You on PurposeSample

DAY 7: Don’t Let Your Future Distract You from Your Present

Elizabeth is currently a student in the Johns Hopkins medical school, pursuing her calling to become a physician. This dream was shaped by her family and the environment she was raised in. Caring for others was always emphasized in her childhood home, and she was fascinated and inspired by the work she saw her mother doing as a surgeon. In college she pursued the study of public health and after her freshman year volunteered at an HIV/ AIDS clinic in Uganda. After that experience, she knew that her life’s calling was to work to improve health in underserved parts of the world. 

It’s a long road to become a medical doctor. But Elizabeth’s future goal doesn’t keep her from living out her calling where she is presently. Whether engaging with the needs of recently resettled refugees in her area or choosing to live in East Baltimore and open her home to those who need housing, she doesn’t let her future call overseas distract her from the place and people God has placed her in and among right now. 

As you seek to live out your calling, it’s important to consider your present reality instead of waiting for some future possibility. Comparing a fantasy future to your everyday reality can push you toward action, but it can also breed discontent. We grow restless because we’re not at peace with being who we are and where we are. We are always looking to the next thing to make ourselves into something God never intended. 

Recognize the context you’re a part of right now. When we allow that to shape our calling, it sharpens our vision. It’s not about whether we can be anything we want to be but that we get to be who we’re called to be for a specific purpose, for a specific people, and at a specific time and place in history. Start engaging your calling in the here and now. In truth, we only have the present.

Answer these questions in your journal: What people does God have you around currently? Who do you live, work, and play with? Where has God placed you? Where do you live, work, and interact with others? How are these people and places shaping your calling?