What are you good at?

 There is at least one thing you are good at which others cannot do as best as you do. It may be a very minor thing like reaching your ears with your fingers from behind your back or a major accomplishment like turning back plastics into gasoline. Whatever it is, it is something unique, as unique as your fingerprint.

That unique ability you have can be the basis of your calling in life. You are called to be a gymnast or a technology expert. Or you may be called to be a great teacher or an expert programmer.

Some people are called to be great civil servants. Others are called to be loyal, trusted and productive followers.

In the spiritual life each of us has also a calling.

 Some are called to be great spiritual leaders, like Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada. Others are called to be martyrs of purity, like Maria Gorettti. Others are called to be reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Others are called to be proponents of New Age ideas. Others are called to be church organists.

The question now is: How do you recognize your spiritual calling?

The answer is simple and yet it calls for a clear, extended explanation.

The simple answer is for you to contact the Spirit and to ask him about your spiritual calling. Basically, that is the answer. But it produces more questions on your part: How do I contact this Spirit. How do I know it is the good Spirit I am in contact with? The bad spirit may answer ahead of the good Spirit. How does the Spirit talk to me and how can I listen to his answer? Will he answer me with words, just like the words I use to talk to him?

You now have more questions whose answers may trigger more questions and it may take some time before you get back to your original question: How do I recognize my spiritual calling?

Fortunately in this area of our life we are not like blind persons in darkness looking for objects to guide our every step. We have our senses, our mind and our spirit to recognize our spiritual calling. And again we are fortunate because recognizing our spiritual calling is analogous to recognizing our sociological calling, our task in society. We can apply the principles in the latter to the former.

Schools nowadays give aptitude tests to students to determine their abilities and interests. In the same way you can ask yourself what are your spiritual abilities and interests. You can begin by looking at the lists of ministries in the Bible. These lists are found in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Then you can go beyond these lists. You may be interested in standing by sick people, comforting them. Or you may be interested in encouraging those in prisons to change their lives for the better. Whatever it is that interests you and you have the ability to develop that interest, that may be the way where you can find your spiritual calling.

Yes, you ask the Spirit.

But in a sense the Spirit has already answered you even before you ask. He has already equipped you with abilities and interests in the spiritual areas of your life. It is for you to recognize these abilities and interests and formulate what your calling is.

The answer given you may change and grow with the years.

Bill Bright felt at one time in his life that he was called to be a student leader in evangelism. This calling grew into being the founder and first president of Campus Crusade for Christ. A calling to serve in the prison ministry may expand to serve the victims of domestic violence.

The first step is to ask the Spirit about your spiritual calling.

The second step is to examine your abilities and interests in the spiritual areas of your life and single out those which you have.

The third step is to follow your calling as you perceive it.

The fourth step is to adjust, reformulate your calling as required by the needs around you.

These are the steps you can do to recognize your spiritual calling.

You will know whether that is really your spiritual calling because as you respond to this call, you experience an inner peace which you cannot have in any other calling.