Mission & PurposeCalling

How to discover your calling Be a river, not a wall

A reflection on life purpose, God's call, and what God has placed in you through your experiences.

By André Nascimento, YWAM Cáceres missionary

If you're wondering how to discover your calling or what God's call is for your life, maybe your path doesn't look like a straight line. Mine didn't either.

A Calling with Many "Selves"

"A journalist." That was my answer whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Grabbing any object around the house and turning it into a microphone to interview my great-grandmother entertained everyone and watered that dream in me. Later, the teenager who watched the news on TV couldn't have told you what had happened afterward. It was far more interesting to watch the posture and the way the anchors and reporters spoke! It wasn't the news. It was the speaking, the communicating (and, I confess, a dose of wanting to be the center of attention).

At another point, in the make-believe classroom in our backyard, every student's eyes were fixed on me. I don't remember what I was teaching, but I still remember having a teacher's grade book. Yes, I wanted to teach, too.

These shifts in dreams and futures happened several times. I was like a river flowing toward discovery: from theater workshops to working in telemarketing, from studying clarinet at the conservatory to taking a course in data programming. There was also writing poetry, reselling the shopping catalogs my grandmother sold, and being the "counselor" for my friends. A total lack of focus, or an exploration of possibilities?

Yes, there were common threads in many of these activities: art, communication, and even a dose of pastoring, I'd say. A half-hidden thread in the fabric of my life. A unity that came from God Himself. My identity.

That long search gradually helped me recognize what I now understand as my calling: helping people develop the potential God has given them. I seek to do that through the arts and through discipling people, and today, more specifically, by serving as a missionary with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in the city of Cáceres, Spain, where I also earned my degree in theater.

Who I am and what I do today is the sum of the experiences of the boy who dreamed of being a reporter but never became one, and of the clarinet student who didn't quite make it. Also part of me is the kid who sold little rocking chairs made out of clothespins, the boy who took care of the fish tank, the little guy whose mom used to tell him, "Go play outside, kid!" because all he wanted was to stay indoors.

We are complex. There are many "selves" in each of us. So much potential! Things not yet fully developed but already there: bubbling up, wanting to come out. Like the perfect but unfinished world God created. There was (and still is) so much to discover and develop! That was, and is, God's mandate: rule! (Genesis 1:28). What a terrible ruler is the one who hands things back exactly as he found them, without making them better.

Your Calling Doesn't Change: How It Shows Up Does

As long as there is life, there is potential. What God has placed in you doesn't expire; what changes is how your life purpose shows up in each season. Whether you're older or young, you can still step into the new things God has in store. Being a river that keeps moving will lead to more discoveries than being a hard, unmoving wall.

You Don't Discover Your Calling Alone

Don't venture into your potential alone. A river is made up of countless drops of water. You're going to need a grandmother who believes in you, a father who pays for a not-so-promising degree, a mother who crochets covers for your little rocking chairs, and a God who never gets tired of reminding you who you really are, so that what you do isn't a burden but the natural result of your relationship with Him.

The potential God has given us grows through trust, risk, change, mistakes, and successes. That's how God works: according to Paul, we are His workmanship, created for good works that He prepared in advance (Ephesians 2:10). Our part is to let ourselves be carried like a river flowing alongside Him as we discover and develop what He has placed in us.

How to Discover Your Calling: Where to Start

There's no formula, but there are a few questions that helped me see the thread:

• What keeps showing up in everything I've tried? In my case, between the makeshift microphone, the backyard classroom, and the theater, art, communication, and a desire to walk alongside others always appeared. Look at your own list of attempts, including the ones that didn't work out.
• Who sees something in me that I don't see yet? My friends treated me like a "counselor" before I understood it myself. Ask the people who know you well what they see in you.
• What do I love helping grow in others? What you enjoy developing in other people often points to what God has placed in you.

And take a first step, even a small one. Clarity usually comes as you walk.

Are you trying to discover your calling? Remember, the world already has too many walls.