Which best describes how you've come to be in the career to which you feel called?

I am curious, because I have always struggled with not knowing what I wanted for a career, and not feeling like I have a strong calling to one particular field. I am 24, and wondering if this is not unusual. I graduated from college with a Liberal Arts major three years ago, and have been working for two and a half years.

I would welcome specifics regarding age and the process you went through in figuring out "what you wanted to do when you grew up."

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Brad
Member of Redeemer Church

Brad,

To be honest, I don't know if the scriptures tell us there is really even such a thing as individuals having a specific secular 'calling'.

The bible says everyone should work, and gives us rules of wisdom about how to work. Apart from that I think we really can chose whatever work we want.

So go for what interests you, will allow you to make a decent living and will either promote or not adversely affect your godliness (not necessarily in that order). Of course, the counsel of parents and others should factor into the equation.

I think another consideration is that it should preferrably be something that can be described as a 'career' ie the experience you gain will benefit you/make you more employable later, as opposed to just a job that will mean nothing at all once it ends.

However, I do not believe God has a particular 'calling' he wants each of us to find.

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Mark Li
International University Church
New South Wales, Australia

Fair enough, I've always wondered if that terminology was biblical. Maybe others have thoughts on the term "calling." I guess it's just something Christians often use in a broader sense.

I'm more or less interested in what may or may not be a pattern as far as how godly men (and women) have come to find what it is they do in life.

Hope you didn't think I meant to pick on your question, that wasn't my intention at all.

As for me, I don't think I've found a career/calling yet, so I'am still looking.

Certainly not friend and fellow career detective!

I've had a vocation that I've certainly enjoyed for 17 years but now I'm wondering what my new calling will be soon.

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Rich
Okinawa, Japan

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I voted College, but I've really had three different callings. I felt called to military service during high school, then after completing my enlistment I felt a call to study music, and at the end of that time I was strongly called to pursue the ministry. I voted college, since that was the most profound of the three. A call is something internal and subjective. It may change, it may stay the same.

When Paul speaks of a calling, it is in the context of one's marital/servile status when they were converted to Christ. So calling there refers to the Gospel call, and that passage deals with how we should view our vocation/marital status in light of that.

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Adam J. Myer
Back to looking for a call...
Evergreen PCA
Salem, Oregon

Thanks! I would also add, that I'm interested in hearing the experiences of those called to the ministry, and how/when that came about.

Also, for me its not necessarily a question of employment, as I am (praise God!) working and making a living. However, I don't necessarily desire to stay in my current field my whole life (legal assistant).

Other: it found me.

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Rev. Daniel Kok
Pastor of Grace Reformed Church (URCNA)
Leduc, Alberta CANADA
Church Blog

"there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loves us more than Jesus Christ"
Belgic Confession, Article 26

I have not yet found my "calling" and I am 52 years old.

It has hurt me recently in job interviews where some really young person with several decades less experience tells me..."Mr. King it seems like you have bounced around a lot. That raises a red flag with me."

I think of asking them if they know how many job changes Thomas Edison or Einstien or Davey Crockett had ...but really it is not something they would grasp.

I have had some great experiences in many various jobs from teaching/coaching to medical sales to working in a psych hospital, to oilfield drilling rig jobs and driving trucks and on and on and I figure my kids can always look and say..."well he always did whatever it took to put beans on the table." It used to bother me but if you look at the guys in the Bible some were fishermen who quit to do something else, carpenters, tax collectors, zealot militia men, and doctors who changed course somewhere along the way.

I figure you just suit up every day and report for duty and see what happens.
(of course this goes against every success book you will ever read but ...
success isn't really my area of expertise)

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Richard H. King
Providence PCA
Lubbock, Texas
"No matter how far a man goes, he eventually finds out God's already there." John Wayne - the last line in "Chisum"

My vocation is inborn. I come from a long line of salesmen. I have never really done anything else.

Political consulting doesn't count as "someting else" since it is still more or less sales.

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Kevin Rogers
Mount Zion ARP
Moncton NB

In seminary, at Westminster Sem California.

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Rev. Daniel R. Hyde
Pastor, Oceanside United Reformed Church
www.oceansideurc.org
Carlsbad/Oceanside, California

Rev. Hide, quick follow up question: would you say you went into seminary without a clear calling, or rather that while in seminary your calling was confirmed?

I kind of wonder if part of it does not just come from our culture and living in an affluent society with a lot of freedom. In the days when the Bible was written, men usually worked at whatever their fathers did or farmed trying to grow enough food to stay alive. Women raised kids and did chores around the house. When it came to marriage it was all arranged so you did not have to worry about the things we worry about now...you just had to worry about staying alive and not dying from disease or starvation or being sent to fight for your country. We are blessed that we have so much freedom but all that freedom causes problems, somtimes it would be easier, I think, if everything was decided for us. I guess you should just do what you feel you like the best and are good at and would not hate. Then do it with all your might as unto the Lord.

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Erick Bohndorf PCA, KS
http://qayaqtraveler.blogspot.com/
Jeremiah 23:16,17, "Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you."

I love raising red flags. Perhaps, that, more than anything has been my calling.

My majors in college: Geophysical Engineering, Music (performance and composition), Humanities, Physics, Range Science, and Soil Science. I graduated with a BS in Soil Science and a minor in French. I paid for school by raising cattle, being a sheepherder, being a custom harvester, and doing contract research jobs. My calling at the time was to be a farmer, which I did for a number of years.

But it didn't pay well so I supplemented my income by being an aerial applicator (the official name for "crop duster") and did some consulting overseas in agriculture.

But my real calling seemed to be law. I come from a long line of lawyers and avoided it as much as possible until injury and economics sent me to law school. I was in my 30s when that happened.

The odd thing was that I never really had a "job" for which I applied and was interviewed until my 40s, and that was with a law firm after I had been in practice on my own for 8 years. I mostly just jumped at opportunities as they came up. My default approach was to say yes to any strange challenge that presented itself, and then worry about how I was going to accomplish it. Not a very well-thought approach, but it led to interesting moments (like picnicking at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates while Iranian shells were flying overhead).

Some people have their calling in front of them plain as can be. For others, like me, it may take a long time. I think the important thing is to do whatever is before you to the best of your ability.

Perhaps I was reckless in my approach, but when I was 18 and in my first year of college an oil company presented me a contract for employment for a tremendous amount of money after I graduated. They offered to pay the rest of my tuition and were discussing retirement benefits. I was a young firebrand and the offer scared me to death. I don't know why, really, but having my life mapped out to retirement sent me running to the eclectic hills. And it probably was a good thing. A friend took the offer. The oil bust hit 4 years later and he was in Houston, out of work, and asking me for a job.

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R.Vic Bottomly
Providence Reformed Baptist Church, Tacoma, WA

I was blessed enough to recognise I was a computer geek from the 10th grade, although I had thought to follow in my fathers footsteps to become an Analytical Chemist. At the end of year 10 the teachers & my parents pushed me towards medicine. I did subjects through to Year 12 (final highschool year here) to enable me to do Chemistry or Physiotherapy. Not sure who I was kidding though, I hated the sight of blood I also did some work experience with a Phsiotherapist (no blood you see) and it still made shivers run up my spine seeing him twist people limbs all over the place!!

I got a degree in computing and never looked back!

Matt

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Matthew Glover
Reformed Presbyterian Church of Australia

I went to WSC in order to study theology for 2 years, get my M.A., then move on to Ph.D. studies in the hopes of teaching. The guilt I felt in doing such a thing when my native Orange County had a smattering of confessional churches got the better of me.

Yes, a friend and I have talked often about how we almost have too many choices in modern America. If you want to go to school, you can find some program somewhere that will let you in. If you don't like the girls in you church, you can go to the church down the street. If you don't like the girls in the church down the street, you can go look for a wife on the internet. If you don't like the job scene where you live, you can up and move across the country without having to risk freezing to death in some mountain pass or being attacked by Indians.

We do have it almost too good, and the abundance of choices almost detracts from the incentive to dedicate one's self to the current situation, and even makes it harder to decide on an alternative path.

I realized I hadn't answered that part.

Honestly, I always found people who were aimlessly determining their study and career path in college to be shiftless. I never felt I had the luxury to extend my schooling and just "search for a major".

In my estimation, a great deal of people "finding their calling" in college is laziness. I know that's blunt so if the shoe doesn't fit for anyone here uncertain then don't worry about it. I say it's laziness because I have seen others around me for years that do not apply themselves very hard to tasks - they party or do other things as much as study or work and they don't have solid goals.

When I grew up, I wanted to be a doctor. My mom is a nurse and I always told people I was going to be a doctor. In high school, however, I realized that I didn't like biology. It bored me while I loved Physics and Math. One day, some students came by our class and started talking about Nuclear Engineering and, from the time I was a Junior in high school, I resolved I was going to study Nuclear Engineering.

I applied for a Navy ROTC scholarship and was offered a 3 year scholarship. My sophomore year, I decided to change options and become a Marine. In part because I hated the time I had spent on ships (especially subs) but mostly because I was incredibly impressed with the Marine Officer there: Capt Schad (incidentally, he was friends with my current CG and my boss - small world).

This decision meant a lot of work for me. People talk about Engineering degrees requiring, typically, 5 years. I always hold such ideas in disdain. I'm not puffing out my chest in pride but I got my degree in 4 years because that's the time I resolved that it takes to get a degree. I had several semesters of 21 credit hours with an additional 12-20 hours a week doing ROTC stuff. The reason I'm skeptical about the "impossibility" of getting a degree in 4 years is because of the huge load of ROTC stuff I did on top of my engineering degree.

But I had resolved to get an Engineering degree. Many others were doing the minimum. They had partied much their Freshman years and switched from hard science and engineering majors to management degrees. In fact, if it wasn't for people who switched their majors as Freshman, RPI would have a very small School of Management.

Some will protest at this point and say that it's a matter of skill or acumen. I cannot disagree more. The reason I know differently is that I saw Marines at the Naval Postgraduate School who got Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering who arrived with Political Science degrees. Because they were Marines and, literally, could not fail (because their families depended upon them not to) they were at school until 3 am some nights learning stuff that was fairly basic to me as an Engineering undergrad. After 2 years, they knew Engineering well enough to write a unique thesis. It's all about goals and work ethic.

If undergrads applied themselves and worked hard then they can get any education they desire (within some limitations). The main limitation is effort in most cases - it's that simple. The idea that a person is "finding their major" is a lame excuse. My children will have 4 years to complete their undergraduate work and I expect them to have a goal for their education before they attend. I'm not wasting money on them "finding themselves" and they better work hard while they're in school. People who pay their own way through school are not nearly so shiftless as the vast array of people who attend school.

I also think that setting definite goals on what you're going to do is important. We always propose the goal and God disposes but when we're told to "...consider the ant you sluggard...", the ant is not wondering whether or not he should be working hard toward the goal of getting the food today. Certainly Providence puts a leaf in his way and he has to walk around it but what he needs to do is pretty well understood.

Thus, I've always been the type of person who decides what it is I'm going to do and then I work with full energy toward that end. I consider my goal on the basis of the talents God has gifted me with and I always understand that Providence may hinder the aim. But I think it is fundamentally shiftless to sit around and wait for opportunities to come around so I can figure out what it is I want to do with my life.

I'm actually closing a career right now in another 3 years and I'm already uncomfortable because I need to have a definite plan on what it is I want to do. It's either a second career with my own company or working as an independent contractor from home or going to Seminary (maybe a little bit of both). I actually feel a little bit shiftless because I haven't decided yet.

I still wonder what I'm "called" to. But I think we all do have a calling. We all have gifts and talents given us by God and in His providence he puts us where he wants us to be. Our job is to glorify him with the gifts he has given us in the circumstances he places us. Remember the parable of the talents. Some were given 10, some 5, some 1, yet all were required to be fruitful with what they had. You may also be gifted in some areas which have multiple applications. For example, in my life, I started out a Navy Nuke, then became an ER Nurse, now training for ministry. The Lord for some reason gave me a scientific geek mind to analyze and diagnose things, all which have helped in my circumstances, and it's a great help in theology and Bible study too. So consider what God has gifted you with. Consider your interests and things you do well (even things you may not enjoy but do well). And trust the fatherly hand of God, who put you where you are for his good purposes.

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Patrick
OPC
MDiv, RTS Jackson.

"He does well, that discourses of Christ; but he does infinitely better, that by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ." Thomas Brooks.

I agree wholeheartedly. Goal setting is important, and following through with focused activity is even more important.

As for shifting majors, even though my approach was eclectic, I want to clarify that at every time I had a solid fixed goal too. The projects were discrete and I paid out of my pocket. The goal changed as time went on, but I devoted a lot of energy to do well in those classes. I really encourage those in school to learn how to be passionate ab