QUESTIONS OF CALLING
unearthing beauty, mining meaning, and seeking truth
This is a place for anyone who wants more, who is not content to be comfortable, who seeks a life of truth and meaning, not just happiness.
Here, we ask hard questions, tell true stories, and turn life inside out to unearth the ragged beauty within.
I’m honored to have you to join me.
A Vocation of Personhood: Discovering a Sense of Calling in the Messy Middle
guest post by Kat Wordsworth
“Perhaps your personhood is a vocation of such beauty and significance that souls will be saved through your simple fidelity to being human.” - K.J. Ramsey
Questions of vocation, calling, and purpose in my life have been on the back burner for over a decade. I didn’t believe myself worthy of the conversation, worthy of thinking that I had anything to contribute. To me, a sense of calling was deeply entwined with being a confident and secure Christian. To be called meant hearing God’s voice and plan for your life. And that was not something I had ever experienced. . .
Success Is Nonlinear. So Is Progress.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever worked diligently at a project only to see little to no results—or worse, to see it crash and burn into a pile of smoking ash.
Oh, you too?
I’ve been feeling this way a little recently. I’ve started to make a real effort to create regularly, to carve out precious time from my packed schedule of teaching, counseling, momming, wifing, and just surviving for creative pursuits—for posting and blogging and journaling and promoting. And I have very little to show for it.
Passion, Purpose, and the Painful Journey of Becoming: Thoughts on Calling
One theme underlies every meaningful decision we make in this world: what is the purpose of my life? What is it that I have been uniquely designed to do?
I’ve been searching for answers to these questions for most of my life . . .
The Shape of Your Soul
Ever feel like you just don’t fit in?
Sometimes I think I’ve spent more than half my waking hours feeling this way. Maybe it’s my Enneagram 4-ness coming out and no one else feels this way and you’re all going to think I’m a big weirdo (see how quickly that feeling comes to the surface?), but feeling out of place and ill-equipped to adapt is as familiar to me as breathing.
Questions of Calling
Why am I here?
This is the question that ultimately drives all of human striving. It appears in many forms: what is the meaning of life? what does it look like to live life well? what is the deeper purpose to which God is calling me?
There are no easy answers.
Not All Who Wander
From the outside, in our world of five-year plans and goal-setting and ladder-climbing, wandering looks aimless, restless, wasteful, even lazy. And it certainly can be. But wandering can also be purposeful—a form of intentional surrender aimed at letting the ego take a back seat and allowing God to guide us.
Sometimes God speaks by slamming doors in our faces or setting our hearts ablaze with an undeniable desire, but more often I find he speaks in whispers and nudges that are all too easy to miss.
When You Feel Like a Failure: Befriending Your Sense of Inadequacy
Sometimes I don’t feel called to motherhood.
That’s not something we’re really allowed to say, but it’s true—both for me and for many moms with whom I’ve spoken.
A couple of weeks ago, my husband had a zoom meeting right through dinnertime, so it was just me with my three girls, ages 5, 3, and 3 months…
The Annunciation: Mary’s Unexpected Calling
Do you ever wish that God would just tell you what to do with your life? That he would just announce your calling and eliminate all the confusion and struggle that usually accompanies that process of discernment?
I know I have.
But there's a mercy that comes with that process too. It allows us to adjust to that call slowly, to learn the skills and discipline required bit by bit, to gradually come to terms with the difference between what we thought our lives would look like and the reality in store for us and to begin to understand how that reality will ultimately surpass all our hopes and dreams even as it crushes many of them. . . .
When Callings Conflict
What if you’re called in multiple directions at once? What if the realities of your life—good, precious gifts—seem to be designed to prevent you from pursuing the other callings you’ve worked so hard to discern and develop?
These are the questions I’ve been struggling with recently as I feel another life growing within me and see her due date nearing on the calendar.