Recently I was asked to present at a conference geared to young adults. I was invited to speak about missions since this is one of my first loves and an area in which I have been blessed to have many opportunities. As I began preparing what I would say to the young people gathered, I started thinking about the idea of calling as it relates to mission.

Calling is an important word. It is one that gets tossed about a lot in Christian circles. It is also one that many young people spend hours contemplating, worrying over, and struggling with. I should know — I’ve been there.

Is God calling me to serve or live overseas or to work right where I am? To be a doctor or a pastor? To marry this person or not? Many of these questions center around the person’s desire to please God and to be at the center of His will for their life. And the person often lives in fear that they will somehow “miss the right path,” not hear His voice and somehow end up on a course that is contrary to God’s plans and purposes for them. This is a great struggle and burden for many, and often renders one immobile, as they are afraid to make any move at all, lest it be the wrong one.

I believe that all of us are called by God to live for Him. How we go about this can look very different from person to person. It’s not a one-size fits all sort of operation. It is personal and takes our own design into consideration.

For example, I see many people struggle against the idea of pursuing their unique passions, thinking that such a course would be selfish. But what if it’s exactly what we were made for? The reason that we were given the passion and the gifting in the first place.

Here’s an analogy:

Imagine that a father gave his child a gift. He spent a lot of time thinking about that gift, wanting it to be just right for his child’s unique personality. As he sees the child using and enjoying the gift, what will his response be? I would imagine one of great joy and satisfaction.

Now imagine if that same father saw the child enjoying the gift and then said, “You can have it, but I don’t want you to use it. Put it away, and don’t get it out again!” If this happened, we would most likely think that the father were being cruel and wonder why he wanted to give it to them in the first place.

Sadly, in many ways, this is how we tend to see our Heavenly Father. We acknowledge the good gifts that He has given us but for some reason think that He doesn’t want us to use them. How many times have people buried their true passions to pursue a vocation that they were not designed for and that gave them no joy? All the while thinking that this is what their Heavenly Father wanted of them! Why do we have such a hard time accepting the fact that perhaps our Father has given us our gifts to be used and enjoyed and that such use and enjoyment actually fills His heart with joy? If we really see Him as a loving Father, this should not be so hard to accept.

This is not to say that the Father never asks us to put away our gifts or lay them down. But I believe that one of the main reasons He may do this is if we become more attached to the gift than we are to Him. If a father were to give his child a gift, and the child spent so much time with it that he completely forgot about his father, this would be a problem. It would break the relationship, which is so much more important than the gift; thus, the Father may ask the child to put it away.

Sometimes we allow our gifts and special abilities to overshadow the Giver. At these times, we may need to lay our gifts aside in order to re-gain perspective. To put our focus on our Father and cherish our relationship with Him more than the gifts He has given us.

When I finally laid aside guilt and embraced the gifts that God has graciously given me to use, I felt a great freedom. The Father has given me these gifts for a reason, and I believe it gives Him great joy to see me using them, as long as I keep them in perspective. I believe that this is a message our young people need to hear. God delights in them, and even in their passions, as long as they remain secondary to and in service of their first passion — a relationship with Him.