The Calling
I’ve always been fascinated with how Jesus called people to follow him. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus called a bunch of commercial fishermen to follow him. They didn’t hesitate—they dropped their nets to follow Jesus. This was a very unique and specific calling. Jesus said to them, “I’m going to teach you how to catch people instead of fish.” I’m pretty sure the disciples had no idea what they were signing up for. In fact, that’s part of the adventure of following Jesus. We never quite know where our calling will take us.
One thing we need to be careful of is confusing our calling with our occupation. Jesus called people from all walks of life to follow him. When I started following Jesus at age 19, I had no idea where he would lead me. In my particular case, Jesus called me into full-time pastoral ministry. Being a pastor is what I do, but my calling to follow Jesus is more important than my occupation. They say you can’t help but tell your story, so here’s a little bit of mine.
If someone had asked me at age 40 or 50, “What’s your calling?” I would have told them, “God called me to be a pastor.” However, somewhere along the way I realized that my occupational calling was not the same as my Jesus calling. Being a professional Jesus follower felt like an obligation. Instead of praying because I wanted to or reading Scripture because I love God’s Word, I sometimes begrudgingly did these things out of a sense of duty. It wasn’t until I got back to my Jesus calling that I felt a new freedom and joy in my life. Sometimes people ask me, “What are you going to do after you’re done pastoring?” The short answer is I will continue to follow Jesus wherever that takes me.
The fact that our occupation and our calling are not the same should be good news to all of us. It means we all stand on level ground as it relates to following Jesus. This means that no matter what your station in life is, your calling to follow Jesus never ends. Whether you are a nurse, school teacher, engineer, parent, grandparent, police officer, computer programmer, bartender, car salesperson, or government employee, you are called to follow Jesus wherever that leads you.
Our calling is about being, not doing. Let me explain. We are called human beings, not human doings. When Jesus called the original disciples, he was more interested in what they were becoming than what they were doing. What we do ultimately comes from who we are as human beings. Spending time with Jesus is incredibly important because he’s the only one who can rightfully tell us who we are. My point is, if you know who you are, you will be unstoppable.
Peter thought he knew who he was until he failed Jesus and denied knowing him three times. After his resurrection, Jesus did an intervention with Peter to get him back on track. Peter undoubtedly saw himself as a coward. Jesus needed to help Peter understand that he was not going to define Peter by his failures. You can read the details of the intervention in John 21:15–19. In this most interesting encounter, Jesus never once shamed Peter or reminded him of his epic failure. Instead, he recommissioned Peter to get him back to his calling.
And what was Peter’s calling? It was the same as ours—to faithfully follow Jesus.
If you are feeling a little lost today in regards to your Jesus calling, go back to the beginning. Present yourself to Jesus and say to him, “Jesus, I’m ready to follow you wherever you may lead me.”
Next, get ready for adventure!
Stay close to Jesus,
Steve