Found: How To Recover Our Sense of Calling

In my last article, I wrote about three reasons we can lose our sense of calling. Now I want to address the question How do we find it? What do we do to recover our calling once it’s been lost?

I wonder if the answer isn’t both incredibly simple and exceedingly difficult at the same time. I wonder if the key to recovering our sense of calling is responding to Jesus’ invitation, Follow me (John 21:19).

I wonder if the key to recovering our sense of calling is responding to Jesus’ invitation, “Follow me” (John 21:19).

Peter’s Story

Peter’s story may be instructive for us. Peter was a fisherman turned fisher-of-men when Jesus called him and his brother Andrew, Follow me. John’s Gospel depicts Peter as a disciple set on following Jesus. Focused. Undistracted. Undeterred. When some of Jesus’s disciples struggled with Jesus’s teaching that he was the bread of life and that his followers would eat his flesh and drink his blood, Peter stayed (John 6:35, 54). And he doubled down on his commitment. “‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life’” (John 6:68).

Focused. Undistracted. Undeterred.

Peter wanted to follow Jesus to the end. When Jesus prepared his disciples for his upcoming death and departure, Peter asked, “‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’” Focused. Undistracted. Undeterred.

But Jesus knew that it wouldn’t last. Peter would lose his focus. Peter would become distracted. Peter would be deterred. He would lose his sense of calling. He was human, after all.

Peter’s unraveling began when Jesus was arrested. Work stress for the disciples went to a whole new level. Peter even pulled a sword on the high priest’s servant (John 18:10). Was he following Jesus then?

John’s gospel tells us that, after Jesus’s arrest, “Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus” (John 18:15). But the other disciple left Peter. He knew the high priest, John records, so he went with Jesus. Peter, the Scriptures tell us, had to wait outside—alone (John 18:16). And then he denied Jesus three times.

John’s gospel is pretty silent on what Peter did next. But Matthew, Mark, and Luke give us more details. All three record that Peter wept. “He went outside and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75).

We can’t know precisely what was going on in Peter’s heart and mind. I’m sure the realization of what he had done hit hard. He denied knowing Jesus. The shame he must have felt seems incomprehensible at times. But I wonder if Peter also felt incredibly lost—like he had lost his calling.

Then Jesus died. Maybe Peter thought his calling died, too.

But Peter’s calling hadn’t died. It had only been buried under stress, shame, and grief. After Jesus rose from the dead, so did Peter’s sense of purpose.

But Peter’s calling hadn’t died. It had only been buried under stress, shame, and grief. After Jesus rose from the dead, so did Peter’s sense of purpose.

That resurrection started when Peter began to make sense of the strips of linen and empty burial cloth in the tomb. It continued when Jesus appeared to him and the other disciples and commissioned them: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). Signs of life began to emerge as Peter returned to the work that he knew and loved. He and some of the disciples went fishing. And that paved the way for an encounter with Jesus.

Jesus didn’t chide Peter. He didn’t shame him for denying him three times. Instead, three times, Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” and repeated Peter’s new calling in three ways—Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep (John 21:13-17). And then Jesus said the words that he first used to call his disciples. Follow me (John 21:19).

Our Story

Follow me. It’s incredibly simple because it’s two words. It doesn’t seem like rocket science. There’s no magic formula. No step-by-step process. Just Follow me.

It’s exceedingly difficult because it requires effort and intentionality. We have to lean into following Jesus every moment of every day. It requires Spirit-guided imagination. We have to think winsomely and creatively about what it looks like to follow Jesus today when our accounts of his life are nearly 2,000 years old. And following Jesus requires resilience, patience, and grace. No one has ever done it perfectly, and no one ever will. But we seek forgiveness, ask for help, and try again and again and again.

The wisdom for us in Peter’s story—for when we’ve lost our sense of calling—is to carry the truth and power of the resurrection with us into our work. When our calling feels buried and it seems overwhelming to try to unearth it, we can find hope in the fact that we serve a God who raises the dead. Breathing new life into our sense of calling is certainly in his wheelhouse.

When our calling feels buried and it seems overwhelming to try to unearth it, we can find hope in the fact that we serve a God who raises the dead.

When we feel unsure about what to do in the absence of a clear sense of calling, we need to remember that we are sent into the world to love people the way Jesus did. That means we look for opportunities to “proclaim good news to the poor…to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isaiah 61:1-2, quoted by Jesus in Luke 4:18-19). With the Spirit’s help, we make an effort to bring glimpses of justice, truth, and beauty to the world around us.

Sometimes, the best way to recover our sense of calling is simply to show up to the work that’s right in front of us. Our regular work is likely the last place we had our sense of calling. Maybe we start there as a way of retracing our steps. Maybe we do good work and see what God has in store for us. Peter retraced his steps. He went back to fishing. And that’s where he encountered Jesus and found his calling once again.

Perhaps, like Peter, in the midst of our everyday and sometimes very ordinary work, we will hear the voice of Jesus calling us anew: Follow me.