The Call: Finding and Fulfilling God's Purpose For Your Life

by Os Guinness

First, there has been a dire shrinkage in how we understand God’s call by drastically reducing the immensity of its significance to our individual lives alone.

Deep in our hearts, we all want to find and fulfill a purpose bigger than ourselves. Only such a larger purpose can inspire us to heights we know we could never reach on our own.

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.

If there is no Caller, there are no callings—only work.

God normally calls us along the line of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service, not selfishness.

Our gifts are ultimately God’s, and we are only “stewards”—responsible for the prudent management of property that is not our own.

First, God’s call always challenges us directly to rise to our full stature as human beings.

We are not wanderers, but we are wayfarers. We have discovered that he is the way, but we are still on the road. Our faith is a pilgrim faith essentially at odds with place and settlement.

Thus, for followers of Christ, calling neutralizes the fundamental poison of choice in modern life. “I have chosen you,” Jesus said, “you have not chosen me.” We are not our own; we have been bought with a price. We have no rights, only responsibilities. Following Christ is not our initiative, merely our response, in obedience. Nothing works better to debunk the pretensions of choice than a conviction of calling. Once we have been called, we literally “have no choice.”