The Part of the Calling Nobody Sees
Sometimes God places you somewhere that feels familiar until the responsibility begins to unfold. I mean, you recognize the setting...you understand the assignment. Actually, you may even feel excited that God has opened the door and allowed you to step into something new.
And then......the position begins handing you things you never realized came with it.
Things like decisions, boundaries, responsibility, people depending on you.....or conversations you'd much rather quietly slide under the nearest table and avoid entirely.
I think we have a habit of seeing a calling by its visible parts.
Like as Music Director / Worship Leader......I saw the ministry, the microphone, and the place I had seen in visions for years.
But somewhere between “God, use me” and actually being used by God, we discover that a calling carries weight. Sometimes.....God places you in a position that requires a version of obedience that you've never had to walk in before. And it's not because you're unqualified or that you've misunderstood Him. I think it's because every new level of responsibility requires something NEW to grow inside of you.
You may have never had to speak firmly before. You may've never been responsible for protecting the direction of an entire ministry, team, or assignment.
Or ever had to look someone in the eyes and say something that needed to be said, even though every soft part of your heart wanted to keep everyone comfortable.
Suddenly, you're standing there thinking, “Lord, I know You placed me here, but I didn't realize I was going to need this much courage.” (Can I add a crying emoji here? Because that is an accurate response to this feeling!)
That's the part of leadership people don't always see!
What I've learned lately is that leadership isn't always standing in front of a room with confidence pouring out of your fingertips. Sometimes, it's sitting across from someone with a lump in your throat, trying to keep your voice steady while internally clinging to Jesus with both hands.
Sometimes, it's praying before a conversation and saying, “God, please help me say this correctly. Please help them understand my heart. Please go before me because I don't feel strong enough to walk into this room by myself.”
Sometimes leadership is......loving people enough to tell the truth, it's caring deeply while still being obedient. Sometimes it's choosing order when disorder would be easier. Sometimes...it's realizing that keeping everyone comfortable isn't the same thing as leading them well.
And I'm tellin' ya....THAT can be a difficult lesson for tenderhearted people.
When you care about people, you don't want to hurt them. You consider their history, you think about what they've carried, what they're going through. You wonder how everything will be received, and believe me when I tell you....you WILL replay your words before you ever say them.
And while everyone else may walk away thinking, “Well, that conversation went fine,” you walk away feeling as though you just completed an emotional obstacle course while carrying a piano!
He never handed you an assignment and then stepped back with folded arms to see whether you could survive it. That's NOT the kind of God He is!
When He places you somewhere, He goes there WITH you.
Actually, wait a minute...can I retract that?..... He goes BEFORE you.
He actually enters the room before you do.
You may have never had to speak firmly before. You may've never been responsible for protecting the direction of an entire ministry, team, or assignment.
Or ever had to look someone in the eyes and say something that needed to be said, even though every soft part of your heart wanted to keep everyone comfortable.
Suddenly, you're standing there thinking, “Lord, I know You placed me here, but I didn't realize I was going to need this much courage.” (Can I add a crying emoji here? Because that is an accurate response to this feeling!)
That's the part of leadership people don't always see!
What I've learned lately is that leadership isn't always standing in front of a room with confidence pouring out of your fingertips. Sometimes, it's sitting across from someone with a lump in your throat, trying to keep your voice steady while internally clinging to Jesus with both hands.
Sometimes, it's praying before a conversation and saying, “God, please help me say this correctly. Please help them understand my heart. Please go before me because I don't feel strong enough to walk into this room by myself.”
Sometimes leadership is......loving people enough to tell the truth, it's caring deeply while still being obedient. Sometimes it's choosing order when disorder would be easier. Sometimes...it's realizing that keeping everyone comfortable isn't the same thing as leading them well.
And I'm tellin' ya....THAT can be a difficult lesson for tenderhearted people.
When you care about people, you don't want to hurt them. You consider their history, you think about what they've carried, what they're going through. You wonder how everything will be received, and believe me when I tell you....you WILL replay your words before you ever say them.
And while everyone else may walk away thinking, “Well, that conversation went fine,” you walk away feeling as though you just completed an emotional obstacle course while carrying a piano!
God will sometimes give you
a responsibility
that demands courage
you didn't know you had,
because the
courage was never
supposed to come from you alone.
He never handed you an assignment and then stepped back with folded arms to see whether you could survive it. That's NOT the kind of God He is!
When He places you somewhere, He goes there WITH you.
Actually, wait a minute...can I retract that?..... He goes BEFORE you.
He actually enters the room before you do.
He prepares hearts before you speak.
He arranges the timing.
He gives you the words.
He softens the places you were afraid would be hard.
He works through details that you never even thought to pray about.
You may walk into a situation bracing for impact, only to discover that God has already removed the sharp edges!
But hey, that doesn't mean that your knees won't shake and it doesn't mean that the lump in your throat will suddenly disappear. It doesn't mean you'll feel fearless.
It simply means that fear doesn't get the final decision!
We often ask God to use us, but we don't always realize that being used by God may require us to do things that make our hands shake. We ask Him to increase our influence, but influence carries accountability. We ask Him to enlarge our territory, but larger territory requires greater stewardship. We ask Him to trust us with more, and then He begins asking us to carry things we have never carried before.
That's when we learn that promotion in the Kingdom isn't always applause and celebration. Sometimes...well....it's responsibility arriving in work boots.
It looks like prayer, preparation, difficult decisions, late-night thoughts, rewritten conversations, and whispered prayers of, “Jesus, I need You to help me!”
But those moments reveal something beautiful, don't they?
You aren't only learning how to lead....you're learning how to lean.
You're discovering that courage isn't always a booming voice and a fearless heart. Sometimes it's a quiet “yes” spoken through trembling lips. Sometimes it's entering the room anyway and obeying God while your emotions are still trying to catch up.
And then...after it's over, you look back. You see that the conversation went better than you feared and you realize that the people involved received it better than you expected, and the timing was somehow.......exactly right.
And suddenly, the whole situation begins to look less like something you managed and more like something God orchestrated.
His fingerprints are everywhere!
On the timing.
On the words.
On the hearts involved.
On the peace that followed.
On the strength that showed up precisely when your own strength ran out.
You realize God wasn't only preparing you for the position.....He was preparing everything surrounding your obedience.
Every single detail, every conversation, every relationship, and every step.
I don't know, maybe that's why He sometimes allows us to feel so inadequate in the beginning? Because when everything works out, we can't take the credit because we know exactly how nervous we were. We even know how tightly we were holding onto Him.
We know that we walked into the room with barely enough courage for even one sentence.
So when peace and understanding come, and when everything settles into place, we know who went before us.
Maybe you're standing in a new place right now? Maybe the responsibility feels heavier than you expected. Or maybe you're being asked to make decisions that you've never made or have conversations you never thought you'd have.
Please don't mistake unfamiliar responsibility for misplaced calling.
I mean, you may not feel ready because this version of obedience is new.
But if God placed you there, He already knew what the position would require.
He knew the people involved, He knew the conversations that would come, and He knew where your heart would tremble. And guess what? He knew exactly how He'd strengthen you through it.
Sometimes God places you somewhere that requires a courage you've never carried before. And sometimes the only reason you discover that courage is because He finally places you somewhere that demands it.
You don't have to walk into every room fearless.
You only have to walk into it.......with Him.
He arranges the timing.
He gives you the words.
He softens the places you were afraid would be hard.
He works through details that you never even thought to pray about.
You may walk into a situation bracing for impact, only to discover that God has already removed the sharp edges!
But hey, that doesn't mean that your knees won't shake and it doesn't mean that the lump in your throat will suddenly disappear. It doesn't mean you'll feel fearless.
It simply means that fear doesn't get the final decision!
We often ask God to use us, but we don't always realize that being used by God may require us to do things that make our hands shake. We ask Him to increase our influence, but influence carries accountability. We ask Him to enlarge our territory, but larger territory requires greater stewardship. We ask Him to trust us with more, and then He begins asking us to carry things we have never carried before.
That's when we learn that promotion in the Kingdom isn't always applause and celebration. Sometimes...well....it's responsibility arriving in work boots.
It looks like prayer, preparation, difficult decisions, late-night thoughts, rewritten conversations, and whispered prayers of, “Jesus, I need You to help me!”
But those moments reveal something beautiful, don't they?
You aren't only learning how to lead....you're learning how to lean.
You're discovering that courage isn't always a booming voice and a fearless heart. Sometimes it's a quiet “yes” spoken through trembling lips. Sometimes it's entering the room anyway and obeying God while your emotions are still trying to catch up.
And then...after it's over, you look back. You see that the conversation went better than you feared and you realize that the people involved received it better than you expected, and the timing was somehow.......exactly right.
And suddenly, the whole situation begins to look less like something you managed and more like something God orchestrated.
His fingerprints are everywhere!
On the timing.
On the words.
On the hearts involved.
On the peace that followed.
On the strength that showed up precisely when your own strength ran out.
You realize God wasn't only preparing you for the position.....He was preparing everything surrounding your obedience.
Every single detail, every conversation, every relationship, and every step.
I don't know, maybe that's why He sometimes allows us to feel so inadequate in the beginning? Because when everything works out, we can't take the credit because we know exactly how nervous we were. We even know how tightly we were holding onto Him.
We know that we walked into the room with barely enough courage for even one sentence.
So when peace and understanding come, and when everything settles into place, we know who went before us.
God did!
Maybe you're standing in a new place right now? Maybe the responsibility feels heavier than you expected. Or maybe you're being asked to make decisions that you've never made or have conversations you never thought you'd have.
Please don't mistake unfamiliar responsibility for misplaced calling.
I mean, you may not feel ready because this version of obedience is new.
But if God placed you there, He already knew what the position would require.
He knew the people involved, He knew the conversations that would come, and He knew where your heart would tremble. And guess what? He knew exactly how He'd strengthen you through it.
Sometimes God places you somewhere that requires a courage you've never carried before. And sometimes the only reason you discover that courage is because He finally places you somewhere that demands it.
You don't have to walk into every room fearless.
You only have to walk into it.......with Him.
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