Discerning a call to... what?

Seeing divine purpose in your job, even when it’s not ministry-related

Beneath a double-rainbow with fellow journalists-in-training at World Journalism Institute’s Young Professionals Intensive last week in Greenville, South Carolina.

Not only seminary students, but all Christian people, may say they have “discerned a call.” Whatever we do for a living—whether it’s driving a garbage truck, running a nuclear collider in a physics lab, or making bubble tea—is an opportunity to seek first the kingdom of God. We are “little Christs” each day, whether we imitate Jesus’s life during his three years of ministry, or during his 30 years as a craftsman.

The Universal Call

In a lecture this past week at World Journalism Institute’s Young Professionals Intensive, journalist Lee Pitts shared a verse with us that inspires everything he does:

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8

It’s a universal instruction, addressed to all humans in all places and times. It’s also simple—a list of three concrete actions.

The application is where things get tough.

That second command—“love mercy”—has been an ongoing source of stress to me because I see so much brokenness I’d like to fix in the world. The overwhelm of an all-out mercy mindset (a.k.a. burnout) can actually prevent one from fulfilling the command to “act justly.” It’s common in missions. 

My friend Dave Sodergren, who has been doing international student ministry for over two decades, gave me advice the other day on how to avoid burnout: Don’t try to fix the entire world. Find what you were made to do, and then do your best at that thing. In other words—”walk humbly.”

There is nothing extraneous in God’s word. It’s easy to focus in on just one of the three commands in Micah 6:8. But because they’re presented with equal emphasis, I believe they’re equally important. They complement each other. Each one sustains the others.  

Applying The Universal Call to A Specific Life

After learning more about the craft of journalistic writing and reporting this week, I am discerning a call to journalism. As I prayerfully consider this path, one of the things I’ve done is examine how this specific vocation would fit beneath the three universal commands of Micah 6:8. It’s a good exercise for anybody wanting to be more intentional about his walk with God.

Here’s what I came up with:

Act justly

Present stories objectively and comprehensively, without inserting my personal opinion.

This puts power and responsibility into the hands of the reader by giving them the tools to make informed decisions.

Spoon-feeding my audience the biased information that they expect or would like to hear is unjust. By giving people the facts and letting them make of them what they will, I respect human equality and freedom of thought. Ultimately, God should be the one controlling what information people can access. Not me.  

Love mercy

Choose specifically to dig up the stories that are buried or ignored because the teller is humble, weak, or disempowered. 

It’s important to be extra merciful towards the disadvantaged, even when they’ve made big mistakes or sinned egregiously. Their voices are stifled because, despite America’s lip service to cheering for the underdog, in practice, our society is often uncharitable. 

Walk humbly

Don’t “preach” from my own beliefs. 

Being a spiritual authority in charge of shepherding a church congregation is a rare calling I believe God gives only to a very select group of men.¹

I don’t want to interpret God’s commands to fit my ideas. I want to “tremble at [his] word.” This means that as a woman, I must be cautious and prayerful about assuming leadership positions. 

Because I’m a leader, a thinker, and a writer by nature, some people have urged me to put myself front and foremost, to be loud, to be puffed-up, to be a girl-boss or a feminist. But just because I have certain talents doesn’t mean I have to apply them in ways that go against Scripture and put me in spiritual danger.

Journalism gives me a way to apply all these skills without jeopardizing my walk with God. In journalism, my beliefs will impact how I do my job, but since my job is simply to present an objective view of the facts, I never assume a position of spiritual authority.

Indirect Light

You don’t have to be a Bible-thumping preacher to shine God’s light. That’s perhaps the most straightforward way—the untinted glass that transmits all the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

But perhaps God’s light shines through you as through a thick canopy of maple trees, filtered green and golden in shadows on the ground. Or a sky of water droplets, turning out a glowing arch of colored stripes.

The external details don’t matter so much. What matters is that we ask God for wisdom to apply his Word in that place and time. What matters is that in whatever we do, we discern His call.

1. See 1 Timothy 2