Purpose & Calling

Was pondering today about life's purpose and calling that I remember reading a sermon by Dr AR Bernard.

Dr Bernard made several key points:

• Our calling begins at conception

• We don’t decide our purpose, we discover it

• Everything we go through before our salvation is used to shape our calling

• Your gifting will make room for you

Dr Bernard created a clever acrostic (DESSIGN) that enabled the students to evaluate if their purpose and calling are in tune with their own unique personal make up. DESSIGN stands for:

Desires: passions/desires to fulfil one’s calling

Experiences: good/bad/ugly

Skills: one’s own/acquired skills

Strengths: something one is good at

Identity: personal characteristics

Gifts: talents/abilities

Nature: orientation/temperament

From my own experience, the statement “we don’t decide our purpose, we discover it” couldn’t be any truer. Over the years I have been trying to decide my own purpose in life. I had worked in a job that almost have taken my soul away. I had no idea what my life was about and where it was going till I enter full time. And being full time serving the Lord, sometimes it gets you to doubt whether was this God's purpose and calling for you. I rediscovered it when I enrolled myself to SOT in Singapore.

Last year, after having been in Singapore for just a few months, I hit a low point. Thankfully it was a point of no return. I was tired and disillusioned with my life of striving. I had nowhere to go but to God. I put a stop to my own efforts and sought God’s will for my life. With God’s leading, my calling and purpose changed in an entirely new and unexpected direction.

Then recently Korea prayer mountain came along. It's a turn-around-level-up. Change begot change. I began to discover the talents and giftings God had entrusted me with. Again, I stepped out in faith and started walking in what I was called to do. God had done in a matter of months what I had failed to achieve over a period of many years. Every day I could feel God’s hand rewiring both my heart and my mind. I feel privileged and very relieved. Refreshed and renewed.

Teachings not only gave a Biblical framework to explain the purpose and calling journey walked thus far but it showed that self-help is not real help. Finding your life’s calling and purpose is made all the simpler when you personally know the very God who gives them.