The Call

Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life

by Os Guinness

Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.

When something more than human seeking is needed if seeking is to be satisfied, then calling means that seekers themselves are sought.

The notion of calling, or vocation, is vital to each of us because it touches on the modern search for the basis of individual identity and an understanding of humanness itself.

Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him.

Our secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him.

God normally calls us along the line of our giftedness, but the purpose of giftedness is stewardship and service, not selfishness.

A life lived listening to the decisive call of God is a life lived before one audience that trumps all others – the Audience of One.

God’s calling is the key to igniting a passion for the deepest growth and highest heroism of life.

The notion of calling is vital to the modern search for a basis for moral responsibility and to an understanding of ethics itself.

The call of Jesus is personal but not purely individual; Jesus summons his followers not only to an individual calling but also to a corporate calling

Calling reminds Christians ceaselessly that, far from having arrived, a Christian is someone who in this life is always on the road as "a follower of Christ" and a follower of "the Way."

The reverse side of calling is the temptation of conceit.

The truth of calling touches closely on the link between giftedness and desire and the almost inescapable temptation of envy.

Calling, which played a key role in the rise of modern capitalism, is one of the few truths capable of guiding and restraining it now.

Calling is the best antidote to the deadly sin of sloth ("Who cares" attitude)

Calling directly counters the great modern pressure toward secularization (restricting our consciousness and ways of thinking to the world of the five senses) because the call of Jesus includes a summons to the exercise of the spiritual disciplines and the experience of supernatural realities.

Calling directly counters the great modern pressure toward privatization (a cleavage between public and private spheres of life) because of its insistence that Jesus Christ is Lord of every sphere of life.

Calling directly counters the great modern pressure toward pluralization (the proliferation of choice and change) because the call of Jesus provides the priorities and perspectives that are essential for a focused life in an overloaded age.

Calling, by breaking through with an outside perspective on the present, is a prime source of Christian vision and Christian visionaries.

Calling transforms life so that even the commonplace and menial are invested with the splendor of the ordinary.

Calling is a reminder for followers of Christ that nothing in life should be taken for granted; everything in life must be received with gratitude.

Calling entails the cost of discipleship. The deepest challenge is to renounce self and identify with Jesus in his sufferings and rejection.

Calling is an essential part of the sense of timing that characterizes a successful life.

Calling is central to the challenge and privilege of finishing well in life.

Listen to Jesus of Nazareth; answer his call.

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