When You Have Multiple Callings
You Can Have More Than One Calling
Do you ever feel overwhelmed because you find it difficult to know what your true calling is, so you’re committed to 3–5+ different things? Yeah, me too. There was a time in my life I was so over committed I was literally living a lifestyle that had me only getting 3–4 hours of sleep every other night. It definitely played a part in my health dwindling down to nothing.
The question becomes how do you identify what you are called to, and stay focused on it? The fact is that some of us are called to multiple things. But it is how we manage our time, and the seasons in which we are supposed to focus on one more than another that we have to figure out.
For me I know I am called to two things:
- Being an Entrepreneur (Owning a business that is slowly growing into more than one market focus.)
- Being a Worship Leader (Focused on Worship, and Prophetic Ministry, that could lead to Pastoral-ship.)
Now these two callings, have several smaller callings within them. Being an Entrepreneur I know that where I started my business is in Media Production. After a lot of experimenting, I know that the primary focus of my business right now is offering Video Editing services, and that is the primary focus, while creating original content is the second focus. That being said this business has a growing plan that could take somewhere between 5–10 years, depending on the speed in which the business goes. Some of the goals we would like to reach will require risks, but if we have the capability to minimize the amount of risks being taken, it will make the risks you do make of much higher value. Yes, the current focus is editing, but we have the intent to grow into other services in which we have talent for such as Visual Effects, Color Correction / Grading, Sound Design, and much more. It is stability in one that is important before growing into others.
It is kind of like learning how to speak professionally you have to learn the foundation parts of grammar such as nouns, verbs, etc before you are able to speak in an educated professional manner.
Focus On One Before The Other
A key way to have success in multiple callings is to not feel like you have to focus on both at one time. I knew I was called to be an Entrepreneur long before being a Worship Leader. I had the desire to start my first business when I was 12 years old, and I did, and I learned a lot in that moment which grew that calling into my future. Now I own my 3rd business in which I have had the most success because even though I have failed with previous businesses I learned from those moments of failure to make the changes I needed to make to gain success. During all of this I did begin to be a part of worship teams, not as a leader but to start to grow both in my physical skills as a musician, but also in the spiritual life. I started off by simply playing acoustic guitar, and eventually moved to bass guitar, and electric guitar, before eventually learning to play drums and piano. Now as a Worship Leader I most likely will always play guitar, whether it is acoustic or electric is going to depend on the team that I am leading. But this is the instrument I am most skilled in, and able to play while leading in the spiritual atmosphere side as well.
I started off small, and went from just playing in the background with these worship teams, to leading an occasional song, to leading worship nights, to leading full services, and now becoming a full time worship leader. It took time, it took investment, but I was established in my other calling first, before pursuing the second calling. I always knew the calling was there to be involved in music, and the doors were opened for me to become a worship leader, and I took the small steps to get there because there is no rush.
There Is No Rush
That has been the biggest mistake I have ever made is being in a rush. Honestly being rushed about everything is what has caused me to fail the most. There is no need to be in a rush. In a little more than a week I will only be 27 years old. 27, I still have an entire life in front of me. The average age range of most people in America is 70–80 years as of 2016. That means I have at least another 43 years ahead of me. That’s if you don’t follow my belief that I will longer because of my faith, or rather live in God’s perfect timing.
All this being said, there is no rush in life. You can start with a small level of success that slowly grows. What is the smallest level of success you should pursue? The ability to comfortably support yourself, and your family while achieving your goals during your lifetime. That is my opinion, though I want to strive for so much more than that such as travel the world, run a very successful business, have an incredible relationship with God, and be able to lead others in all of these areas.
There is no rush to pursue multiple callings. Prioritize, and focus on the foundation of one, before pursuing the next. Baby steps are your key to success.
