Your calling is found at the intersection of your story, personality, and gifts.
Paul writes a beautiful trinitarian prayer for his community in Ephesus that speaks to their ability to understand the purposes to which God has called the Church - to reveal His mysteries to the world (Eph. 3:14-21). While our purpose as the Spirit-led Church is the same for all of us, your calling is your unique part to play in the work of redemption. We can view each ingredient to your calling through the lens of the Trinity - your story as a realm of the Father, your personality a a reflection of the Son, and your gifts as the influence of the Holy Spirit. Consider each of these areas of your life, asking the Lord to give you language to help you discern your specific calling.
Reading your story with Father God will reveal the compassionate authority you have to say, “me too”.
God is the co-author of your story, moving with you through time. Not only is He with you, but He is also for you as He turns curses into blessings. In general terms, we understand this plot in simple terms in the classic hymn, Amazing Grace: “I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see”. The reality is that your first calling is always to those who are in a situation you know intimately from personal experience. Your solidarity with them gives you a special authority to speak about how God has worked in your life. Perhaps you have a story marked with perpetual rejection, and God ministered to you by His acceptance of you. Maybe you have been wounded by callous judgement, and it was the kindness of God that drew you to Him.
Reflect on these questions:
What were the major themes of my life when I met God?
What are the specific qualities of God’s character that brought me near to Him and saved me?
Your redeemed personality is a reflection of Jesus the Son in his full humanity.
Just as “calling” is a particular expression of the more universal “purpose”, so “personality” is a specific expression of “identity”. Your personality is the unique way you think, act, and feel; both in how you interpret the world around you, and how you put energy back into the world. God is not in the business of scrapping bits of your personality and replacing them as one would with a broken machine; rather, He engages in the all-important Kingdom work of redemption- giving new value and purpose to the raw elements of who you are. When your personality traits are redeemed, they reflected the beautiful and full humanity of Jesus. this is what it means to be christ-like. For example, God will never take away your introversion or extraversion, but He will bless them in a way that you are healthier and freer to be your true self. This encourages us to ask Jesus for vision of what we look like when we are our best in all aspects of our personality.
There are many wonderful tools for gaining language to understand your personality. We recommend the enneagram theory - just make sure your sources are reliable.
Reflect on these questions:
What brings me life and animates me? What stresses and drains me?
Do I most naturally perceive the world through my heart(emotions), brain(thought), or gut(instinct)? Am I a feeler, thinker, doer?
The Holy Spirit grants you gifts to reveal the mysteries of God to the world around you.
Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit as “a seal” and “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” in his letter to the church in Ephesus (1:14). If you ca grasp even a sliver of the love God has for you, it is evidence the Holy Spirit is already at work. He empowers us firstly to know God, then to know ourselves in light of that love, and finally to know what we are crafted to do. We are blessed with spiritual gifts - specific ways to administer God’s love - as well as relational or situational gifts.
For a more in-depth study on the spiritual gifts, visit citybeautiful.ch/gifts.
Reflect on these questions:
What are some of the spiritual gifts I know God has granted me?
What specific positions in life are a gift to me to share God’s love?
Hopefully you can begin to see some connections between your story, your personality, and your gifts. Take time to ask the Lord to help you write out your calling in a sentence or two. The challenge is to articulate it in a way that it is big enough to move from one chapter of your life to the next, yet specific enough to apply to you and not just anyone.