DAILY BYTEJacob’s story has another wonderful discovery for us to make in connection with calling, and it is this:
CALLINGS ARE BEST EMBRACED WHEN WE EMBRACE WHO WE REALLY ARE.
I wonder how many times, while he was growing up, that Jacob might have wished he was a little more like Esau? A vibrant, sporting personality that might more easily earn his father’s love and respect.
Sometimes we make the very great mistake of thinking that to fulfil a calling, we need to be more like someone else. More similar to a certain person that we look up to and admire.
But the ultimate core of embracing our calling is learning to embrace ourselves as we really are.
In a Hasidic tale, Rabbi Zusya, an old and wise man, muses about how much of his life he has wasted trying to be someone else. He says, “In the coming world, they will not ask me ‘why were you not more like Moses?’ Rather they will ask me, ‘Why were you not more like Zusya?’”
There is probably nothing more joyful, more freeing, than becoming content to just be who God made us to be, and finding out that in God’s eyes that is unbelievably pleasing to him and exactly what this world most needs us to do.
At the height of his fame, Henri Nouwen, the famed Catholic priest and author, left behind his work at a prestigious university and his global speaking ministry in response to a call from God.
He believed God was calling him to join a small community which existed to serve a number of severally handicapped people. He was given the task of looking after a young man named Adam. Henri provided 24 hour care for this young man – bathing, dressing and feeding him.
Nouwen later wrote that he considered this period the most significant of his life. He shared how he believed that Adam had a tremendous purpose for his life in terms of bringing humanity and joy to others, and he repeatedly testified that he learnt more from Adam about living a God-honouring life and fulfilling a calling than he had from anyone else.
Perhaps when we wrestle over the issue of ‘what is God calling me to DO with my life,’ we are actually asking the wrong question. Maybe we should rather be asking, ‘WHO is it that God wants me to BE?’
Calling seems far more concerned with who we are than what we do. Calling is intrinsically about identity – the identity that flows out of relationship.
Remember what God said to Jacob in his dream: “I am the Lord your God, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”
Just like Jacob, you are a precious child of God, beloved by your Father in heaven, and created to be like God in every way.
Embrace that.
PRAY AS YOU GO
Loving God, help us to have the courage to embrace who we really are. To build our life and work around who you created us to be. Help us to remain faithful to you in this always. Amen.
