Mother opened the screen door and called for my sister, “Dorthy Louise, Dor… thy…”
Dot was often in a field playing softball with the neighborhood kids. She made a point to be far enough away from the house so she couldn’t hear Mom’s call. There were chores to do, help to give with dinner, or baths to give our three younger siblings. As a young teen, Dot sometimes didn’t want to respond to the call.
In midlife, I questioned, “Lord, it seems most of Your people have a calling on their life. They feel directed to study in a particular field and work in that area. They have an identity and feel their life is worthwhile. Some are nurses, others are teachers. They have a career. I don’t.”
I stayed at home with our three offspring. Then when they were older, I worked at various jobs and finally worked in offices. I don’t have a focus, Lord, a calling. They have a title they’re known by. Who am I?
As Christians, we are all called to serve Christ as ambassadors and bring others to find hope in Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). But even in this, some have titles such as pastor, evangelist, or music director. A young minister said he learned about finding God’s will from his Sunday school teacher, “Until you are sure about the direction for your life, just do the next thing.”
Dot answered her call years later when she joined Dr. Faye Whitten as a missionary evangelist. Even with three degrees behind her name, she discovered the ministry of helps as they traveled the world mentoring and training young ministers in other countries.
Finally, I realized I don’t have to have a career title or a spiritual title. I just need to do the next thing in obedience to God’s Word. I gave up searching for a specific label. My calling isn’t my focus anymore. I don’t seek to know it, but I seek to know Him.
If you haven’t felt God calling you to a particular work, keep seeking His will for your life.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Phyllis Qualls Freeman is a freelance writer with twenty years’ experience and more than four hundred published devotions, magazine articles, and newspaper human-interest pieces. She lives near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Answered Prayers, and several anthologies. She writes devotions on assignment and enjoys mentoring new writers.