That's Not My Calling!!

It seems like there are always people who want to push their opinions onto us, especially as to our course in life. They think they know what is best for you, but they may refuse to even consider what is in your mind and heart.

When I was growing up with blindness and epilepsy, my Dad had a hard time with what I was planning for my life. When I wrote as a hobby, he didn't appreciate it and once told me, "You'll never be a poet". This damaged my life for many years because as you know parents have a strong influence on their children in many ways, especially in self-esteem. If you don't use God's wisdom when you talk to your kids about their dreams, you can damage them sometimes permanently. Instead of controlling them, seek to guide them and then let go and let God take over. We may not always agree with what they choose, just as others don't agree with our choices, but they are the ones who have to be accountable for their choices as we are for ours.

Just before I was married the first time, my Dad told my future father-in-law that I was going to be a custodian for a school district. He had it all planned out for me, but I didn't know this until later. When I found out about it, I refused because that was not the direction I believed my life should take. I couldn't drive because of my handicaps and wasn't educated in how to fix things anyway. So you can imagine what I went through!! It wasn't my calling to do this, even though it would have been a great job with benefits.

When I started college, I went to the state Rehabilitation Department and they tested me. It came out as math as my best subject because I had helped on egg routes as a boy helping my family. So I was given money to take accounting classes at college which I failed because my eyes were not good enough to see the squares on the different forms. Although it was a good choice for someone, it wasn't for me. It wasn't my calling!!

I went through English courses improving my writing and looking toward being an English teacher but that didn't work out either. I tried Speech to get my communication skills to be better and thought about being a Speech therapist. During the course of this, I met my first wife. But this wasn't to be my profession either. It wasn't my calling!!

Next, I tried Business courses, economics, computer classes---all these helped me in different ways to round out my education but they still weren't my calling in life. I had had inclinations toward being a minister as a teenager but sort of dismissed them for a while until just before I married the first time. Then my Mom took me to a Bible college about 90 minutes away from home. I was all set to enroll, then something happened and it didn't happen.

20 years later, I was living in another city, still married, working at a hardware store. This time the Lord provided all the funding and a great location only five miles from home. If I had taken the other ministry courses before, they would have cost my parents many thousands of dollars. Now all my education was paid by the church I was attending. Praise the Lord! This was one of my callings, but the Lord had more in store for me.

Over the years I had progressed from poetry to newspaper articles to magazine articles and then to books in my writing. I am now in the book-writing phase even though I still do some of all the other phases as well. God took me on a gradual journey exploring new facets of writing all through my life.

Now I am waiting for disability to be approved because of my bad eyesight and other reasons. Thankfully, there are many technological innovations to help me see as I work on my writing. He has a plan for my life, but it takes a step of trust at a time to get there. He will do the same for your life. You may not know many years at a time in advance what God is going to do with your life, but you just have to walk it out one step at a time with God guiding you.

So I had a lot of things I could have done with my life, but they didn't work out. I made a lot of missteps but God improved my writing along the way, found a wonderful first wife for me, then brought me a second wife later in life to help me with the next phase of God's will .

Maybe you, too, haven't found God's will easy to recognize?? Not everyone does! But if you keep close to God He is going to guide your life even when you can't see or feel it happening. Someday you will look back and see the wonderful things God has done for you, and praise His name for it.

Keep going no matter what happens. Keep striving toward the goals of your life with God's help and encouragement. Remember, friends and family won't always encourage you the way you need it, but God will if you stay close to Him and listen for His guidance, then obey. The Bible promises He will never leave or forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5) You have His promise on it!!