How do you discover your calling in life?
Frederick Buechner gives this insight:
Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world's greatest need.
When Viktor Frankl talked about finding meaning/purpose in your life, he never wanted to discuss the Big Picture MEANING of your whole life, instead he wanted to focus on the now. What is life putting in front of in this very moment, in this season of life? If you try to zoom too far out to see the whole scope of your life, you’ll get overwhelmed. You not see the Big Picture MEANING until you’re lying on your death bed looking back at the whole thing. So put that off until then. As for now, what can you do now?
This is what can be frustrating about college students who feel called to ministry. A lot of the time they act as if they have to wait until they’re on staff at a church getting paid full time to start ministering. No! There’s ministry to be done now! There’s discipleship and evangelism.
Can you give it 40 hours of focus every week right now while you’re in college? No. Will it pay the bills right now? No. Will you have a large reach and influence right off the bat? No. But there might one person in your church you can pull closer and walk with. Maybe right now life is has put this in your path and it’s how you can fulfill your calling in this season.
You don’t have to wait until it’s perfect. You don’t have to wait until you have all the answers.
Where is your joy?
Where is the need?
What does the meeting of those two look like right now, in this season of life?