The Evolution of Calling

"Calling" to me used to involve me deciding what I would do with my life based on some of my primary motivators: wealth, power, security. Looking at my old essays from applications for colleges and scholarships, I read about how this applicant is going to follow a very detailed plan that will result in having great influence and doing much good in the world.

As I grew in my faith which is inextricably intertwined with my culture, "calling" became a secure framework through which I could view the world. If I knew that what I was contemplating was aligned with the "will of God," then I could have confidence moving forward in it. And if I knew that it wasn't, then the opposite would be true. That paradigm, however, left me second guessing myself depending on the outcomes.

Most recently I am landing on a definition of "calling" partly based in the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 9, verses 7 - 10:

"7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."

So I've decided not to use the word "calling" anymore as it relates to my vocation or even my day to day decisions about what to do and where to go in life. There are two reasons:
1) I don't know what the will of God is for me or anybody else in any given situation. God does speak and I am indwelled with the Holy Spirit so I do have some inkling, but seldom do I know the entirety of God's will. Unfortunately, however, historically I have acted as if I did see the entire picture.
2) It makes sense that a Father would give his children a lot more freedom than the structure I had previously associated with God and "calling." I try to instill values in my daughters. Beyond that, I'm going to simply encourage them to be whoever they want to be and to do whatever is aligned with the verses in Ecclesiastes: those things that bring them joy, that involve working hard, that include living righteously. I'm not going to present them with some predetermined path that they have to go down for fear of an alternative leading to disaster. That said, I will also try to keep them from disaster, not from failure. So it makes sense that a loving Father God would treat me similarly.
3) "Calling" in the Bible is usually referring to a "calling" to some quality of character or sense of belief as opposed to some function. We have twisted the definition to fit our own lack of faith and need for security.

In just the recent days, I have already found so much freedom in this new view of "calling" and I have seen how much of my everyday language and living was informed by a skewed view of "calling."