I think all Christians are clearly called to live as Christ’s ambassadors, as agents of the king. I’m not as certain that the form of service, the agent’s cover, is as clear a calling. As a pastor’s kid I know there are hard things that come to those intentionally serving God. It helps in those circumstances to know that you are doing what God wants you to be doing. For that reason a specific call sure would be nice.
I tend to think, that at least to our perspective, God gives a great deal of freedom. I think he isn’t that worried about the specific things we do, so much as he is concerned that we fall deeper in love with him and that that shows in what we do. It is entirely possible that as we love God, there will be a single path that naturally emerges, but I don’t think we will always be conscious of the singularity of the path.
I think wholeheartedly serving God in any role in life is going to bring the hard times that make a clear knowledge that you are in God’s will comforting and sustaining. Therefore, it would seem like every Christian needs a specific call to whatever they do, if this specific call is necessary for anyone. But I don’t think God gives the kind of call we envision to very many people. I think it goes back to the relationship thing. If God gave us a clear “this is what I want you to do,†a lot of us would lose sight of him in our zeal to do that thing. That is perhaps one reason, the clearest calls seem more general, it is because the specifics that matter are true to all: Love God (and so love others).
Perhaps by keeping it vague, God can better keep our eyes on him. If we have not been given a life plan, perhaps we will more regularly seek God and ask ourselves and ask him if we are still following him, still falling deeper in love, still showing that love to others.
I think God can use this love to call us. As we love him and love others, we may become aware of a specific opportunity to share love that calls out to us. As we move forward in that we will certainly encounter hard times, maybe even hatred from the ones we love, but the love from God for the people (like a specific call) can help us stand under the attacks. In fact, probably loving enemies through the pain they cause us is much better than gritting our teeth and stubbornly clinging to some specific call that brought us there in the first place.
So, it may be that there is “one right path with one right job and one right mate.†But I think to us it may seem like “a plethora of good options that we have to weigh out ourselves.†I think though one key is not to worry and freak out about how well we’re weighing things out for ourselves. We’re told not to worry about tomorrow, to seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and let him take care of the rest. I think too, we need to not rush God. Moses was 80 before he started leading the people of Israel. And in case we write off his late start due to his humanness, we don’t hear much about Jesus himself until he’s thirty.
I think a lot of this preministry time might seem like wasted time to the American mind. Jesus was God himself. Why not share what he had in his perfection a little more before getting himself killed? Why not start his ministry a little earlier? Jesus came as a person, and as such needed preparation time. He (somehow) “grew in wisdom.†Is it possible that some of that time he was learning how to commune with God? Is it possible that God had to get to know himself? I think maybe this is part of the human experience Jesus submitted to.
It feels weird to just be going off without any dialogue. I think I’m going to stop now. I’m tired of hearing myself on this topic.