God is Always Calling

Here is a great article about calling and vocation from the Washington Institute. This has Garber written all over it. Here is a bit about the author:
Andi Ashworth is the author of Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring . Andi partners with her husband Charlie Peacock-Ashworth in the work of the Art House, a 90-year-old, renovated country church that serves as the Ashworths’ home, as well as their place of business and ministry.

Charlie Peacock is the one of the men behind Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, and Blood:Water Mission. Steve Garber is one of the men behind Charlie Peacock.

This post is dedicated to Laura.

From the article:

One thing I know for sure as I approach my 50th year: Understanding one’s calling is an ongoing process of discovery, and calling doesn’t have to be limited to one area. I continue to find new aspects of calling announcing themselves in different chapters of our lives, and I don’t suppose the revelation is over yet.

Young people of college age feel such pressure to decide what field of study to engage in, what kind of work to pursue. The age-old question, “what will you be when you grow up?” is haunting. I remember my daughter’s anxiety as the need to declare a major loomed in her second year of college. Since my husband and I had grappled with the meaning of vocation for ourselves, we urged her to study what she loved, to move toward her true interests rather than worrying about the exact nature of her post-college life. We trusted that God would bring her to the work, people, and places that would fit the way He’d created her.

A few years after giving our daughter this advice, our pastor, Scotty Smith, gave Chuck and me similar counsel. We were living temporarily in St. Louis to attend Covenant Theological Seminary, and the Master of Divinity path my husband was on quickly showed itself to be the wrong one for him. During a break we came home and sought counsel from Scotty. He set us free from worrying about degree programs and told us to frame our choice of classes toward calling instead of degree. His advice reminded us of something important that had been lost.

That is good advice. Frame your choice of classes toward calling instead of degree. Frame all of your choices towards calling instead of the thing that the world seems to think is right. Remember, we can live within a different system.