What Chip and Joanna Gaines Can Teach Us About Our Calling in Life
It's May again and we all know what that means. 'Tis the season of graduation. A time for stressing out and searching for God's will for your life. (Jokes...kinda.)
Whether you've been out of school for a while or you've just crossed the finish line, finding your place in this world (yes, that was a Michael W. Smith reference) can be frustrating and confusing to say the least. It's a crossroads of life that is so easy to over-complicate, over-spiritualize, and over-analyze. What if there was an easier way to get clarity? While some people have callings that maximize our weaknesses (think: Moses, the stutterer, leading a nation...before social media could disseminate a message in milliseconds), most of us will find that our strengths, our gut/instincts and people who care about us are God-given guides to lead us towards the way we can be most engaged in uncovering the Kingdom of God on earth.
Have no fear!
are here!
If you don't know who this sweet couple is, you're missing out. They are an uber talented construction/interior design duo with a plethora of other entrepreneurial endeavors, some great kids, a rich faith, and, oh yeah...
their own reality TV show on HGTV
. And while I honestly think that there's nothing worse than being a famous Christian, they somehow seem to be handling it all in stride.
What can we learn about "calling" and finding our niche from the incredibly creative and hilarious Gaineses?
Take stock in what makes you come alive and figure out a way to make a living doing that.
Chip and JoJo have found their lane. They know what they're good at and what they're not so good at. Taking inventory of your strengths and weaknesses should be one of your first steps in uncovering what your calling in life is.
Questions for reflection:
What do you do that seems to be easier to you than most other people? What is it that you consistently get positive feedback on? What did you want to do when you were younger? What do you still like about that? Check out
if you're still having trouble pin-pointing what you're good at. (Pro-tip: Don't buy it used, because there's an assessment measurement code that can't be reused.)
Work your tail off.
Malcolm Gladwell sites 10,000 hours as the threshold for excellence in fine-tuning your craft. Do the math. That's a long time! Chip and Joanna didn't just stumble into their success. They've been honing their skills for close to 20 years, full-time, before their business exploded. Never under-estimate the season of life where you learn, learn, learn some more, try, fail, figure out what you don't know, succeed and repeat. Not only are your skills grown and mastered in this season, your character is grown as well. Good character and hard work will always have a payoff in this life and in the one to come. Check out a post of mine about
"How to Give A Rip" if you're struggling in this area.
Find the spiritual in the mundane.
What if the sacred/secular divide is totally made up? Q: If anything (legal) done to the best of your ability is an embodiment of the glory of God, what possibilities does that open up for you? A: Tons.There are lots of ways to let the kingdom come near. Don't over-spiritualize so much that you miss the obvious. Jesus did manual labor (carpentry) to the glory of God. That's how the son of God spent close to 15 years of his life. Why? Because anything done to the best of your ability is an embodiment of the glory of God.
Chip and Joanna don't do anything particularly spiritual for a living. They build and design to the best of their abilities, taking created elements and revealing their beauty...bringing order out of chaos and revealing the heart of God, the most creative one of all. Even if they didn't hold a marriage discipleship clinic on the sly in their show (which is so awesome, by the way), they still reveal the heart of God to the world because they unveil beauty, creativity, form, function, design, ingenuity and all these elements that God so deeply loves. (For more thoughts on this topic of work in terms of the kingdom of God, check out John Mark Comer.)
The bottom line about finding your calling is this: don't stress out about it. God knows how to communicate with you. He made you. He's just as intentional about what he reveals as what he withholds. God gave you a lot of practical tools to discover what makes you come alive and anything done to the best of your ability brings glory to God and advances the kingdom. Enjoy the ride, as it's the journey, not only the destination that counts.
I absolutely love talking about career counseling in therapy session! If this is a topic that interests you or someone you love, or it would be helpful for you to talk through the topic with an uninvolved third party, please contact me and let's set up a time to meet together at my office in Baton Rouge, Walker, or Denham Springs, Louisiana.