Self Evaluation 1: Am I Sure of My Calling?

Leadership Straight from Bill Hybels Self Evaluation 1: Am I Sure of My Calling? My first one...I won't take the time to write all of them... I ask myself this every 30 days, is my calling sure? Ask it another way, am I sure of my calling? Am I sure of my calling? Now in the USA 50 years ago, everyone talked about 'calling.' There was no such things as jobs or careers in church work, because church work did not pay enough. No one even thought about church being an industry and there being executive teams and compensation programs and career tracks. You were either called by God to go into the ministry and gave your life to it no matter what, or you were called by God to stay in the market place. There were just two choices essentially. Again, a homemaker situation either a father or a mother choosing to raise kids for awhile. Get it. What I had to decide when I was in the market place and I received this dramatic calling from God, I thought, "Wait a minute. God, What are you doing?" I do not have the personality of a pastor. I do not have the patience of a pastor. I did not really like the church I grew up in. I do not like other pastors that much. But you're calling me out of the business world. I love the business world. I am successful in the business world. I love business people. I love the action, the thrill, the adventure, the risk. And God said, "Bill, will you trust me with your life? Do you believe that I might be wise enough and I might be good enough to chart a future for your life that is better than the one you would chart for yourself? I said, "You are not that good or wise." But He wore me down. Finally I realized God might be wise enough and He might love me enough to be able to chart a course for my future better than the one I was charting for myself. And He called me out of the market place to start a church in a movie theatre. Open question. No wrong answer. How many of you have ever felt God call you in any way? Will you raise your hand? It is not all of you but many of you. When God calls you, it is powerful. You realize with 7 billion people on the planet, here's the transcendent God coming to you and saying, "I have a role for you to play." You think, "Are you kidding me? You love me that much? You are asking me? Ok!" Now when you are sure of your calling, you will do it with confidence, with determination, with a spirit of perseverance. Why? Because you are such a great person? No, because you have been called by such a great God. Every leader, every 30 days in my opinion, has to revisit the question is my calling sure? Because if it is sure then that is end of discussion. I have been called. Stop playing the victim. Get up. Go do your job. God will bless your life. If you are going over that question and thinking, "I do not think God has called me to this anymore. I think He has released me from this calling. I think He is trying to give me a new calling." Great. Now you know what to pray in earnest about for the next 30 days. God clarify my new calling. Give me a new calling, God. And if He does, great. Go on to that. If He does not, you better be faithful to the prior calling.