Podcast: "Dialing in Your Calling" - Jim Robbins

"DIALING IN YOUR CALLING:"  Here's a glimpse into the process I've used over the last 10 years to hone my sense of calling. [13 minutes]

You can also read my post, "Dialing in Your Calling" here.

[Podcast theme music written and performed by Jim Robbins - Expressive Music Scores.]

Dialing in your calling

For me, it has been important to narrow my sense of calling as much as I can.  Truth be told, there will always been an unfinished sense of mystery to our calling, an inability to pin it down with 100% clarity.

Having said that, here's a bit of my thought-process:

Rather than saying, "I'm a teacher," or "I help people gain a better understanding of what the Bible says about them," or "I talk about the heart," I get even more specific:

"I like to challenge assumptions that impair and wound a Christian."  Or,

"I expose beliefs that shame and diminish Christians."

When I dial-in my calling more specifically like the above, it answers a couple of questions:

1.  Who am I trying to reach, or who are the people that most need what I bring?

2.  What, specifically, am I bringing or doing?  ["challenging assumptions that impair and wound," or "exposing beliefs that shame and diminish."]

There are even key verbs in those statements that resonate with me:  "challenge,"  and "expose."  And, as I look back over the last 15+ years, I've always challenged destructive "assumptions."

I can bring this calling to any context I'm in - whether paid or not, at home or with others.  That's the beauty of it. 

How would you dial in your calling?

You are not a commodity - How we've reduced our calling to a job

As Gary Barkalow suggests in his new book, It's Your Call - What Are You Doing Here?,  your calling is not to a specific job, position, or ministry role.  It is broader and deeper than that. 

Though your job or role can certainly reflect your calling, it would be better to think of your calling as the weightiness of your life - the effect you have on those around you - the particular way in which you carry God's splendor into the world.  Your calling spills over into every role and relationship you have in your life, not simply what you call 'work' for 40 or 50 hours a week.

Pastors -- you are not called to be a 'pastor;'  although you might be called to shepherd people in their spiritual journey.  You can bring that shepherding and caring heart into each sphere of influence you hold.  It doesn't have to come with the role or title of 'Pastor.'

Teachers -- you are not called to the role or title or 'Teacher;'  although you might be great at bringing clarity and illumination to those around you.

Plumbers and electricians -- you are not called to be a 'Plumber' or 'Electrician.'  However, you may bring an ability to figure out how things work and how they can be repaired into every relationship and situation.  [You may also earn a living by doing what a plumber or electrician does, but your calling to bring your unique insight can't be contained in the hours you call 'work.']

Your calling cannot be fully contained and fulfilled by a job or position.  How could the weight of your life be defined by a list of functions or tasks?  Second, if finding your calling is tied to finding the right job or position, your calling would be limited to the extent of that work.  In a typical job, your life's purpose would be limited to forty hours a week. 

 - Gary Barkalow, It's Your Call

What do you do with your calling the other hours of the week?  Do you leave it at the office?  Of course not.  If you limit your calling to what you do for a paycheck, then you've made yourself a day-laborer, as Seth Godin cautions.  You've turned your value into a commodity -- reducing your worth to only those activities you get paid for:  equal pay for equal service.  Is that really the extent of your value?  Can you measure it by how much you're getting paid, or the hours you're putting in?  No!

Your calling is the brilliant effect of your life on others.  The unique splendor and perception you offer.  The way you see the world.  God is trying to tell the world something ... through you.  In you; as you.

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Feel free to Post a Comment below.

Related podcasts:  ORIENTATION - Calling Series, part one.  Special guest Gary Barkalow, author It's Your Call - What Are You Doing Here? joins me for this series.

What you are called to is your 'art.'

Do you see yourself as an artist?

In a broader sense, an artist is someone who refuses the tired and mundane scripts being offered, in exchange for the chance to actually change people's lives. Really change people's lives.

The artist intends to reveal something through his art.  There is a declaration behind it.  [Otherwise, the art becomes merely self-indulgent].  The art is the access point to a deeper, somewhat veiled, reality.  It provokes us, stirs us, and tells us rumors of another world. The resulting creative work is the artist's calling card, a trail of breadcrumbs that lead 'further up and further in' to this other world.

Not all artists paint or work with clay. It's not so much the tools of the artist that matter. For one artist, the medium they work in, is relationships. For others, it's the ability to bring clarity into confusion. For another, it's the art of piercing the darkness with beauty.

It's how the artist SEES that matters.

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Recommended reading: 
Linchpin - Are You Indispensable, by Seth Godin.  Not a 'spiritual' book, but surprisingly reflects biblical values of giving without expectation, creative freedom, and the idea that all are endowed with genius that can change lives.

In defense of the Renaissance Man

Is it possible for one to be both scholar and artist?  Simultaneously "right-brained, and 'left-brained" and capable at both?

Part of the problem with our contemporary culture of "experts" is that it doesn't allow for the real possibility that a man or woman can effectively operate out of both sides of their brain, or demonstrate expertise in both the arts and the intellect.   Going to our General Practitioner won't do -- we are referred to a 'specialist.'  There's simply too much to know for any one person to know it all.

As I've wrestled with my own calling, the idea that a person who is a jack-of-all-trades can only be 'master of none' has forced me into an artificial narrowness:  "If I am a writer, then people won't possibly believe that I am also an artist and musician."  (Or at least, not very good at either; because how could any one person possibly be skilled at both.)

What would Leonardo DaVinci have thought of this constricted vision of human calling?  His own brilliance covered such sweeping pursuits as painting, architecture, the anatomy of the human body, and even the design of tanks and advanced weaponary.  The man who painted the "Last Supper" also excelled in geometry and architecture. 

Yet, perhaps our culture of experts has sabotaged the Renaissance Man with narrow and constricting assumptions.

One the one hand, it is good for a person to be as clear and specific about their calling as they can be.  On the other, there may be a common thread running underneath the various pursuits of the Renaissance Man or Woman.  In my case, it was the thread of design:  whether I am composing a music score for a video, or writing another chapter of my next book, I deeply enjoy creating and revealing design  -- whether it's the design of a musical composition, or the design of the human heart and its longings.  The intellect and the artistry are not mutually-exclusive, but mutually-affirming.

So take heart, those of you who, like DaVinci have found yourself competent in both the intellect and scholarly as well as the poetic and sublime.  There is precident for what you can offer the world.

THE ASSAULT AGAINST YOUR CALLING - new podcast in the 'calling' series

Special guest Gary Barkalow, author of the upcoming book, It's Your Call:  What are you doing here?, joins Jim again for part four of their series on living from our calling. 

What has been coming against your heart to shut it down?  What is at stake as we pursue the deep desires of our hearts and the calling that is written there?

This was a powerful conversation with Gary Barkalow, who brings a deep clarity to the struggles of calling.

What does 'calling' have to do with your heart?

You may be wondering why a guy like me, who typically speaks about the heart, is talking about 'calling' lately. 

The first reason is that the topic of calling is part of a book I'm working on.  Second, because you can't find your calling without believing Christ has given you a good and noble heart.  Calling flows from heart.

Within your new heart lie the clues to your place in the Story - your 'calling.'  These clues come in the form of your deep desires, as well as the story your heart has been living in.   Beneath the defining events of your life, the pattern of wounds, the activities that made you come alive, something was happening in your heart - shaping it, calling it up and out.  Your heart has a unique history and a story to tell.

If you believe your heart is deceitful and selfish, it will be hard to see your deep desires and to believe that there are now good and noble desires within your new and noble heart.

That's why I write about calling.  Calling flows from heart.

Is it o.k. to get paid for your calling?

Yes, it is o.k.

There are those, who with good intentions, are saying 'no,' though.  Their contention is that "God's stuff" should be free.  However, as noble as that sounds, it stems from an unhelpful view of calling.

Their argument:  Get a 'real job' so that you can support your true calling and offer your message for free. But here's the problem with that: 

Your calling is to bring the effect of your life into every area of your life -- including your 'job.'  Ideally, your job reflects your calling and giftings and is suited to them.  Isn't your job a ministry?  For those that want to say "Get a real job that supports your ministry so that your ministry offering is free,"  I say, "But isn't your 'real job' a ministry?  Don't you bring the effect of your life, your gifts and unique heart to that job setting?  Why is that any less a ministry?

Secondly, their argument seems to apply primarily to those having a message-based ministry, rather than a product or service that isn't primarily message-based.  This might include Christian authors and speakers, or those creating explicitly 'Christian' music.  Those who are bringing a kingdom message seem to fall into a separate category than anyone else in the Body of Christ -- pedestalizing that group of communicators -- and diminishing the role of everyone else in the Body.  [I'm not even specifically thinking of paid 'pastors' and the like, necessarily; but more generally of anyone whose mission is primarily message-driven.]

Would they expect a physician, who happens to be a Christian, to offer his services free?  Not likely?  But isn't he also doing God's work and offering the restoring work of Jesus?  How about the hairdresser who loves God and brings him into conversations with her clients?  Should she offer her services free? I don't think we would expect that of her.  But for some reason, those whose primary mission centers around a message are expected to offer it free -- austensibly because it's "God's stuff."  (Yet isn't the doctor and the hairdresser offering 'God's stuff' as well to their clients?)  Don't we all have a right to support our families at a reasonable level? [-Of course, I'm speaking of reasonable pay and in good-conscience.]

If we use the inequitable scale of value that those who want God's stuff to be free do, then no one  in the Body should be paid for any of their work, including the 'real jobs' they have, since we'd hope that every believer treats his/her job as a ministry and an extension of their calling. 

I understand the sentiment of those wanting the message to be free -- I just don't think that value -scale is being applied equally across the Body, and I think it creates a false division in the Body as to which callings are more important than others.

No calling is more godly or sacred than the next, because each one's gifts and calling flow from him who levelled the playing field.  Let's stop pedestalizing (and penalizing) those primarily offering a message, and lift up each one's offering to others -- whether that person brings their gifts as an artist, author, electrician, doctor or hairdresser.

Your thoughts?

The Trinity is a clue to calling

Just about anything of importance can be figured out by watching the Trinity in action.  This includes our individual callings as unique persons.

We don't have one God wearing three different hats:  we have one God in three distinct persons.  All possessing ultimate divinity, yet living out unique roles.  Let's take a look:

The Father:  the Sender  ["As the Father has sent me..."]

The Son:  the Bridge  ["Therefore, since we have a great high priest ..., Jesus"]

The Spirit:  the Counselor  ["But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, ... will teach you all things and will remind you of all..."]

Clearly, there's a fluidity and overlap to the roles of each person in the Trinity, but the distinctness of those roles is also true.  That's why you and I have distinct roles and callings in the Body of Christ.  Remember, as the Trinity goes, so goes the Body:  Whatever is in the Trinity flows towards us.

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What unique calling do you have, your distinct offering to others?

Badly underestimating a life

On NPR today, a man was being interviewed who had made it his year-long quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread. 

My first thought was, "This guy has badly underestimated the cosmic drama unfolding around him."  My second thought was, "This guy has a really lackluster sense of his own personal calling."

Don't misunderstand me:  I think freshly-baked bread is one of life's true pleasures.  In fact, today I enjoyed a sandwich made with a nutty garlic and potato artisan bread:  Nourishing and hand-crafted.  But taking a year of my life to learn how to bake the perfect loaf isn't something that strikes me as urgent or enduring.  Rather, it strikes me as a bit naive. 

He has miscalculated two things:  the unfolding Story into which he has been invited; and his place in that Story.  It's much like the journalist in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, who had never seen battle before.  He's been asked to join a rescue operation.  He wants to bring his clunky and cumbersome typewriter; but the Captain, played by Tom Hanks says, "Here, take this instead" and hands him a pencil. The journalist didn't know what to take because he sorely underestimated the unfolding circumstances:  He wasn't taking another desk job  -  he was about to engage in field ops, where he would get shot at.

Surely the man who took a year of his life to pursue the perfect loaf has much more to offer the world -- a more needed and substantial treasure to give.   If our naivete persists, we might as well bring cookies and punch to flood victims; and board games to the clinically-depressed.  Surely much more is needed than that.

Those who are hungry for what you bring

What kind of people most need what you offer?

Jesus’ invitation was extended to those with an appetite for what he had:  hungry and thirsty people.  An individual is not going to come to his table if they are neither hunger nor thirsty.  It’s not their desire to do so ... and desire is the difference.  If they don’t want it, they won’t come.

Therefore, when you consider your own calling, the affect of your life, your unique offering to others, it’s appropriate to ask:  “What type of person will be most receptive to what I offer?  Who will be hungry for what I bring?” 

This is a general guideline for determining the direction in which our calling can go.  However, as with the kind of environment we most want to flourish in, there are occasions where God will place us in adverse environments, surrounded by people who don’t want what we offer.  We ultimately offer our hearts in service to God, and therefore may be asked to bring our selves to those grating and ungracious people.  For a time. 

Take heart – our environment need not define us:  a caged lion is still a lion.  He may wish to return to the open savanna, but only his surroundings have changed; not his noble strength, not his regal splendor. If our appointment to a job (mission) is only for a time, we can take comfort from the fact that the people there can never diminish our splendor or remove our unique glory – for they did not give it.

So what kind of person is most likely to need and want what you bring to the Story?

podcast - "YOUR UNIQUE GLORY" - guest Gary Barkalow talks with Jim

"Your unique glory:"  What is the particular aspect of God's splendor and brilliance that you bring to the world?  What is the affect of your life on others?

Gary Barkalow joins Jim for part 3 of a seven-part series on "Calling."  Gary's teaching on calling addresses critical issues that spiritual gifts inventories and personality tests don't cover.  You will find his message healing, insightful, and hopeful. 

What's the best environment for your calling?

What kind of environment best fits your personality and calling?

Once you know what you want to offer people, determining which environments (contexts) you flourish in can be very helpful.  For example, I love to teach, but I would not do well teaching Junior High.  I also would not flourish serving in an institutional setting that felt too restrictive or that was led by an overbearing authority structure. 

However, I do love to teach through writing, blogging and speaking.  I also love to bring discernment and direction through everyday conversation with family and friends. The right environment can encourage our particular splendor:  the wrong one can suffocate it.

I’ll add a word of caution here:  Sometimes, God will place us in contexts we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves:  Those places may feel unwelcoming and hostile.  Yet, our Counselor may still need us there for a reason, for a season.  Remember, he's a master tactician and knows what he's doing.

Again, it’s always helpful to ask:  “God, is this where you need me right now?  Is this where you would have me bring my splendor for a time?”

What environments do your gifts and glory thrive in?

When your job stinks...

What do you do when your job doesn't reflect what you really love?

It’s helpful to think of a particular job (the thing that brings home the bacon) as a divine appointment or commission.  It may be for a few months or longer; but for that time and place, and to those people, God is asking us to bring our unique presence.  They need you there -- even if they don't know it.

The problem is, most of us don’t know whether or not that particular job is God's divine assignment for us:   It might be.  It might not be.  What if God's not asking you to stay there?  It’s always helpful to ask God the question: "Is this where you want me for this time?"  

When the job gets particularly tough or the people you interact with become particularly frustrating, it will strengthen you to know that God has sent you there [if he, in fact, has], for at least a time.  It’s a lot harder to put up with those things if you don’t know you’re supposed to be there.

He's also training you for what is to come.  Not punishing you ... training you.  Your going to need what you'll gain in this time of development and cultivation.  You don't want to rush the field without the proper training:  Many have and many have lost heart because of it.

Ask God whether or not he's assigned you there... then trust.

Podcast - Calling Series -"Mystery" -- guest Gary Barkalow joins Jim

Calling Series - part 2- "Mystery"

Guest Gary Barkalow (www.thenobleheart.com) joins Jim again. Confusion is a normal part of the journey.  How do we walk with God so that we don’t conclude:  “God isn’t speaking to me,”  or “I must be blowing it.”?

[Also available on iTunes.]

Related posts:

Calling Series - part one -"Orientation."

Why you've been selected for Special Forces

Army Special Operation Forces

"They free the oppressed...They win hearts and minds...They assure support." 
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Would you rather have a police squad or a special ops unit protect you? 

It depends upon the context, doesn't it?  Each is appropriate for different situations:  You don't need Delta Force to protect your town, your local parks, or inner cities, generally.  You do need Delta Force to locate and take-down Al-Quaeda and insurgency groups who are able to exact large-scale destruction over mass populations, or who can infiltrate high-level targets within our borders.

The kind of tactical force you need depends upon the story going on.  If you believe we're living in Lake Wobegon, you need not be concerned with the hazards of living in that story -- save for the gossip flowing from the pulpit of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility. 

However, if you believe the unfolding Story that God has invited us into more accurately represents Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, or Marc Bowden's Black Hawk Down, then you'll need a different missional vehicle -- you'll need Special Forces watching your back.  God has an enemy, and therefore you do. God's enemy is never people:  his Enemy is the one who fell from heaven, and the angels that fell with him. 
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Here's the unnerving news:  you've been assigned to Special Forces.  God could use the angelic forces, and he does; but he quite specifically chooses you.  Your unique capacities and the effect of your presence there is directly related to the needs of the unit, and to the outcome of the Story.

Furthermore, each gender has been selected, and every generation as well.

What do you bring?

Myth: "My calling is just to love whoever is in front of me."

Myth:  “My calling is just to love whoever is in front of me.”

Your calling has broader implications for the surrounding culture and what God is doing in the world.  What you can offer is not simply to impact who ever might cross your path at the time.  Don’t underestimate your place in the Story by thinking too casually,  “My calling is just to show God’s love wherever I am.”  It includes that dimension, but more.

God is not casual or haphazard in his efforts to redeem all of creation from the ground up.  If you are too casual about your place in the Story, whole groups of people may live without what you uniquely can offer them.  God doesn’t want to have to send them someone else:  you’re the best fit.  

This isn’t about pressure or guilt – it’s about getting perspective.  Even the devil doesn’t underestimate you. 

“Some Christians prefer to keep their faith to the level of the personal, the relational, the spiritual, and the simple.  I believe that such a view of faith is misguided.  Calling is certainly a truth that touches our personal lives intimately, bit it also touches cultural life potently.  Calling is more than purely cultural, but it is also more than purely personal.” (Os Guinness, The Call)   

Guinness laments further that

“…second only to the joy of knowing [Jesus] has been a sorrow at the condition of those of us today who name ourselves his followers.  If so many of us profess to live the gospel yet are so pathetically marginal  to the life of our societies and so nondescript and inconsequential in our individual lives, is there something wrong with the gospel, or does the problem lie with us?”  ( The Call)

What you are called to individually, is directly tied to what God is currently up to in human history.  It's that important.

You are more than your job.

It's not about a job, employment, or an occupation.

In his book, Working, Studs Terkel realized...that working is about the search for daily meaning in the struggle for daily bread.  Most people, he found, live somewhere between a grudging acceptance of their job and an active dislike of it.  But a recurring theme in [his] interviews is a yearning for a sense of meaning that comes when calling precedes and overaches work and career.  -- from The Call, by Os Guiness

What if you lose your job:  Do you lose your calling?  What if you leave (or are asked to leave) a 'ministry' position:  Do you lose your calling?

Not at all.  As Gary Barkalow says, "Your calling can't be contained in any single job."  Why?  Because you take your calling with you wherever you go -- to work, home, friendships:  It is your particular splendor - the impact and affect of your life on those around you.  It is how you, in particular, shimmer.

Note:  "Shimmer" will be the title of my upcoming book on identity.  I'll try to give you bits and pieces of it here on the blog as the book takes shape.

Ideally, your 'job' will line up with your calling.  Yet there are times, when God (for good reasons) assigns us to a job that doesn't seem to match -- yet he still needs you to bring your splendor and unique brilliance there.  Don't underestimate the importance of what you bring, wherever you are.

Use verbs that reveal your design

Choose verbs that reveal your design.

I have this need to figure out why something or someone exists,  their design or purpose.  Because of that, I've written countless memos to myself, scratching out statements and creeds that help me understand my own design.  Through this process, I've gained greater and greater clarity about why I'm here.  It's clarifying.

Here's my calling credo:  "I have consistently loved to create and reveal design."  And here's how that has showed up in my life:

• Loved to sketch as a teenager
• Loved to create high-quality music since a child
• Love identifying the layers of instrumentation in a song
• Love to create digital graphic design – website headers, images
• Love to help others see their design (purpose, identity, true heart)

Notice the two verbs that I used in my calling credo:  "create" and "reveal." 

Here's a credo sentence structure you can use to help you: 

"I have consistently loved to (verb/verbs) _______________________________."

Here are some common verbs.  See if any resonate with your heart:

lead, challenge, create, provoke, identify, develop, influence, train, support, comfort, heal, transform, encourage, prepare, invite.  [There are more common verbs here.]

Here are some sample credo statements:

• I have consistently loved to identify others strengths.
• I have consistently loved analyzing information in order to help organizations or people perform at their best.
• I have consistently loved encouraging and developing courage and confidence in children.

Of course, at the end of your credo sentence is the what that you want to see happen:

• "others strengths"
• "help organizations or people perform at their best"
• "courage and confidence in children."

What verbs would you use to describe what you consistently have loved doing?

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Related posts:

"Is there a specific calling for each of us?"

VideoBlog - CONCERNS vs. CALLINGS

Related posts:

• Podcast -- DISCOVERING YOUR CALLING - guest Gary Barkalow talks with Jim