We’re all searching for life’s holy grail—that elusive source of miraculous power that provides happiness, wholeness, and sustenance in infinite abundance. Without it, we feel inadequate and incomplete, merely going through the motions. We hunger for significance, for work that matters, for a calling that gives our lives meaning.
But here’s the truth many miss: your calling isn’t something you stumble upon by accident. It’s something you create through extreme ownership of your role as a steward of God’s gifts.
The Lie We’ve Been Told About Worth
Society teaches us that our worth is tied to our net worth—the sum of our assets minus our liabilities. This fundamental lie traps us into believing that wealth, status, and honors define success. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Your worth is intrinsically linked to your spiritual identity. You are a uniquely designed vessel for the Holy Spirit in this world, endowed by your Creator with certain unalienable gifts to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. Your true worth grows as a function of your stewardship of those spiritual gifts—how faithfully you use what God has entrusted to you.
Creating Your Calling Through Extreme Ownership
Many people incorrectly think their calling is something to be found, wandering through life wondering when meaning will appear in their work. But how many worthwhile things in life are found versus created? An extreme sense of ownership is needed to create your calling. It’s not accidental—it must be intentional. You must train to receive and use your God-given gifts.
As long as your motivation is right, whatever you do can become a calling. Menial tasks become meaningful when you do them out of love for God and others. When you view your work as serving humankind, everything becomes significant.
I learned this lesson personally. Thirty-four years ago, if you had told me I would cultivate my calling by selling insurance, I would have laughed. As a mechanical engineer graduating from a top program, my ego made me look down on sales and the insurance industry. I was “too educated” for that type of job.
When I reflect on what held me back, the root cause was my ego. I was too proud, and that pride guaranteed my unhappiness. It was humility that unlocked true happiness and enabled me to create my calling by learning to serve others.
The Daily Tests of Stewardship
I’m tested in this principle constantly:
- When I see trash outside my office, do I pick it up or let someone else do it?
- When I finish grocery shopping, do I return the cart or leave it for someone else?
- Do I do household chores I despise as a way to serve my family, or delegate them to my kids?
The humble choice isn’t always easy, but choosing to serve others rather than expecting to be served transforms relationships and leads to lasting happiness. It was only through becoming humble that I discovered I was already perfectly and completely loved by God. Humility became the prerequisite to having a genuine relationship with Him, aligning my motivation and freeing me to train for my calling.
Redefining Success: Moving the Chains
Training for your calling requires recalibrating how you define success. True success isn’t the attainment of wealth or status—it’s the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. As long as you’re making progress toward your calling, you’re successful.
Think of your calling like an infinite football field where you’re the featured running back. Focus on “moving the chains.” You have four plays to get a first down. Some plays gain positive yardage, others result in losses, and some show no gain. But if you average 10 yards every four plays, you’ll progressively move down the field.
Success is the progressive realization of knowing and using God’s loving Holy Spirit who dwells within you. Your worth grows as you mature by using your talents as God has apportioned them.
The Divine Design for Human Flourishing
Everyone is designed differently, so don’t be consumed with envy for what others have that you don’t. Simply be grateful for what you’ve been given, no matter what that is. The human race is designed to be a cohesive team, with the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Dysfunction and discord follow when we act selfishly.
Scripture reminds us: “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
Our Creator endows us with gifts to serve others. To maximize our individual worth, we must progressively transform and align our will with His will, while resisting temptations that would derail our progress. When we do this, we become the cohesive team we were meant to be.
Taking Sacred Responsibility
Your calling emerges when you take extreme ownership of your role as a steward. You fight the good fight against evil forces by using your spiritual gifts in the service of others. When the Spirit gets the glory, He enables His work to be done through you, leading to success both professionally and personally.
This isn’t about finding your calling—it’s about creating it through the sacred responsibility of stewardship. When you work as though you’re working for the Lord, taking that responsibility seriously, you discover that purpose and meaning aren’t elusive at all. They’re right there in your faithful stewardship of what God has provided.
The holy grail you’ve been searching for isn’t something external to be found. It’s the sacred responsibility to be a faithful steward, working with extreme ownership of the gifts entrusted to you. In that stewardship, you’ll find the happiness, wholeness, and significance you’ve been seeking all along.
MindWolves 