Truth or Myth? What We Believe About Christian Calling Really Matters!

What we believe—whether truth or myth—about our Christian calling really matters. In all aspects of life, we act, or we don’t act, based upon what we believe.

Example: A Medical Myth

For example, modern medical practitioners now know and believe that germs can cause life-threatening infections, even in seemingly superficial wounds. Therefore, before every surgical procedure, medical professionals sterilize all of the surgical instruments and drape the operating field with sterile coverings. They follow a strict protocol for hand washing, and they wear masks to prevent contaminating open wounds.

However, doctors did not always know and believe that germs cause infections.

In the 1800’s, scientists believed that the cause of infection was “bad air.” Therefore, surgeons routinely operated on one patient after another, without washing hands or surgical instruments between patients. In fact, a gore-covered black doctor’s coat was considered a badge of honor! [1]

Even after Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis and British surgeon Joseph Lister proved that bacteria and other unseen microorganisms cause infections, many doctors refused to believe it.

The catastrophic results of believing medical myths instead of truth was needless suffering and tragic loss of life.

Why Truth About Christian Calling Matters

So also, it really matters what we believe about our Christian calling!

If we believe myths instead of truth, we might not even hear, let alone accomplish, God’s unique calling for our lives. But if we believe the truth, as revealed by the Bible and confirmed in everyday life, we will gain the confidence and courage to persevere through even the most difficult obstacles to accomplish our calling in Christ.

For example, Christians often believe incorrect answers to the following questions:

• Does God give a Christian calling to everyone or only to certain people?
• How can you tell when you have a calling from God?
• What is Christian calling all about?
• Do we eventually get too old for God to call us?
• What can we expect after correctly hearing God’s Call?

Oh, the tragedy if God calls us but we fail to hear and answer because we don’t believe we are good enough or special enough to complete that calling.

But oh, the joy and freedom if we hear God’s call, answer, and accomplish our calling!

That is the difference between believing myths versus truth in Christian calling!

• You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)

The context of this verse is, of course, being set free from the shackles of sin. But the verse also applies to all of God’s truth, including the freedom and fruitfulness that results when we believe the truth about God’s desire and ability to completely fulfill our Christian calling.

Myths Debunked, Truths Proclaimed

In this blog, I'll uncover 5 common myths about Christian calling, why we keep believing them, and how to replace them with God's truth.

Christian Calling Myth #1

Myth #1: Only pastors, missionaries, and other Christian vocational workers have a specific calling from God.

Since you’re reading this blog, you probably have a deep desire to find and fulfill God’s calling in your life. You might already know what His calling is, but you’re having difficulty doing it. Or you might not yet know what God wants you to do, but you yearn to make a difference for Him.

Either way, when you see other people joyfully and successfully fulfilling their calling in Christ, it can feel so sadly like being excluded from the game—like God calls only a privileged few, and that you’ll never experience that kind of fulfillment yourself.

Christian Calling Myth #2

Myth #2: When God calls, it’s always a powerfully emotional and deeply moving experience. 

Did you ever wish that God would call you in some spectacularly unmistakable way to do something in His Kingdom?

Sometimes God does call us like that. But most often, God’s calls in less dramatic and obvious ways, leaving us with a serious case of “calling envy”!

Jealousy Over How God Calls Other People

For example, every Christmas when I was a kid, my aunt and uncle, who lived in New York, sent Christmas gifts to their nieces and nephews in Tennessee. Their nephews got model cars, action figures, and archery sets. The nieces, like me, got dolls, hair ribbons, and frilly pajamas.

I have always been a tomboy. As a child, I hated wearing dresses and having tea parties. But I loved playing with my plastic army men and tanks. Even as a teenager, my short hair, plain shirts, and slender build sometimes resulted in people asking my parents, “Is this your son?” 🙂

There was nothing wrong with me. I just enjoyed rambunctious adventure, most of which would have been awkward in a dress!

I felt guilty for not appreciating my relatives’ generosity, and eventually I learned to just receive their love with grace. But when I was very young, I jealously wanted what the boys got!

That's how it can feel when someone else gets an obvious, spectacular calling from God, and you don't. It can leave you feeling second-rate or doubtful that God called you at all.

Sometimes, God’s calling does come wrapped in obvious signs of God’s perfect timing, such as a miraculous financial provision, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, or powerful feelings of awe.

But sometimes not. When God calls in more ordinary ways, it’s easy to doubt the call, and even to feel jealous of others who have more spectacular calling experiences.

I know what that’s like.

God Sometimes Calls Spectacularly—And Sometimes Not

I actually did receive a strongly emotional call from God on Palm Sunday of 2006 to resign my college teaching career and become a leadership and discipleship pastor at my church. Three years later, my lead pastor offered me that job within two months of two financial windfalls and a scholarship, enabling me to live on 80% of my former salary while starting a three-year seminary program.

My call to Christian life coaching was less spectacular. In fact, the only confirmation was internal—a strong desire to help people find and fulfill their Christian calling. Unlike my call to ministry at my church, doors of opportunity for coaching opened slowly.

In the Bible, sometimes God called in spectacular ways:

• When God called Moses to schlep Israel out of slavery, God called through a bush that burned but miraculously did not burn up. (Exodus 3:.1-22)
• When God called Isaiah to deliver His message of repentance to the entire nation of Israel, He gave Isaiah a grand vision of God Himself, seated on His throne and surrounded by fantastic heavenly flying creatures. (Isaiah 6:1-13)

However, God’s calling to three of Jesus' most prominent disciples seem so mundane as to be almost forgettable:

• To Matthew, Jesus simply said, “Follow me and be my disciple.” (Matthew 9:9)
• With Peter and Andrew, Jesus saw the two brothers fishing at the Sea of Galilee, and He said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people.” (Matthew 4:18-20)

What an encouragement to realize that even Peter, Jesus’ great but fallible follower who boldly carried the Gospel to the Gentile world, must have been underwhelmed by Jesus’ initial call. Later, God did give Peter the spectacular vision of a sheet coming out of heaven. But Peter’s call was progressive, not all at once.

The takeaway from all of this is that God does have a calling for you, no matter your age or circumstances, and no matter whether your reaction to His initial calling is “Wow!” or just “…meh...”

Christian Calling Myth #3

Myth #3: Finding Christian calling is about discovering the one thing that God wants us to do. 

The DESTINATION of Christian calling isn’t what most people think. Many people believe that Christian calling is ONE specific thing God wants them to DO. Therefore, their task is to find out what that one thing is and then do it.

The True Destination of Christian Calling

But the true destination of Christian calling is to become who God has created you to BE in ever-increasing personal relationship with Him.

Look at the photo of the path in the forest below. It looks like a straight path leading to a single destination. But it isn’t! It branches! And furthermore, each branch, though meandering through different meadows and streams, eventually leads to the same destination!

God’s one destination for your Christian calling is not just that you accomplish a specific role or task, but that you become the uniquely created person He created you to be, in intimate relationship with Him:

[One of the Pharisees asked Jesus,] “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22:36-38)

If God’s destination for your Christian calling were a certain role that God wants you to fill or a certain task that He wants you to do, then you could do something to mess it up. For example, you could sin and blow it. Or you could misunderstand what God wants you to do, taking the wrong step in the wrong location, and forever missing His calling on your life. Or you could take the wrong job or get fired from the right job. Ugh!

Not One Straight Path, But Several Branching Paths

Instead, think of God’s calling not as a single path but as a branching one. Therefore, even if you mess up, God can still get you to the right destination, which is an intimate and fruitful relationship with Him.

So, in fact, you can fulfill God’s calling to be you and make a difference in the world in many different ways. And God is God. He is perfectly capable of working through your mistakes and failures!

God Sometimes Gives Us the Freedom to Decide the Path of Our Calling

And here’s an even more astounding fact: Often the reason we don’t hear God’s specific direction for our calling is that He sometimes gives us the freedom to choose. Just as parents give more freedom to their children as they mature, so also does God.

For example, in 2013, my health challenges and a vague but powerful sense of restlessness prompted thoughts of resigning my staff position as one of the pastors at a five-campus church near Pittsburgh. At a Speak Up Conference in Grand Rapids, MI, I attended a breakout session about life coaching. In that moment, my mind and heart started racing with possibilities.

After I returned home, I asked God whether I should indeed resign and start a new career at age 52 as a Christian life coach, specializing in helping people find and fulfill their Christian calling.

That was an important decision, right? Of course! After all, seven years earlier, God had clearly called me to my current pastoral leadership role. But now, when I asked for His direction about whether to switch to life coaching, I heard no clear direction from God.

At first, I thought that meant I should keep doing what I was already doing. But in the process of trying to hear what God wanted me to do, I started spending more time with Him. Sweet times. My primary focus shifted from doing a role to growing in relationship with Him.

And then I did hear him clearly: “You choose. I trust you.” I had such a strong sense of freedom from the Holy Spirit, that I could choose either way, and He would be good with it.

God Sometimes Specifically Tells Us Which Path to Take in Our Calling

But at other times in my life, with seemingly less important decisions, God clearly told me what to do.

For example, one time I was leading a women’s small group while also helping to lead a couples’ small group. Eventually I became more active in the women’s ministry at our church, and my husband Ron also actively served at the church. Both of us wondered if the couples’ group was still a good fit for our priorities, so we prayed for God’s guidance.

Then, three days in a row, this verse popped up in all three devotional books that we read each morning: “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25)

The context of this verse is about attending church in general. But we strongly sensed that it was also God’s Word for us about the couples’ group.

So think about it. God gave me crystal-clear direction about whether to continue in our couples’ small group. But He gave me complete freedom to choose whether to become a life coach.

“Human Beings” vs. “Human Doings”

Some people would say that the couples’ group decision was more important from God’s perspective than whether I became a life coach. I don’t think that’s necessarily true.

I believe God does indeed often give us freedom to make important decisions, because His relationship with us is sometimes more important than what choices we make.

Of course, in the Bible, God did call some people to do specific things, and He would not allow them to escape. God sending a big fish to swallow Jonah is an extreme example of that!

But in the Bible, people are human BEINGS to God, not just human DOINGS. David was not just the king of Israel; he was also a man after God’s own heart. (1 Samuel 13:14) The disciples weren’t just Jesus’ followers; they were also His friends. (John 5:15)

God values WHO WE ARE more than WHAT WE DO. Therefore, our calling is not just a single unbranched path to a role or task he wants us to do for Him.

Instead, our calling is a rich, branched path of relationship with Him, full of endlessly possible ways He can work through us to make a difference for Him.

Christian Calling Myth #4

Myth #4: We eventually get too old for Christian calling.

In the summer of 2002, I joined 3,154 other bicyclists for the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure. Every day for six days, with one day off in the middle, we bicycled an average of 40 miles each day, for a grand total of about 240 miles. The adventure included tent-camping every night at fairgrounds, parks, and colleges. Temperatures routinely soared into the nineties.

R.J. at the end of a biking day at G.O.B.A.

Thy cyclists included many senior adults, including some in their eighties and nineties. One man in particular, at age 92, completed the entire course.

Similarly, Ernest Andrus, a 95-year-old World War II veteran, recently started his SECOND walk across America! The first time, it took 2 years. This time, he says it will take him 5 years—he plans to finish at age 100!

Christian Calling Myth #5

Myth #5: When we correctly discern God’s clear calling, fruitfulness will immediately follow.

Examples of the Illusory Truth Effect

Below are three falsehoods that you might have heard over and over again, so much that you believe they are true. That's the illusory truth effect at work!

Illusory truth effect: The Bible says that God won’t give you more than you can handle.
Actual truth: You will face more than you can handle. The apostle Paul certainly did in 2 Corinthians 1. But  God does promise to be with us and help us.

Illusory truth effect: When we die, we become angels.
Actual truth: We do not become angels when we die. Angels are separately created beings. We are, and always will be, God’s children.

Illusory truth effect: The Bible says that money is the root of all evil.
Actual truth: Jesus said that the love of money—not money itself—is the root of all evil.

How to Replace Christian Calling Myths with God’s Truth in Your Own Christian Calling

So also, the illusory truth effect is working when we believe the 5 myths about Christian calling above. We believe them because we have heard them so much—although the myths are often implied rather than explicitly stated.

Researchers who discovered the illusory truth effect identified at least 2 main reasons it works:

• We are often cognitively lazy. We often don’t seriously evaluate supposedly true statements.
• Familiarity prompts faster conclusions. Studies show that the more familiar something is, the more easily we believe we can accurately evaluate it.

Researchers also discovered three main ways to combat the illusory truth effect:

• Think critically.
• Check the facts.
• Stop listening to repeated falsehood, and start repeatedly listening to the truth. 

Five ways to replace long-held myths about your Christian calling with God's truth about who you are and what He’s called you to do:

1. Learn God’s truth about the myths you have believed in the past:

For each of the 5 myths above, about Christian calling, read the facts above from God’s Word and from modern research.