One of the greatest gifts we can give to a person and to God is to help that person gain clarity regarding God’s specific calling for their life, according to Pete Richardson in his book Calling’s Way: The Art of Guiding Others to Live Their Unique Mission. The book is intended both to help the reader clarify God’s calling on his or her life, and to help the reader guide others in discovering and living God’s unique calling.
Every person has a specific calling, a special assignment from God reflecting the talents and desire that God has given that person, but few pursue it, discover it, embrace it and live it. The author provides a number of tools designed to assist in the different phases of the never-ending journey which he refers to as “Calling’s Way”: awakening, discovering, owning, focusing and renewing.
The discovery phase involves discovering a person’s:
- Core identity: not as the person is currently defined, but as God defines him or her
- Life purpose: the reason God created the person
- Life Calling: what the person must be and must do, based on the person’s life purpose, life story, talents and God-induced desires
- Life Vision: a picture of what the future could be in fulfilment of the person’s life calling; and
- Life Strategies: the steps towards the vision while staying true to the life calling
This is an interesting and useful book. I am somewhat discomforted by the idea of planning out in great detail something that is usually a great mystery, but I can see how most people could become much more effective followers of Jesus through gaining greater clarity concerning their calling. The book is available as a free download from http://www.exponential.org/shop/callings-way.