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If you can do anything else, do it
When Deb and I were young, we thought about our “calling” a lot. We were obsessed with it for a while because we felt we were being called into mission work. It turns out we were. But now we are often asked, how did you know? The best advice we ever got came from an old missionary. His words sounded like a joke, but as the decades passed, I slowly realized that it was the best advice we ever received when properly understood. It was just one line, and he delivered it with a smile, “If you can do anything else, do it.”
Since then, I have been involved with training young missionaries and have been asked many times about calling, what it is, and how you know if you have one. These days, I have been led to rethink what calling really is for a Christian. There is such a thing as a calling in the vocational sense. Being a pastor, a missionary, a doctor, a nurse, a farmer, or a car mechanic can be and is a calling if, and this is a big if; that is where Jesus has led you.
A New Testament Calling
The first example of calling in the gospels is Jesus calling various people to follow him. He made this offer to all kinds of people, not just the 12 apostles. Let’s look at a few examples from Matthew.
Matt 4:19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Matt 8:19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Matt 18:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
The call is not a job or a destination. It is a journey. We are called to follow Jesus. We are not always told where that road leads. More often than not, even the disciples were clueless about where they were going or what Jesus was up to. Their job was to follow Jesus, not coach him, and so is ours. Jesus is not our assistant. He is our Lord and our Master. To put it in terms we are more familiar with, he is our boss and our leader.
Many today are advised to “Follow your passion,” or perhaps slightly better, “Do something you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” But both of these slogans make the same mistake. They assume that we are the masters of our own destiny and encourage people to follow their own desires and goals. This attitude is the exact opposite of following Jesus. If that sounds exaggerated or harsh, have another look at the passages we read earlier.
We are all called
We are all called, and that call is to follow Jesus. Our calling can sometimes feel so ordinary that we forget that we are called. And sometimes, and this is more serious, we begin to think that our calling is simply the things we like and choose to do. Following Jesus is a conscious, ongoing decision to do what Jesus is doing and focus on the things Jesus cares about.
This Substack is called “On Walking the Way.” Jesus is that way. Whatever path Jesus has chosen for us is our calling and requires as much diligence and self-sacrifice as any other vocation. There is no hiding from Jesus’ call to follow him. We will never know true peace until we submit to the path Jesus has chosen for us. If our conscience can not seem to find rest in our current pursuits, perhaps our current pursuits are not the path of Jesus. So, in a very real sense, if you can, with a good conscience, do anything else, do it. But if not, it may be time to speak to Jesus about your direction.
This Week
Today, we have studied three difficult passages. Our calling is not the kiddy pool of faith. Following Jesus will affect everything we are and do, even the mundane aspects of our lives. It takes us out of the driver’s seat and makes us all disciples, children, and sheep to use biblical metaphors. But we prefer to think of ourselves as grown-ups. We don’t like letting anyone else take control of our lives and determine our direction. To do this, we need to help each other.
Our new lives in Christ were created for good works. So now, we have two options before us: we can follow our old natural desires, or we can follow Jesus. Let’s encourage each other to follow Jesus wherever he leads this week, remembering that our plans are ultimately futile, but the path of Jesus leads to eternal life for ourselves and others.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
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By Tom PossinWhen Deb and I were young, we thought about our “calling” a lot. We were obsessed with it for a while because we felt we were being called into mission work. It turns out we were. But now we are often asked, how did you know? The best advice we ever got came from an old missionary. His words sounded like a joke, but as the decades passed, I slowly realized that it was the best advice we ever received when properly understood. It was just one line, and he delivered it with a smile, “If you can do anything else, do it.”
Since then, I have been involved with training young missionaries and have been asked many times about calling, what it is, and how you know if you have one. These days, I have been led to rethink what calling really is for a Christian. There is such a thing as a calling in the vocational sense. Being a pastor, a missionary, a doctor, a nurse, a farmer, or a car mechanic can be and is a calling if, and this is a big if; that is where Jesus has led you.
A New Testament Calling
The first example of calling in the gospels is Jesus calling various people to follow him. He made this offer to all kinds of people, not just the 12 apostles. Let’s look at a few examples from Matthew.
Matt 4:19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
Matt 8:19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Matt 18:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
The call is not a job or a destination. It is a journey. We are called to follow Jesus. We are not always told where that road leads. More often than not, even the disciples were clueless about where they were going or what Jesus was up to. Their job was to follow Jesus, not coach him, and so is ours. Jesus is not our assistant. He is our Lord and our Master. To put it in terms we are more familiar with, he is our boss and our leader.
Many today are advised to “Follow your passion,” or perhaps slightly better, “Do something you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” But both of these slogans make the same mistake. They assume that we are the masters of our own destiny and encourage people to follow their own desires and goals. This attitude is the exact opposite of following Jesus. If that sounds exaggerated or harsh, have another look at the passages we read earlier.
We are all called
We are all called, and that call is to follow Jesus. Our calling can sometimes feel so ordinary that we forget that we are called. And sometimes, and this is more serious, we begin to think that our calling is simply the things we like and choose to do. Following Jesus is a conscious, ongoing decision to do what Jesus is doing and focus on the things Jesus cares about.
This Substack is called “On Walking the Way.” Jesus is that way. Whatever path Jesus has chosen for us is our calling and requires as much diligence and self-sacrifice as any other vocation. There is no hiding from Jesus’ call to follow him. We will never know true peace until we submit to the path Jesus has chosen for us. If our conscience can not seem to find rest in our current pursuits, perhaps our current pursuits are not the path of Jesus. So, in a very real sense, if you can, with a good conscience, do anything else, do it. But if not, it may be time to speak to Jesus about your direction.
This Week
Today, we have studied three difficult passages. Our calling is not the kiddy pool of faith. Following Jesus will affect everything we are and do, even the mundane aspects of our lives. It takes us out of the driver’s seat and makes us all disciples, children, and sheep to use biblical metaphors. But we prefer to think of ourselves as grown-ups. We don’t like letting anyone else take control of our lives and determine our direction. To do this, we need to help each other.
Our new lives in Christ were created for good works. So now, we have two options before us: we can follow our old natural desires, or we can follow Jesus. Let’s encourage each other to follow Jesus wherever he leads this week, remembering that our plans are ultimately futile, but the path of Jesus leads to eternal life for ourselves and others.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe