Crisis and Your Spiritual Calling

There is a misnomer that your spiritual calling fills you with bliss, peace, and divine guidance. This lie promises a peaceful light of God comes upon you, and, in a state of awe and heavenly ecstasy, God reveals your future path. I would challenge you to find this idyllic calling any place in the Bible. I guarantee you won’t find it.

Crisis precipitates spiritual callings. It can be a personal, family, or even national crisis; but a precipitating crisis appears to be a primary element of calling. You can find examples of this pattern in any biblical story in the Bible. Today we will look at the stories of Joseph and Peter to explore how crisis interacts with calling.

Water Fall & Creek In the Forest

Title: Forest, Author: Erik Olsson, Source: Flickr is licensed by CC BY 2.0

Joseph’s Calling and Spiritual Crisis:

Joseph’s life story is one of the finest narratives to understand how God uses crisis and circumstances to provide a divine calling. It is easy to see God’s divine intervention at the end of the Genesis narrative when Joseph is second in command of the nation of Egypt.  Despite the positive outcome, there is a reason the story of Joseph takes up 13 chapters (just over 25%) of the book of Genesis. It shows God unfolding a spiritual call through various crises: personal, familial, and national.  

For those of you unfamiliar, the story begins with Joseph as the favored son of his father, Jacob. His brothers were jealous of his preferential status and Joseph didn’t help his case much by telling his brothers about a dream where they all bowed to him. As a result, his brothers threw him into a pit and sold him to some slave traders making their way to Egypt.

Joseph’s crisis doesn’t stop there. Pharoah’s wife decides Joseph is handsome and plots to seduce him. When that fails, she claims Joseph attempted to rape her, resulting in his imprisonment. In prison, Joseph’s reputation as a dream interpreter becomes known. One night Pharoah had a disturbing dream, and Pharoah’s cup bearer remembered Joseph could interpret the dream for Pharoah.

Joseph interprets the dream predicting seven years of plentiful harvest and seven years of famine. As a result, Pharoah appointed Joseph as viceroy, second to only Pharaoh himself, to prepare the nation of Egypt for the coming period of scarcity and deprivation. Egypt and the surrounding lands were impacted by the large famine. Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt begging for food to take home. In return, Joseph tested his brothers to determine if they still had malevolent intent. Following the test, Joseph reunited with his brothers and his father, Jacob. As a result, Joseph rescued the future nature of Israel from certain demise.

This is a brief introduction to Joseph's story, but it is important to pay attention to the crises that preceded the fulfillment of Joseph's calling. Joseph's calling begins with a dream that reveals one day his brothers will bow down to him as king. The dream provided an initial call to Joseph of leadership. Despite this knowledge Joseph has no sign of the trials that would befall him. In fact, if we look at his life, there were no signs of eventual success! Joseph is thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, accused of attempted rape, and imprisoned. 

If you believe that God’s spiritual calling is a blissed out, ethereal experience; it is tempting for you to dismiss Joseph as being out of the will of God. Joseph experiences nothing but crisis and tragedy on his way to accomplishing his spiritual calling. There isn’t even any evidence Joseph received ongoing reassurances from God during his crisis. All he received following his initial calling was calamity and trouble; yet he remained called.

As you can see in the story of Joseph, crisis precipitated his calling. This story helps us put calling and crisis into perspective. We believe a lie that spiritual calling arrives in a perfect and peaceful package where a divine light will shine upon us. If we simply respond to that divine light, blessing and prosperity smile upon us as we are pursuing God’s call. The story of Joseph tells us otherwise! 

Peter’s Calling and Spiritual Crisis:

Peter was one of the first disciples to be called to ministry. Peter was a commercial fisherman with his brother Andrew.  Jesus came along and told them to cast their nets to the other side of the boat. It had been a poor day of fishing and Peter would have tried anything to increase his revenue. The result: a ton of fish. In fact, a catch so overwhelming it began stretching and breaking Peter’s nets.

Because of this miracle, Peter saw the divinity in Jesus. He fell to his knees, declaring himself unworthy of God. Jesus then called Peter to his future as a “fisher of men” and Peter left everything to follow Jesus.

Peter became part of Jesus’s closest disciples and was privy to miracle after miracle as he followed Jesus. One would think that Peter’s calling was easy; but it wasn’t! Peter’s life and calling were anything but bliss and blessings. Jesus chastised him for his lack of faith after walking on the water and sinking. Imagine that; Peter took a step of faith and walked on the water with Jesus and instead of a “great first step Peter,” Jesus reprimanded Peter.  In another incident Peter cut off the ear of the solider Malchus at the arrest of Jesus. Jesus demanded Peter to put his sword away as Jesus healed the soldier’s ear. It seems that Jesus couldn’t even respect Peter’s well-intentioned means of protecting his master. A final famous example of Peter’s trials was his denial of even knowing Christ three times. After Peter denied Christ, he fled the scene of Jesus’s trial, weeping with guilt and remorse.

It is time we let go of the spiritual bliss picture of calling and realize that crisis will precipitate your spiritual calling

Let’s be honest! Peter’s spiritual calling and subsequent experiences were less than stellar. Mistakes were made! Personal crisis, conflict with others, emotional overreactions, and ultimately, the denial of Jesus plagued Peter’s spiritual calling. If Peter experienced personal, relational, and societal crisis because of his calling, can we expect any less for ourselves? It is time we let go of the spiritual bliss picture of calling and realize that crisis will precipitate your spiritual calling. You will also endure crisis while living out of your calling. To expect anything less is to desire the beauty of the rose, while denying the cost of its thorns.  

Managing the Crisis of Your Spiritual Call:

Inventory and Assess Your Personal, Family, and Social Crises:

One of the first steps in understanding the role of crisis in your calling is to take an inventory of all the crisis events you've lived through. Often God’s calling is within your crisis, not despite your crisis. The experience of crisis, while traumatic and unwelcome, produces characteristics such as empathy, compassion, and perspective. Through navigating a crisis, we become more aware and sensitive to the pain of others. This awareness brings to your attention the needs of others, your community, and your world.

While I do not believe God pre-designs negative life events for us to endure; You may use your experience of a crisis for good to help meet and ease the pain of others. By identifying your unique crisis and what you have learned through your experiences, you are more sensitive about what is effective in ministering to the needs of others in similar circumstances. Your crisis makes you more aware of the resources and supports needed in your home, community, church, and society. This awareness can lead to action and service.

Heal from Your Spiritual Crisis:

One thing to emphasize in the stories of Joseph and Peter is they were healed before the pursuit of their spiritual calling. For Joseph, his appointment as viceroy restored the wounds of family rejection, slavery, imprisonment, and false accusations to the Pharoah. Genesis doesn’t go into detail about how he worked through his grief, depression, anger, and sadness. Yet it is evident Joseph did some personal healing work behind the scenes. When the opportunity for closure came, he was healthy enough to test and restore family relationships, as well as extend mercy to his brothers.

Peter also learned from his pain. After he denied knowing Jesus three times; Jesus restored Peter, asking him three times if Peter loved him. This is a beautiful allegory of healing. For every denial Peter made he now professed his love for Jesus in a new way. Jesus asked Peter if he loved him three times for every denial Peter expressed during Jesus’s trial and crucifixion. Following each of Peter’s affirmations; A new spiritual call challenged Peter to “feed my lambs”, “take care of my Sheep”, and “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17). The crisis and pain of Peter’s denial was now being healed. The healing resulted in a new spiritual call to step out and lead Jesus’s church. As a result, Peter’s ministry and outreach became a pillar of the modern church we know today.

Crisis can cause loss, pain, anger, and a host of other negative feelings. One theme seen in every biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation is restoration and healing. It is imperative for you to be restored from your crisis before pursuing your spiritual calling. Not that you have overcome or resolve every aspect of the crisis to pursue your calling. Healing takes time and is a process. More importantly the anger, resentment, and hurt experienced is resolved to prevent it from leaking into your service to others.

A common nomenclature that is repeated time and again is, “Hurt people hurt others.”. This hurting of others can be intentional; yet it is often unintentional. The hurting person hasn’t acknowledged how the pain they experienced impacts their own behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. As a result, they cannot see how the pain taints every act they do, both good and bad. Unresolved pain will always leak out through your thoughts, behaviors, and actions.

To resolve this pain, it is important that you not only identify the crisis you have experienced but also the wounds your soul has endured from those experiences. The purpose of this self-inventory is not to perseverate on the negative. Instead, you reflect on how your pain has impacted your experience and growth as a person. It may be helpful to process this pain with a trusted friend, professional counselor, or in pastoral care. It may also be helpful to spend time in meditation and prayer in identifying how God wants you to heal from your pain.

Seek to Serve from Your Spiritual Crisis:

As noted in the stories of Joseph and Peter; crisis preceded an opportunity to serve. Sometimes during our crisis, we can become self-focused. This self-focus is necessary for your healing process. When your physical body incurs an injury; your entire body responds to heal that injury. Pain receptors race to the brain to inform your bodily system of the injury. Blood cells race to the injury site, metabolically suturing the wound and preventing infection. The injury heals, and the wound is closed. Yet, if the body continues to send blood cells and healing to that physical wound, the body develops cancer from too much cellular growth.

Your soul wounds heal the same way. You need a time of rest and restoration for the soul to be renewed. This is a necessary time of self-focus. However, too much self-focus can cause the cancerous growth of anger, resentment, frustration, and depression in your soul. The antidote to this malicious growth is service to others.

While Peter served as an Apostle and Joseph served in his spiritual calling as viceroy to the pharaoh; they continued to serve during the periods of crisis that preceded their spiritual victory. For Peter, he continued to serve as a disciple of Christ, learning at his master’s feet instead of letting his setbacks defeat him. For Joseph, he continued in his role as a dream interpreter for his fellow inmates and persisted in displaying a high level of character and integrity despite the negative accusations that surrounded him. Either man could have become self-focused and given in to their obstacles, becoming bitter and angry. Instead, they resisted and continued to serve in the opportunities that surrounded them.

It is important to note that neither Joseph nor Peter was in ideal situations for their healing and ongoing service. Their focus on remaining true to their mission and service to God and others was paramount to their own healing. So, it is with you!

As you seek to heal from your crisis, it is imperative to seek ways to serve others. Service to your family, friends, community prevents your time of healing from becoming cancerous to your soul by being too self-focused.

Conclusion of Spiritual Calling as Crisis:

While it would be nice to say that your spiritual calling is a time of joy and blessing; the opposite is true. Your spiritual calling is likely to occur amid personal chaos, transition, and crisis. God can work everything together for good, despite the crisis.

Others often use crisis as an indicator to prove you are out of the will of God. As you can see in the biblical narratives of Joseph and Peter, crisis appears to not only precipitate your spiritual call, but seems to accompany you as a co-traveler on your journey. I challenge you to not only look at the spiritual callings of Peter and Joseph, but the spiritual calling of other biblical characters such as Ruth, Esther, Paul the Apostle, Gideon, and the prophets, just to name a few. This will enable you to dispel the lie that your spiritual calling is one of bliss and blessing. Indeed, crisis plays a crucial role in your spiritual call!

The question is not if you will experience a crisis during your spiritual calling; instead, it is how you will respond to that crisis. Your response starts by taking inventory of your crisis and assessing what you have learned and what opportunities to serve occur during the crisis. The second step is to take time to heal from your crisis through prayer, meditation, and the wise counsel of others. Finally, seek ways to serve others, even during your crisis to prevent too much self-focus.

Crisis is a part of your spiritual calling; like Joseph and Peter, it is how you respond to your crisis that determines if you reach the destination on your spiritual journey.

By: Heath B. Walters, Ph.D.

Copyright November 19th, 2022, Heath B. Walters, Spiritual Life Resources, All Rights Reserved

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Your Spiritual Calling is Lifelong Part 4: Later Life