A loving God is leading you
By Anastasia Brown · Contributing Writer
For the past two years, I have spent the beginning of fall semester in a white shirt, welcoming the incoming freshman class as part of Grove City’s Orientation Board, also known as OB. OB has been an incredible opportunity to meet new students, many of whom are feeling the same emotions I did just a few years ago.
One of the constant refrains of a Christian campus is the word calling – everyone wants one, but no one is entirely sure what it will look like when it arrives. It’s an intimidating phrase, and most – myself included – ward it off for as long as possible. “Yeah, I mean, I am studying English because I really love reading, you know? And I think I have a passion for teaching, but … well … I think we will just have to see where God calls me!” Then comes junior and senior year. Suddenly, you are applying for internships, fellowships and jobs while at the same time wondering why God has not directly intervened to tell you if you are making the right decisions.
So much of this confusion would be alleviated with a more robust theology of calling. What do we mean by that word, and what sets “calling” apart from “career” or “passion”? One of my favorite Christian writers, Catherine Marshall, has extensive thoughts on this topic in her book “To Live Again,” a reflective autobiographical piece penned after the premature death of her husband.
As Marshall sought to rediscover her calling after her tragic loss, she wrote this: “The uncovering of these real hungers (the sincere desires of the soul) … the ones God himself has planted within each one of us … (can) become the foundation for prayers sure to be answered. The reasoning behind this has been explained in a simple but impressive analogy — that when God plants the pattern of an oak tree in an acorn, it is certainly his will that the acorn become an oak.”
Marshall’s analogy has remained etched in my memory through the ups and downs of the dreams I have framed for my future. If I am fashioned by our omniscient God, the plan he has for my growth will certainly not fail.
The concept of God’s sovereign plan for our lives should not come as some grand shock. If “the pattern of an oak tree” is in the acorn, then every bit of growth, every tendency of the acorn, will be towards the eventual growth of an oak. Similarly, God is in the business of leading us down the path he has planned for us, and He who shaped our hearts will certainly use the interests and desires that He placed within us to guide us down that path.
Perhaps this isn’t a groundbreaking revelation, but it certainly is a comforting one. Even when we become wrapped up in the weeds of finding our calling, we can trust in His perfect plan for our lives. “Discovering God’s calling for your life will flow out of your love for him and obedience to His revealed will,” my mom always says. “As you pursue knowing and delighting in Him, your desires will be shaped by His plan for you, as He opens doors and pathways before you.”
