July 25 – Discovering Your Calling
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. John Henry Newman
Gregg’s Reflection
My calling came to me as an image, as I meditated on our land before we built the cabin. I was standing with a foot in two worlds—the secular world of leadership and the world of the Kingdom. In my arms, I held a pipe, and the invitation was clear: to bring the best of secular leadership into equipping next generation leaders for the Kingdom. That vision has inspired my 25 years of coaching work.
Over time, I discovered that calling rarely comes as a single dramatic event. More often, it unfolds gradually, clarified by prayer, practice, and paying attention to what gives life. For me, that early image gave both direction and courage, reminding me to keep saying yes to the Spirit’s invitations.
The outer form of my calling has shifted—from business leadership, to consulting, to coaching, and now to writing—but the thread has remained the same: helping others discern what God is stirring in them, and empowering them to live into it. A calling is less about a fixed role or title, and more about living with openness, letting God’s love flow through us into the world. But know this, once I discerned my calling, it took most of a decade for me to find the vehicle where I could live out my calling.
Scripture
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.
Jeremiah 1:5
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.
1 Peter 4:10
Ancient Quotes
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission.
John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions
I have done what is mine to do; may Christ teach you what is yours to do.
St. Francis of Assisi (quoted in Celano’s Second Life), speaking to his brothers on his deathbed.
Modern Quotes
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, p. 95
Vocation is the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger — but also where your deep pain meets God’s deep healing.
Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, p. 25
The wanderer longs for two things: deep fulfillment and the ability to provide a genuine, soul-infused service to the community. These two things—fulfillment and service—cannot be obtained separately. True fulfillment arises out of service. He must first discover the essence of his soul’s desires, make a commitment to those desires, and then acquire the skills to embody them to the world. He must cultivate the attitude, spirit, and temperament of service—the mindset that will make his life a gift, a giveaway.
Bill Plotkin, Nature and the Human Soul, p. 286
Journaling Prompts
- What images or metaphors come to you when you pray about your life’s direction?
- Where do you feel a pull between “two worlds,” and how might God be inviting you to stand in both?
- What threads of calling have remained consistent across the different seasons of your life?
- How might you listen more deeply for what is “yours to do” in this season?
👉 Go deeper into this week’s theme:
Read the full Week 30 Reflection: Pathways to God