What Is God Calling You to Do?

“Calling” is a big word.

Maybe you didn’t grow up in the Christian culture like I did, but for a girl who did, “Calling” is a word I heard a lot. “What is God calling you to do?” “What is your Calling?” “You must do the things that God has called you to do!”

So, “Calling,” what is it?

Your Calling is your unique purpose and destiny that God has put on your life. It is the dreams & hopes that He put in you that are your job to fulfill as you walk out your time on this Earth. It is a blend of several things. It is a combination of who you are, the things you will accomplish, and the overall impact/culture that you create while you are here.

Your Calling is filled with risks and unknowns. I wish I could tell you that the calling that God has on your life is filled with ease and joy. I wish that it could be described as skipping through a field of wildflowers to the end of a rainbow… that would be nice. I wish that your Calling was as simple as creating a goal and making it happen… but it’s not.

Your Calling is a blend of faith, hope, perseverance, determination, heartache, failure, embarrassment, a dash of success, and a whole lot of fulfillment.

Your Calling is quite dependent on your willingness to believe what God has told you more than the experiences that are proving otherwise. It is directly tied to your willingness to live out a combination of risk-taking in faith and disappointment-releasing through surrender.

The Call that God put inside of you is unique to you. There is no one else on this Earth that has the list of things to do that you have. You have a unique history, a unique set of gifts, talents, strengths, and unique dreams within you.

You are the only you, and that is why your responsibility to fulfill your Call is of the utmost importance.

Let’s break down your Calling into a bit more detail…

First, what are you good at? What brings you joy? What makes you excited? What lights you up? You need to think of several things, and you need to own them. I am not talking about simply things that you enjoy doing, what are the activities that you do on this earth that make you feel alive? These things are a vital part of your Call.

Second, what dreams do you have within you? Do you have a dream of starting a business? Running for government? Writing a book? Building a family? Experiencing an amazing marriage? Teaching? Building a house? Starting a non-profit? What are the things you would like to build? Create? Experience? These are all part of the Call of God on your life. He puts dreams within us & it is our job to take the risks to bring them to this Earth.

Lastly, what is the overall big picture you want your life to be about? What culture do you want to create? Who do you want to be? What kind of life do you want to live? Do you want to have a wildly adventurous life or perhaps, a steady & safe life? Do you want to live boldly or live wisely? How do you want to describe your life when you look back at it? This is part of your Call.

All three of these things are vital things that you need to clarify and understand about your life. You need to know what your strengths are, you need to know what you are building, and you need to know what Culture you are creating.

You need to move toward the Call that God has put inside of you.

This shouldn’t be an afterthought; in fact, you should wake up every day knowing exactly what you are doing in this season of your life and know exactly where you are headed. You should be going to bed very fulfilled and confident that you are living the life you were born for. You should be a person who responds to the whispers that God has put within you. This is the key to building your faith and ultimately becoming the person God created you to be.

Don’t wait, start today.

And don’t forget, the Earth is waiting for you to show up.

Want to go deeper? Listen to this podcast episode!

Mastering the Art of Letting Dreams Die

I am passionate about dreaming in this life. I love happy endings and dreams fulfilled. However, there is a very real part of this life that involves learning to allow dreams to come to an end.

Sometimes our dreams die a slow peaceful death and sometimes they come crashing down without any warning they would be gone so soon.

When we are young, the sky can feel like the limit. We don't doubt what our life will bring to us because we are confident that our dreams will come to pass and things will go as planned.

And sometimes they do.

However, as we get older and our dreams become reality, we often realize how much disappointment comes along with our dreams. Life seldom goes exactly as we planned. At times, we find ourselves grabbing for scraps of our dreams that have been left over from our reality.

And then there are the times that our dreams are taken from us completely.

No scraps left to gather. No dream left at all.

Nothing left to manage.

I am a firm believer in redemption, but sometimes there is nothing left to redeem. Sometimes the dream is simply gone.

What then?

How do we move forward in life?

Here are the steps I take when it is time to let a dream die…

1. Acknowledge it is gone.

The first step is to acknowledge what has happened. Look at the situation and define it for what it is. See the loss and allow yourself to acknowledge the new experience you have to live.

Sometimes this is easy and sometimes this is the hardest part of it all.

2. Let it go.

Depending on the loss, this step alone can take some time. Losing something and letting go of it are actually two different steps. The loss comes first, often times, without our consent. Letting go is our participation in the loss. Letting go is our choice to say we are making a new way in our life without our dream.

3. Grieve it.

It's ok and GOOD to acknowledge the loss and allow yourself to feel the pain.

It is important to identify it and talk to someone about it. Even if it sounds silly or you don't think it will help, be sure to find someone you can discuss your loss with.

4. Find hope.

Depending on the depth of your loss, this could take some time. However, at some point, it is essential to discover hope again. Not hope that the dream will return, but hope for a new dream.

5. Decide how you will view your fear.

I have found that once I have chosen to hope again, I am always faced with fear quickly after.  Fear of losing my new dream and fear of having to walk the journey of loss once again.

Fear will tell us he is our protector and our friend, but he is not. His true intention is to keep us limited in our life and keep our dreams small.

You and you alone will define how fear directs your future.

Dreaming is a beautiful part of our life. Losing the dream is not so beautiful, but it is necessary to understand that once we have lost a dream we must walk the steps to grieve our loss.

If we don't, we may experience something worse than our lost dream... A life of no dreaming at all.

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