Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents told you, you could pick one treat off the dessert tray at a party? The choice wasn’t always obvious. Sure, if Aunt Ida’s chocolate chip cookies were burnt, while Uncle Larry brought cupcakes from the bakery down the street—it might have been easy. But, usually, if you were a sugar fiend like me, it was a hard decision. 

Choosing between two good things is always tough.

In some cases, it’s the most difficult type of decision. Because choosing one means not choosing the other. And the fear of missing out has been a thing long before we coined it FOMO. Our main question is usually, 

Which one will be so good, I won’t feel as if I’m missing out on the other? 

But we don’t just face this dilemma with cupcakes and other sugary baked goods. No, in fact the hardest decisions always have to do with our lives, and our future. As a college student, sitting in my professor’s office one day, I laid out this very quandary with her. 

I told the department head of my major that I was struggling with choosing between the world of writing and literature, and entering the world of church ministry. Both, were pulling at my heart. Both made me feel like I belonged. Both made me feel as if I was born to work and create inside them. Only it felt like an “either/or” situation. 

I had to choose.

Or at least that is what I believed. Until, after my professor patiently heard me out, she said something I’ll never forget. My professor who had gone to Brown and studied at Oxford, said

“Melissa, in your life you will do many things.”

She said those words as if it had already been decided. They sounded like permission and rang of freedom. Though I was already half way through my senior year of college, and the finish line of graduation was coming at me fast—she was saying I didn’t have to choose. 

I didn’t have to have a perfect, one track life plan to follow. Instead, I could embrace the tension of being more than one thing. Better yet, I could embrace the tension of having more than one purpose and calling. 

The word Calling has a singular connotation. As if we each only have one purpose or goal that we must give our lives to. And sometimes, when we look at the Michael Phelps or Mother Teresa’s of our world, it can certainly seem that way. But if we look a little closer, we will find that the majority of us have more than just one calling. 

The most clear example I can think of is my many friends who, through their jobs, do meaningful work in their communities, while also being a mom or dad. My closest friend is currently homeschooling her kids, ministering in a job where she started as a volunteer, and working towards taking over her father’s business with her husband. There is no question that there are multiple callings at play in her life. 

But is it always possible to fulfill all of our callings at once?

What my professor didn’t say, but I have learned over the years is that fulfilling and living into our callings can and will look different in certain seasons. Sometimes, it will look like going after an all-consuming career or creative endeavor for months or years on end. Others it may mean staying home for a year to take care of your kids—as a dad or a mom. For me, for years it looked like working in a church, and now for almost an equal amount of time it has meant writing and coaching others from home. 

If we look a little closer, we will find that the majority of us have more than just one calling.

Each of us have been given a unique combination of gifts and passions. But we haven’t been asked to choose which ones we’ll pay attention to, and which ones we’ll ignore. Rather, we have been invited to pay attention to the seasons of our lives to figure out which callings to live into right now. It’s not a matter of choosing our future all at once. It is a matter of seeking after what we’re being called to in the present. 

Do you know what your callings are?

Do you know what you are being called to right now? 

Are you in the midst of making a hard decision? Contemplating a big life change? If so, you may be interested in my FREE Making Changes Checklist that I give to all my email friends. Want your free copy?  subscribe here.