BY MICHELLE WILLIAMS, VOLUNTEER EXTRAORDINAIRE
To know our Destiny is to experience the Good Life. In order to realize our Destiny, we must pursue our Calling.
On the flip side, to not know our Destiny can be a frustrating thing—And if we never pursue a calling, there is always a hunger. We often long to know our Destiny, but hesitate to bring it up because the concept can be difficult to grasp. Dave Rod shared a popular illustration that helps to clarify the concept, known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Self-actualization is at the top of Maslow’s pyramid.
To help us get closer to experiencing the eighth ingredient of the Good Life—Destiny—Dave Rod shared an iterative process for gaining a clearer understanding of our Calling. A Calling can be described as an invitation, beckoning, or summons from God Himself to do that which you were designed by Him to do. Understanding our Calling is important because Destiny is the culmination of a series of Callings. A Calling can increase in depth and change over time, eventually coalescing into our Destiny.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
For the process, Dave Rod interviewed 4 people after having them complete a Spiritual Gifts Inventory and the Enneagram Test. Additionally, he suggested that it's helpful to talk to someone you trust to speak into your life and compare their comments with your test results and your own insights, as well as looking at the 6 Broken Places and find what areas of brokenness trouble you the most.
View the 4 interviews below to see Dave Rod’s process demonstrated:
To complete the process, we build a framework to organize the parts of our lives that may play into our Calling. In addition to the results gleaned from the Spiritual Gifts Inventory and the Enneagram, we can tap into several aspects of our lives to gain clearer understanding of our Calling:
Job
A job is what we do to provide for our family.
Career
A career is a succession of jobs over a long period of time.
Role
Although not our calling, roles are significant and may include parent, child, sibling, friend, neighbor, mentor, and a number of other types of specific relationships.
Avocation
An avocation is a hobby or pastime that gives us pleasure.
Once we fill in the different aspects of our lives onto a grid that resembles a quilt, we can begin to understand how the pieces may fit together to help us identify our Calling and explore our overall Destiny.