You know when you’re at those festivals, the ones where hundreds of people are standing around worshipping God and you are on fire for God and it feels so easy to respond to the altar call of mission. And when the preacher on the stage says: God is asking who will go to the nations? It is so easy to say “Here I am, send me.”
And then you go home, back to a repetitive life where the God who encounters you at festivals and feels so big and mighty there gets lost to the busy-ness of your life. And then you go back to the routine you had before you boldly said Here I am, send me and the mundaneness of the regular life you’ve built crests again. You are lost to the rhythm of normal life. So what happens then? Does the calling you felt so undeniably just days ago disappear? Does it change? Or do you just fixate on other things and let the calling die out within you?
For most of us, we say that life gets busy. We forget the incredible moments we had with God for the comfort of the mundane, the normal, the regular. And, as harsh as it may sound, we allow our comfort to mean more than someone else’s eternity. Because with mission that is the bottom line. You – we, every single christian on this planet – is called to “go forth and make disciples of all nations baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” and when we don’t follow that call, we are letting our comfortable, non-invasive christianity cost people their eternal lives. And do you want to know the worst part? Christianity was never meant to be comfortable or non-invasive. The word of God is counter-cultural. Loving those who persecute you isn’t comfortable. Allowing the word of God to pierce through bone and marrow, convicting people and turning hearts back to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is invasive. Dying to yourself daily to pick up your cross and follow Jesus isn’t convenient and it was never supposed to be. What we have done is stopped the Bible from being the most effective it can be by simply telling people that God loves them. Of course God loves them but with love comes discipline. And with discipline comes discomfort. Imagine a parent telling their child that they love them but then allowing them to pull the hair of every person they see. That is setting that child up to fail in life.
God loves us but he wants us to succeed. He wants us to hear His call and want to follow it. He wants us to be obedient and listen. But then comes the other question: how do I know what my call is? And here’s the thing, I don’t think you ever really know what your calling is until you do it.
I used to believe my calling was being a missionary, maybe as a teacher. It felt right until I did it and then it felt empty. So now I am in this place of wrestling with my calling. Am I meant to be a missionary? Am I meant to share God on social media? Am I meant to honor Him through my books? And the bottom line is this: I still don’t know.
So, in 2026, I have decided that instead of getting so consumed by the what of my calling, I will prioritise hearing and listening to God’s voice. After all, He did say: seek first my kingdom. And I truly believe that if I can identify his voice in a crowd of other influences then I will be able to discern my calling as well.
Anyway, do you know what your calling is?