Calling and Purpose 14--Mother Teresa
Your purpose is rooted in who you are created to be. It develops out of your passions, your talents, your gifts, and your context. What/who do you feel drawn towards? You cannot do everything, but you are designed to do some things particularly well. You have been carefully formed to work in a particular arena. Certain roles or professions or vocations or people groups are more interesting or suited to us than others.
In addition, God is calling us—all the time—to Him. To His work in the world. To use our gifts in unique ways to make a difference. However, sometimes our problem with purpose is thinking we need to know everything before we start. But, you don’t have to see very far ahead on your purpose and calling path. God will sort out those details along the way.
As an example, look at the life of Mother Teresa. What people remember about Mother Teresa is that she was this amazing nun who had incredible strength and astonishing faith and remarkable character and who became world-renowned. She had a platform to speak to kings, queens, and presidents. What people don’t remember is the “what came before.”
Her initial purpose in adulthood was to move from Macedonia to Ireland to be a nun and then to move to India. Steps. One at a time. She then spent 29 years in India, teaching school. She was a very good teacher, well-liked by her students.
After nearly three decades of teaching, Mother Teresa says she felt the need “to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” Something seemed to be stirring for her around a new purpose, a new calling.
What that actually looked like was to pick up one destitute dying person in the streets of Calcutta. She had no plan. She had no money. She didn’t even have much support.
And, she said if she knew all that God was calling her to she would have hesitated.
Knowing all of the road ahead isn’t actually helpful. Knowing something about a next step is. We all want to know purpose in life, but better to know and follow one step or we can get overwhelmed…and hesitate.
Mother Teresa said that people often asked her how she managed to pick up 42,000 sick and dying people off of the streets in Calcutta and minister to them. Her answer: one at a time
She did not seek the Nobel Prize. She did not seek the accolades. She did not seek fame nor fortune. She said she simply set out to be obedient to Jesus’ call to do “small things with great love.”
Our purpose and call is similar. Not knowing the ultimate outcome…leaving the magnitude and the impact to God. Letting go of trying to be super-human. Being faithful in one thing…then the next thing…”small things with great love.”
· What is your purpose/calling progression so far? Mother Teresa’s was from nun to school teacher to founder of the Missionaries of Charity. From Macedonia to Ireland to India.
· Have you been faithful in one place for a time—and now sense something stirring in a new direction?
For more on this, explore GodGiftsYou.com.
Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and law enforcement leadership for over 30 years. She has worked with leaders and organizations in 47 of the United States as well as having clients outside the U.S. Contact Shirley.