For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
James Kraft
God has a right to use us whenever and wherever He chooses to do so. If He has chosen to make me a ditch digger, then I need to be content with that. If He promotes me to a job more in line with the abilities He has given me, then I should be content with that.
Many times He puts us through really hard things because He wants to teach us something that we never could have learrned any other way. Those are the times we have to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not to our own understanding.
It may not be till later in life that we will be able to use what He has taught us, but that is His plan and not mine. We have been bought with a price, and God has a plan for us but does not always tell us what that plan is. We really do not know what is going to happen tomorrow and should always say if the Lord wills we will do this or that. If the Lord decides to take me out of the world tomorrow, though He slay me I will trust Him.
God does use things to get the phoneyness out of our lives so we can see the truth better. I know that if it was not for His being the author and finisher of my faith I would still be in darkness on many things. I can read and understand scripture way better now than I could 5 years ago. Only God Himself through the work of the Holy Spirit can guide us into the truth He wants us to know.
The hard part is waiting on the Lord and not running ahead. Not sure I have learned that yet. But thank God we are justified by faith.
Dian burch
I'm sick of hearing messages about finding your calling! Paul found his calling by being knocked off a horse & blinded. Moses found his calling because God spoke to him through a burning bush, but while on the way to go where God sent him, an angel of the Lord came to kill him because he had disobeyed God in what seemed like a trivial thing. He had listened to his whiny wife & did not circumcise his son!
I'll speak from my own experience. I agonized wanting to find my calling so I could do something that would get me recognized & acknowledged by men. My job for the last 35 years has been grooming dogs on a mobile van! I'm alone all day, every day! I've listened to Christian radio teachers & teaching tapes. As technology progressed, I listened to audio books & the Bible & watched video teaching on YouTube. I would listen & pick through what the humans said like eating fish! I would throw out the bones & eat the meat!
I've witnessed & prayed with individuals in their homes thousands of times over the years, because I got to know my clients as I went to their homes to groom their dogs! I knew their struggles & hopes & fears, and I told them of the love & faithfulness of God & the truth of the Bible & the Gospel. I gave them, sometimes, my own, personal testimonies. I just did my job & told people & showed people what I knew about The Truth! And this is the calling of God to all people.