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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Paula Faris
Read between
October 1 - October 16, 2024
Martin Luther King: “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
I’ve been plagued by fear my whole life—fear of failure, fear of not fitting in, fear of being alone, fear of being embarrassed, fear that I didn’t belong, fear that I wasn’t good enough—and over the years, I’d almost lost myself to those fears. But time after time, God moved me through those fears and into a deeper sense of my callings, both my faith calling and the calling of my career.
our calling has two distinct facets—a faith or life calling (which I’ll term faith calling for the sake of simplicity), and a day-to-day work calling (which I’ll dub vocational calling). As I’ll show throughout this book, I’ve come to realize and firmly believe that those two distinct facets of our callings are interconnected.
calling of the Christian, simply put, is to love God with everything we have and to love others with the same love God has extended to us, particularly through Christ. Love God. Love people.
our vocations are meant for one purpose—to be a vehicle for sharing God’s love with the world.
David’s life is an example of what happens when we lose sight of who we are, our underlying purpose, our faith calling.
Your faith calling describes who you are. It should serve as the foundation for everything you do. It should affect the way you interact with people, the way you parent, the way you relate to your spouse, and the way you pursue your vocational calling. Everything should flow from your faith calling.
Do I understand my faith calling, who I am, and my underlying purpose? Could I write out my faith calling with any sort of clarity? Do my vocation, my acts of service, my parenting, my side hustle, or my next big idea flow from my faith calling, or is something else steering the ship?
Could it also be why you’re willing to take every assignment, chase every opportunity, or compromise your integrity, even to the detriment of those around you?
solving, what we do—flows directly from it. David’s faith calling, his raison d’être (his reason for life) had been to love God and use his God-given gifts to love and serve the world.
when he counsels young people about discovering their calling, he tells them to pay attention to three things: their natural giftings, their innate curiosities, and the vocational encouragement given by trusted teachers, leaders, and mentors.
We find our way to our vocational calling by considering our skill sets (“What we’re good at,” I write); what we’re curious about (“Curiosities,” I write); and the skills and proficiencies our friends and mentors recognize in us (“Mentor encouragement,” I write).
They
They didn’t explain how each of us has a faith calling (a raison d’être, as Shedd put it) that shapes everything. They didn’t show how what we do (our vocational calling) flows directly from who we are (our faith calling), nor did they expound upon the dangers of conflating calling with career. No practical tools were given to the audience regarding how to participate with God in pursuing our day-to-day work.
You might even have the same general vocational aims (just as Peter, Andrew, Paul, and Ananias had the vocational aims of sharing the Christian faith). But because you have different skills and gifts, different curiosities, and because different people have spoken into your life (which is to say nothing of the differences in your life experiences), your vocational calling is unique to you.
Ask the questions Shedd asked: What are my innate skills? What am I curious about? What skills and proficiencies have my mentors and friends recognized in me? Then ask, Is there anything getting in the way of that calling, anything such as fear?
What is preventing me from walking into my vocational calling? Is it the fear of failure, the fear of being too old to make a career shift, the fear of being too unskilled? What’s the worst thing that could happen if I fail while pursuing my vocational calling?
If I know my faith calling—who I am—does failure in my vocational calling even matter? (Because it’s not so much about what you do as who you’re doing it for, right?) How would knowing my faith calling give me confidence as I pursue my vocational calling?
“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you” (Joshua 3:7 ESV). In that moment, I knew: When God calls you, he’ll equip you.
Cultivate a desire bigger than fear.
Your vocational calling is much bigger than the fear that limits you.
Sometimes, our vocational callings require us to endure hardship or harsh criticism.
Stepping out of your comfort zone might require you to muster up the courage to take a risk, make a move, face criticism and brush it off, forgive the detractors even when they don’t ask for forgiveness, and surge ahead.
cultivate a desire that is bigger than the fear of stepping out, remembering that when God calls you vocationally, he’ll equip you.
the ultimate truth—that my true identity wasn’t found in what I did, but rather in who I was.
When God calls you, he’ll equip you. It becomes less about what you can bring to the table and more about being expectant that God will show up.
Our primary calling is not our vocation. It is not our jobs. Our primary calling is singular: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself (see Mark 12:30–31).
they write of the calling to obey Jesus’ teachings (2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:5–16), to follow his purposes (Romans 8:28), and to persevere in the love of God, even when persecuted (Philippians 3:14; 1 Peter 2:21; and 1 Peter 3:9).
our primary calling is to love God and love people, all the way to the end.
Calling isn’t just about your vocation. It’s more holistic. It’s not what you do, it’s who you’ve been created to be—a follower of the living God who shares his love with a hurting world. And when we come to understand this truth, we see our true identity—we are representatives of the living, loving God.
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41–42
Jesus was clear. Our worth doesn’t come from our busyness, from all the things we do, not even the things we do for Jesus. Jesus is more concerned about whether we are loving him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
those vocational callings aren’t meant for our own praise, honor, or glory. They’re not meant to be used as a way to get praise or attention, even from Jesus. What is the purpose of our work then? To take the love and light we’ve received from Christ and bring it to the world.
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14–16
It’s my opinion that you can actually stand for certain things, certain positions, and still do it with love. In fact, you can disagree with people and still do it with love, especially if everything flows from your faith calling to love God and love people.
And when we’re faced with this kind of adversity, we have two possible options: We can run from God, or we can slow down long enough to listen to him and allow him to set a new direction for our lives.
Williams began to live into his faith for the first time in his life, and as he did, he began to understand the role of adversity in his formation. “Until you really go through some adversity in your life where you have to apply that faith,” he said, “you don’t have an understanding of it.” And as he began to understand it, the anger, the Why me? questions passed. “It wasn’t until years later,” he said, “I recognized the power of saying, ‘Wait; why not me?’”
But when those moments come, it’s our job to pay attention to them, to hear the God behind them saying, Slow down and listen to me; it’s time to get reattached to the vine.
Changed lives, lives of difference, are deeply rooted in the love of God.
I still hadn’t put all the pieces together. I didn’t fully appreciate how rooting our identity in our faith calling, making all our decisions from that rooting, changes everything.
The truth was, my vocational calling could change from time to time, as long as the decision to make the change grew from my faith calling.
Jesus tells us in John 15:1, 4, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. . . . No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.”
If we’re to bear fruit in the Christian life—whether at home, in our communities, or in our vocations—we have to remain fixed to Jesus, rooted in him.
No matter the branch of your vocational calling, though, if it’s not rooted in the true vine of faith calling, if it’s not supported and nourished by God’s life, it won’t bear fruit.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful. John 15:2
Rooting into your faith calling, living from who you are might require you to sacrifice career advancement, as it did my dad. It might require you take a step back from your upward trajectory too, as in my case. Rooting into your faith calling might require you to apply your innate vocational skills to another industry altogether as John did, or use your skills across industries as Seth does.
A life of purpose is one that is attached to the root of our faith callings, one that is nourished by it, one that bears fruit in our day-to-day vocations.
needed to root more into my faith calling, needed to come to a better understanding of who God created me to be and how to share his love with the world.
David Shedd taught me how each of us has an underlying purpose, which is fueled by our faith calling, our purpose.
Robin Roberts taught me I couldn’t let fear paralyze me and keep me from pursuing the work God had prepared for me, that I had to cultivate a desire that was bigger than that fear and step out of my comfort zone.
