may be confusion surrounding the definition of spiritual calling is everyone takes their own unique path to discovering their personal calling. God speaks to us individually and considers our personality, approach to life, and circumstances. For this reason, there really is no one path to discovering your spiritual calling. God wants to lead you to your calling, and it may not be the big mystery you think it is. In the Bible, God expresses a clear desire to engage and communicate with creation. God actively seeks ways to provide direction and support your spiritual calling, but first, we must be clear on what defines a spiritual calling.
Defining Spiritual Calling
Many associate the term calling with a vocation or career, but it is bigger than your job. Spiritual callings encompass every aspect of your life, including your relationships, job choice, and community. When you understand calling from the broadness of your entire life; it is no wonder there are so many approaches in defining what a spiritual calling means. Despite there being many approaches to understanding your spiritual calling; there are unifying themes in various approaches. These themes include: a mission, a discovery, you as an individual, service to others, and a holistic perspective. I will discuss each of these themes below.
The Mission of Spiritual Calling:
You can view your spiritual calling as your life's mission. It is a gift from God that uses your skills, talents, abilities, and values to serve the world around you. One thing to note is that while your mission may be a lifelong calling, how that calling is completed may change as you change and grow. As your circumstances, environment, and opportunities change, so too will how you go about your mission. Callings are adaptive and respond actively to the changing world around you.
Title: Find Myself III, Author: Hannes Flo Source: Flickr is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The Discovery of Spiritual Calling:
There is some disagreement about how one discovers their spiritual calling. For some, they feel their calling comes from outside themselves during periods of prayer, meditation, and contemplation. For others, they experience an inner knowing. I could describe the inner knowing as an awakening, drawing, inner voice, or internal compass. Still others report discovering their life calling through circumstances. These circumstances may include an awareness of need, personal difficulties, or even the advice and wisdom of mentors.
There is no one size fits all approach to discovering your spiritual calling. How you discover your spiritual calling is not as important as being open to the different ways God shares your calling with you.
I would venture to say God focuses on talking to you in a manner best understood by you. Remember, God has no desire to keep your calling hidden from you. It is not a secret code that you only get one shot at discovering. God wants you to know your true purpose in life and will enthusiastically communicate it to you in multiple ways to ensure you hear the message loud and clear.
The Individual “You” of Spiritual Calling:
A spiritual calling is an opportunity for personal growth and development. The discovery and pursuit of your calling is no easy task. As you pursue your spiritual calling, there will be knowledge and skills to be developed, opportunities to pursue, and challenges to meet.
God develops your personal character and stamina through your calling. Your calling is the arena where you grow into the person God designed you to be. Your pursuit of your spiritual calling is your opportunity to live authentically, while growing and maturing spiritually.
The Service of Spiritual Calling:
The pursuit of your spiritual calling isn't only about you; it also involves services to others. A spiritual calling will always remain service focused. Your calling is a link between your private spiritual world and your environment.
A call to serve others isn't just about you. It can range from feeding the hungry to providing great customer service in your job; what matters is there is a connection and point of service to your community. A true spiritual calling will meet two simultaneous goals: developing you as a person and meeting a need.
The Holistic Approach of Calling:
Your spiritual calling is more than a job or vocation. When pursuing your calling, it's easy to get caught up in work. To overcome this bias, you must approach your calling more holistically. A spiritual calling embraces more than employment to be healthy. When you limit calling to a career or vocation, it shortchanges both you and God in developing a meaningful life of service.
A holistic approach to your calling will integrate all aspects of your life. It will impact your social, personal, financial, and spiritual worlds. Your spiritual calling will also impact your family, friendships, community, and the larger world. A spiritual calling does not value one aspect of living over any other. A holistic approach to your spiritual calling seeks to establish balance and harmony in your life.
Conclusion-A Definition of Spiritual Calling:
The themes identified help guide an emerging definition of spiritual calling. The definition isn't all-encompassing; but it provides a clear understanding and framework for defining a spiritual calling. Through integrating these concepts, you can realize a spiritual calling is more than just a job or activity in your life…it is your life.
Definition of Spiritual Calling
Two Types of Spiritual Callings: General & Personal
Now that we have a definition of spiritual calling, it is important to understand the spiritual callings. There are two types: general and personal. Your personal calling is perhaps more familiar, as it is focuses on your life purpose and mission. One type of calling you may have not considered in pursuit of your personal call is God's general calling.
Since the dawn of creation, the general call has been in your spirit. The general call is simply to be in a relationship with God. Your calling expresses that relationship in three different ways. First, out of your love for God and humankind, you contribute meaningfully to God’s creation. The second path is to care for God’s creation by being good stewards of the resources and planet God has provided for your enjoyment. Finally, you build community by establishing health relations, while serving others.
The general call focuses on the broad concepts of creation, care, and community; while your personal spiritual calling uses unique talents and abilities to serve the world. I will talk more about how to know your general and personal calling in future blog post.
By: Heath B. Walters, Ph.D,
Copyright(c) September 21, 2022, Heath B. Walters, DBA Spiritual Life Resources, All Rights Reserved.