Day Thirty-Five

MULTIPLE EXPRESSIONS

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!

—PSALM 119:10 ESV

Maybe you’ve taken the last few days to figure out your calling. Maybe God has given you a clear picture and you’re exploring what that looks like in your life.

As you sort through this with the Lord, don’t listen to the enemy when he tries to discourage you. Hear this—you are not too old to figure out your calling, and you’re not too young to have already had multiple expressions of it.

Before the writing and the speaking and the books and the travel, I taught elementary school. It’s actually the job I always dreamed of. I have vivid memories of second and third grade, particularly my teacher Miss Albers. I loved her. I remember leaving third grade and thinking, This is who I want to be. This is what I want to do.

And almost immediately from that point on, I pursued being a teacher. I went to the University of Georgia, I studied teaching, and then I taught elementary school. I loved it.

I particularly loved it during the winter, when the bulletin-board designs were awesome and the parties . . . I know, I know. It shocks you that I would be the teacher who was like, “I like the parties!” I mean, I guess I liked the kids learning things too.

I’ve had two full careers. Two very different careers. But my calling has always been the same.

I loved reading books out loud to them. I loved being in their everyday lives. It was a dream job. While I was doing that, I was also volunteering with my local church’s youth group, and I started writing curriculum for them. Then one day our youth pastor was sick and asked me to teach. And all of this snowballed until I had these two competing careers. I would go home from school and write all night and drink all the caffeine from all the caffeine stops on my way to school the next day.

And I felt like God put this opportunity in front of me and was like, “Hey. This writing and speaking thing. You want to try?”

So God asked me if I wanted to be brave, and I said yes.

I’ve had two full careers. Two very different careers. But my calling has always been the same.

I believe that we all have one calling, but it can be expressed in lots of ways. One calling. Multiple expressions. Be brave and explore them.

BE BRAVE: Is God revealing some different ways you might express your calling?