I recently listened to a sermon by Chip Ingram on the subject of a "calling" in life. I know I really enjoyed it because I have shared parts of that message in several conversations lately. When I was trying to decide on this week's topic for our time together, I was like "Duh, why wouldn't you share your takeaways from that message?" So, here we are and here we go, if you have a phone and it rings shouldn't you answer it?
The above reference to receiving a phone call is actually related to the meaning of the word vocation. In Latin the word "vocation" comes from the base word "vocare" or, to call. In other words, your vocation, the work that you do the majority of your waking hours should be a "calling". Well, in the world that I have worked for the past six years my primary focus has been to help young people find their "calling" or at least get themselves pointed in the right direction. My work inside Career and Technical Education or CTE is all about helping young adults think about where they will make an impact on the world in which they live. We can have a job, we might want to label it a career, but ultimately, I believe we all are "called" to make an impact within the work we do. You and I are called to do something, we each have a purpose that we were created to fulfill, as a matter of fact, we each have multiple "purposes" we were created to embrace. It just so happens that the thing that we as adults spend over one third of our life doing is work. If we are going to be invested in giving over one third of our life to working, shouldn't we be doing what we were called to do?
Today's title is a reference to a literary work by Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The meaning behind the phrase "for whom the bell tolls" is related to the funeral bells that rang out signaling the death of a person in the community. I chose this title not because of its relationship to the idea of bells tolling signifying the death of someone, but more for the idea that we each have a calling in life. It is our job to answer that call, much like we answer our phone when it rings.
Personally, I believe I have received numerous "calls" throughout my educational career, and ultimately each "call" has led to a new chapter in my vocational career. I can honestly say I cannot recollect a day in over 31 years that I have dreaded going to work. Of course, there have been better days than others and there have been hard days that challenged me or even possibly got me down temporarily, yet overall I have thoroughly enjoyed every position inside of education that I have served. I believe I found my calling back at East Ridge Middle School, on a wrestling mat coaching grapplers about moves and techniques, but more about life and how to grapple through adversity and affliction to become the leader each of them was created to be.
I am fortunate, I found the career field in which my "calling" exists. I am thankful that God has been able to use me to fulfill His purpose for the life He gave me to live. A staggering statistic that Pastor Ingram shared in his message was that four out of five adults do not like the job they do each day. My question here is are those folks doing a "job" or are they doing what they were called to do? I believe I can answer my own question, most likely not! There is a couple of items to consider when we start talking about folks and their calling in life that I believe are important to understand as we wind down our time together today.
First, you have skills that are unique to you. You may be sitting there thinking to yourself that you don't have specific skills that would relate to your career, but believe me each person was created uniquely by design and on purpose. The key is have you identified those skills and are you using them in the place where you spend the majority of your waking hours each week? It is possible that you are working in exactly the place where you were purposed to be, yet you haven't realized it and therefore have not reached your full potential? "Whatever you do, do it with all your heart as if you were doing it for God and not for man!" Colossians 3:23. Giving your best and seeking the impact you can possibly have in your field of work makes a difference. You are a light unto the darkness that exists where you live and work. Shine brightly.
The other possibility is that you are not in the place where you were designed to be. In the message from Chip Ingram, he points out that men and women of all ages find there calling and leave a tremendous legacy when they find that place where they were actually created to be. Not discounting all the work that you have done to this point, all work has value, and what you have been doing may have been necessary for the work you are about to take on. Don't ever stop growing and never discount the benefits of being a lifelong learner! Nola Ochs became the oldest person to receive a Bachelor’s degree at age 95. And then there's the rest of the story. At age 98 she completed her Master’s degree. Nola encourages others to never stop learning and uses her own example to inspire her grandchildren, "If Grandmother can do it, you can!"
God has a calling for your life, will you answer the phone?
"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9.
Coach Carter
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