When You Don’t Know Your Calling

God’s will used to be a totally mystifying subject to me. Was I going to grow up and be a missionary? Was I supposed to be a teacher? A lawyer? A stay-at-home mom? Would I have two kids or ten kids? Who would I marry? Where would I go to college? What was my calling in life?

Are those things important? Sure. But at that time all of those things were years down the road. God’s will- in my mind- had nothing to do with today. That’s where I was wrong: God’s will has everything to do with today.  That’s why those questions aren’t the starting point. The starting point is doing what He has given you to do today.

Wake up each morning and commit to faithfulness in whatever God has given you. It’s not the actual “thing” you are doing. It’s why. Do it because God gave it to you. Do it because it’s your gift back to Him.

You might be a student. You might be taking care of a parent or a niece and nephew. You might be working at Starbucks or raising some small babies. You might be filing papers or seeing patients or filling orders.

It’s not what you are doing because what you are doing is ever-changing. You might be a student then graduate and go work in an office. You might work at Starbucks and then move to a new city and work at Office Depot. You might quit your job and stay home with your baby. Your babies may go to school and you start working for a non-profit.

I’ve worked in a deli in a grocery store. I’ve worked in a fast food restaurant. I’ve worked at a preschool, in a gym at college. I’ve tutored and I’ve been a resident assistant in a dorm. I nannied for a summer. That was all before I graduated college.

Over the past few years, I’ve realized my work changes throughout the day and I bet yours does too. It’s all important, not just some of it. Sometimes I’m coaching a ball team. Sometimes I’m on a date with my husband. Sometimes I’m teaching my boys reading. Sometimes I’m cleaning my house, going to Sunday school, singing in the choir, folding the laundry. Sometimes, y’all, I’m sitting on the couch, snuggling my boys, and watching a show with them.

It’s not that I’m a mama and that makes my work matter. It’s not that you’re a teacher or a doctor or a missionary and that makes your work matter. The work matters because it belongs to God. You hold each chunk of time, whatever you’re doing, and offer it back to God. How can I best glorify God right here with what He’s given me to do? What would please God right here?

The answer is always 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” If the goal is to do it to the glory of God, will I complain? Will I whine? Will I halfway do the job in front of me? Will I show up with a bad attitude? Will I be consumed with self? Will I waste my time?

Doing all to the glory of God fixes most of my problems. It fixes my comparison. Instead of thinking that someone else’s work is more glamorous or more important, I’m putting my energy into what I’ve been given. Instead of looking at someone else’s work with a critical eye, I’m putting my eyes on Jesus.

Doing all to the glory of God fixes my motivation problems. Am I waiting for others to see what I’m doing? What am I doing in the quiet when no one else is looking? It fixes my problem of writing off a day as useless when I get a bad start. I repent and then do the rest of it to the glory of God. It fixes my expectation problem. If life’s not what I expect, I still do it to the glory of God.

This is why I say motherhood isn’t any woman’s highest calling. Because whatever God has given you to do is your highest calling. And y’all, probably 90% of my life is mothering. But when I’m coaching or singing or writing, that’s as much of a high calling as mothering my kids because God gave it to me as well. Do it ALL- whatever it is- to please Him.