Which would you rather… Would you rather have a goal or a calling?

On the one hand it’s a great thing to have a big goal in life. Something you’re shooting at. But a calling, that’s different. A goal is something you build towards. A calling is something you were built for. A goal: I may reach it, I may not. A calling: it’s not just me trying to reach it on my own steam, something or someone outside of me is drawing me to reach it too.

In the first century the apostle Paul and his gospel coworker Sosthenes wrote to the church in the ancient city of Corinth. They begin by telling these people they have one incredible calling. A calling from God himself. They write ‘to the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified (or ‘made holy’) in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people’ (vs 2). God is calling these Corinthian Christians ‘holy’ (sanctified) and calling them to be holy.

I doubt I would have started the letter that way. Corinth was an ancient trading hub. A mixing pot of cultures and classes all coming together to try and get ahead. How could they all have that one calling when they were such a mixed bunch! And how could God be calling these people to be holy? We see from the rest of the letter that they are messy people! There was factionalism, incest, sexual immorality, a sense of spiritual superiority and more. Yet God is calling them to be holy – set apart for him – because that is what Jesus has already made them to be – they are already ‘those sanctified in Christ Jesus’. That’s a true calling isn’t it. When God asks something of you which he’s already done for you.

And this calling is shared by ‘all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ’ (vs 2). That includes us! In this verse every Christian has the one calling – to be holy- because we have all called on Christ to be our Lord.

I love those moments when I really feel like I’m achieving things, kicking goals, surpassing (or even just meeting!) expectations. But so often I feel the opposite. I feel like I have a masters in missing the mark, in dropping balls and letting people down or sliding just left of their hopes for me. But in Christ I don’t just have a goal, another thing for the to do list which may or may not be ticked off. In Christ I have a calling. Something he is calling me to, something he has done for me. Something which actually shapes not just what I do, but who I am. Jesus’ death in my place means I am sanctified. I have called on his name so he calls me to be his, to be holy.

Father in heaven, thank you for making me holy through Jesus’ death. Thank you for calling me to live this out. Help me to live your way today no matter what today holds. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Annabel Nixey lives in Canberra where her husband Simon is a minster at Crossroads Church. She is a regular speaker at EQUIP women and occasional blogger at our EQUIP Book Club.

1 Corinthians 1:1-3 A calling, not just a goal