Your Everyday Purpose

God Hears Her Podcast 

Episode 202 – Your Everyday Purpose 

Elisa Morgan, Eryn Adkins & Vivian Mabuni  

[Music] 

Elisa: How were Simon, who’s Peter, and Andrew, and James, and John, going to support themselves without being fishermen? 

Eryn: No idea. 

Elisa: Which reflects on what power and personhood Jesus must have possessed. You just don’t get up and follow a dude…  

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … who’s going to say you’re going to fish for people… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Eryn: Right. 

Elisa: You just don’t do that, and you leave your whole family, and you leave your father’s hired people, and you leave all of your equipment. 

[Music] 

Vivian: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women, where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you. Join our community of encouraging one another and learning to lean on God through Scripture, story, and conversation at godhearsher.org, God hears her. Seek and she will find. 

Elisa: What do you hear when you hear the word calling? And I don’t mean like ring, ring, ring-a-ding, ding. [chuckling] I don’t mean like that. 

Eryn: Not a phone call.  

Vivian: I think of, like, a purpose… 

Elisa: Yeah. 

Vivian: … like, the word calling evokes purpose. 

Eryn: I think career. 

Elisa: Okay, like vocation. 

Vivian: Vocation, right. 

Eryn: Yes, vocation’s a good word. 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Eryn: Yes. 

Elisa: Okay, and is calling for everybody, or is it just for fancy people? 

Eryn: I feel like everyone has a calling. 

Vivian: I have a friend named Kat Armstrong, she’s a Bible teacher, and she differentiates between calling and assignment. So, the way she describes it is like a calling is all Christians have the same calling to God for God, but our assignments throughout our life will look different, and that kind of helped me to separate a little bit more as it relates to vocation. I kind of think of that more as an assignment than, like, I am a newly empty nester. So, that’s my new assignment is how to live in light of a new set of circumstances.  

Eryn: Oh, I love that. 

Elisa: That’s good. I think that’s really helpful, and we’re going to come back to that. But isn’t it interesting, assignment sounds a little bit more like a task. And calling sounds like something for fancy people again. You know, back to that, and, you know, I guess if I were going to stereotype… 

Eryn: Yeah, maybe… 

Elisa: … callings. 

Eryn: … chosen, maybe like… 

Elisa: … yeah, yup, yeah. 

Vivian: Right. 

Eryn: … when you say that, like, you’re chosen to do… 

Elisa: Exactly. 

Eryn: … something special.  

Vivian: Right. 

Elisa: Well, and I think about like Mary, the mother of Jesus… 

Eryn: Right. 

Vivian: Yes. 

Elisa: … you know? Hello, you’re going to have the Messiah, and an angel does it… 

Vivian: Right, right. 

Eryn: Right. 

Elisa: … or Moses… 

Vivian: Right. 

Elisa: … at the burning bush. You know… 

Eryn: Or David. 

Elisa: … Come over here and take off your sandals… 

Vivian: Right. 

Elisa: … or David being anointed, so… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … that’s why I say, is everybody called? You know, and I think a lot of us, dare I say, sometimes women especially, we pull back from that notion of calling thinking that’s for the fancy people. That’s for the special people. That’s for those very few women who actually get to have purpose… you know… 

Eryn: Right. 

Elisa: … or are invited. Few are called, not many are called, few are called, and it’s not going to be me. I mean, I hear this a lot. I hear it from young women, I hear it from women who are transitioning from one season to another, like into motherhood, that’s a really… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … weird identity shift. And then into the years of empty nest when suddenly I’m not needed the same way, or changing a career path, or retirement. You know, we can keep on going with all of these, but I think calling is… a confusing concept. I think maybe we’ve made it a little too spiritual. We could focus on Mary, we could focus on Moses, we could focus on David, or Paul, you know, on the road to Damascus, and here he is a, you know, loses his eyesight and… all these dramatic things… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … we could do that. But I think Scripture shows us a more everyday call that I’d like to explore together, and one of the things I love the most about God Hears Her is that we represent three different seasons of life… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … and so, see how this everyday kind of calling affects us in different seasons. So, we’re going to be looking at Mark chapter 1, verses 16–20. So, before we get going, Mark starts off with John the Baptist, preparing the way. You know, “I send you a messenger ahead of you,” he’s quoting Isaiah and then Jesus appears and John baptizes Him. Okay, that’s already pretty dramatic. And it’s like the very few, and that’s the fancy people, right? John the Baptist, Jesus… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … Okay… 

Vivian: Like ex-… you know, their circumstances were out of the ordinary. 

Elisa: Yeah. If you’re reading along, you may already think, not me, not me, but let’s see what happens. Okay, in verse 16… y’all go ahead and read that together, maybe just take a couple of verses. We’re going to do 16–20 of Mark chapter 1.  

Vivian: “As he passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew Simon’s brother, casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen.” 

Eryn: “’Follow me,’ Jesus told them, ‘and I will make you fisher for people.’ Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” 

Vivian: “Going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat putting their nets in order. Immediately he called them, and they left their father’s Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.” 

Elisa: Okay. These are regular folks… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … these are not fancy people. 

Eryn: Right.  

Elisa: What do we know about fisher people in the New Testament?  

Eryn: Probably calloused hands, that’s what I think. 

Elisa: Yup, calloused hands, that’ll work, yup. 

Vivian: Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Eryn: Probably smelly. [Laughter] Fishes, you know. 

Vivian: Yeah, fish, for sure. Hardworking. Probably, you know, not able to amass wealth in any way. It’s just like, whatever you’re fishing, you’re eating and selling any extra, so, it’s not a lucrative, necessarily a lucrative job.  

Elisa: Kind of a blue-collar situation… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … I mean, they’re going to make it and it’s something everybody needs, but you can’t control nature. 

Vivian: Right. 

Eryn: You know those… those men in your life where you look around and you’re like, man, you’re just like a very reliable person. Like, willing to do the dirty work of whatever… 

Vivian: Show up. 

Eryn: … just to get the job done. And you’re probably loyal, too.  

Elisa: Yep… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … Well, you gotta get up every day… 

Eryn: Yup. 

Elisa: … and you gotta go to work… 

Eryn: Discipline… 

Vivian: Show up. 

Eryn: … very disciplined. 

Elisa: It’s… it’s a time to make the donuts kind of job.  

Vivian: And it’s interesting cause it’s a family business, too. So, you’ve got the generations, you’ve got the dad with the sons…. 

Eryn: Oh, I never thought about that. 

Vivian: … you’ve got the brothers working together, so whatever you’re born into… 

Elisa: Yes. 

Vivian: … is the job that you’re going to have. 

Eryn: That’s right. 

Vivian: So, if you’re a carpenter, your dad was a carpenter, and his father was a carpenter. And in the same way with fishermen… It’s just different than how we are today where it’s… 

Elisa: That’s right. 

Vivian: … like when I grew up one day, I would like to be an accountant, you know… 

Eryn: Right. 

Vivian: … and you could… 

Elisa: And you can dream 

Vivian: … switch completely, yeah. 

Elisa: So, every call involves two steps: there is a call to something, and there’s a call from something. So, let’s think about that. You know, what does God’s calling look like in our lives? First, we’re called to God, to a relationship. Okay? So, let’s read back over that and let’s look at what this… in verse 16 and 17, what do you see there? 

Eryn: “As he passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting a net into the sea–for they were fishermen.”  

Vivian: “’Follow me,’ Jesus told them, ‘and I will make you fish for people.’”  

Elisa: Okay, so the call to is a call to Jesus, a call to a relationship. So, let’s just pause for a minute and think about that in your own life. 

Eryn: Okay. 

Elisa: Can you think about when God came alongside you and in some way, shape, or form, and then explain what it looked like, how did He call you, Eryn, to a relationship with Him?  

Eryn: Ooo, I would say I always had this, like, wonder about Jesus. I remember asking Him to come into my heart when I was seven, and then I always lived my life with this desire that I wanted people to wonder where the light came from that was in me that was Him. But then my light got very dim in my late twenties, and He called me back to Him. 

Elisa: And what was that like? 

Eryn: It was the most tender, patient, just warm, comforting, experience, and I had so much turbulence, and pain, and fear, and anxiety, that He just… it felt like I was being just covered. I cried out to Him in anger and sadness of wondering where He was because I felt that He had been quiet, and that He allowed bad things to happen to me. 

Elisa: So, you’re mad at Him? 

Eryn: I was mad at Him, but I also knew He was good.  

Elisa: And so, you felt this peace, and this wooing, and this lovely compassion and how did you interpret that to be a call? Did… did you sense any words? Did He lead you to Scripture?  

Eryn: Yeah. He knew how to come to me. He knows His daughter so well, and He came to me with a question, and it was, are you tired?  

Vivian: Oh, very.  

Eryn: And I was very tired. And He knew that I needed to be asked a question, not told what to do. 

Elisa: Oh, I love that. 

Vivian: Wow. 

Eryn: Because everybody in my life had an opinion, and they were gossiping, and they were saying all sorts of things, and He knew that He needed to show curiosity to me for me to open up. And I said, yes, I’m exhausted. And then I was led to the Scripture, Matthew… and by lead, I mean it was like a pressing of the question, are you tired? It was… it was one of those moments where it was like, it wasn’t audible, but I knew it wasn’t me that was asking it, and so, then the next day, I was on my Bible app and it… the verse of the day was Matthew 11:28… 

Elisa: Wow. 

Eryn: … and the message version is… 

Vivian: “Are you tired?” 

Eryn: “Are you tired? Burned out? Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religions?” 

Vivian: Yes. 

Eryn: “Come away with me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.” 

Vivian: Wow. 

Eryn: I’ll show you how to live the unforced rhythms of God’s grace, and I won’t expect you to carry anything. I… I’m paraphrasing, but that Scripture brought me to Him again. 

Vivian: Wow. 

Elisa: Okay, okay. That is so personal, which I love. And I think, you know, all who listening, yours may not look like that, and it may… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … so, you know, and take a minute and maybe… grab your journal and write out what’s your story. You know, how did God call you to a relationship with Him. Now, Viv, how about you? 

Vivian: Well, for me, I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, so I always knew that a God must exist somewhere out there. I felt like I was called to God because I had a friend who was a Christian and her life was so different. She glowed, and as I watched her grow in her relationship with God it became really evident to me that God was real, and that her relationship with Jesus was authentic… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … it was undeniable that something very supernatural was going on and that caused me to ask questions. I started journaling, started writing letters to God, and then probably within a year or so I, you know, had attended youth group a few times, there were cute boys there… [chuckling] 

Eryn: Yeah, yup. 

Elisa: Yup, yup. 

Vivian: … I cried through all the worship songs… I remember my youth pastor took me out for lemonade at the mall, answered a lot of my questions, and I continued to write letters to God. And then I went to a church service with a different friend up in the mountains in Breckenridge, and it was one of the few times I’d ever been to church before. And that pastor shared in his message, teeny tiny congregation, about opening your hearts door… 

Elisa: Wow. 

Vivian: … asking Christ to come into your life. So, it wasn’t an altar call, there was not a raise your hand or anything, but I remember writing in my journal later, a letter to God, like, I don’t remember feeling any different, but I know that something changed, and I really sense that in that way God had called me into relationship with Himself. Like, you recognize that emptiness in your life… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … it’s not a boyfriend that you need… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … it’s not more money, or more awards, or anything like that, that emptiness is a spiritual void that only I can fill. And that was how He called me.  

Elisa: So, in your situation, God used some people, and strangers… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … as well as friends… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … there was a clear change, a clear movement of following toward… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … this relationship. And I grew up loving God. We would be dumped at church by my single mom, and we’d spend some time there. But I can remember as a, like, a twelve- thirteen-year-old, I was walking down the hall of our Presbyterian church and they had portrait plates of the disciples in this display case way down at the end of this hall, and as I drew closer, I was walking, I felt Jesus’ eyes from His portrait plate in the middle just lock into mine… And I… I was just kind of spooked by it, but I was also very intrigued. Well about two or three years later, because I was always at church, and it was a season in the seventies when there was a movement of teen evangelism going on… churches were very intentional about developing teens and they ordained me as an elder when I was sixteen… 

Vivian: Wow. 

Eryn: Oh, my goodness. 

Elisa: … I’m not kidding. I’m not kidding. And I was like, cool. You know, cause that’s leadership, and I love that, and I loved God…  

Eryn: That’s awesome.  

Elisa: …but it was a couple of months later that I heard the gospel presented as a bit of a transaction, but like, God loves you and then here’s what you can do in response, and I hadn’t understood that ever before. And I felt really bad at first… really guilty like… like God had been, you know… knocking on my door [knocking sound], you know, and I’d been not answering… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … you know, but I didn’t know to answer. And as it was explained to me, I was really anxious and excited to know Him, so I asked Him into my heart, too. So, you know, these are… everybody’s got their story. 

Vivian: Yeah. Yeah. 

Elisa: And so… and God used people with me, too, and you know, we… so, that’s a call to a relationship that you see Simon and his brother Andrew, and you see James and you see John… the fisher people doing this. So, first we’re called to a relationship, but you know, the story goes on. Also calls us for a role in our relationship with Him. And, you know, Viv, you were talking about the status of fisher people in New Testament, and I think it’s so interesting how Jesus says, “Come and follow me,” they are fishermen… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … okay? But instead… instead of going, you’re going to go out and fish over here, He says, “I’m going to make you fishers of people.” 

Vivian: Yeah. Yeah.  

Elisa: So, that’s the role they’re called to. And what would that have meant to them? Can you imagine?  

Vivian: Yeah. Isn’t that so great that they didn’t have to switch to become something completely different? 

Eryn: Right. 

Elisa: A carpenter or… 

Vivian: Right, like, Jesus was… 

Elisa: Physician. 

Vivian: … Right? He was still calling them to now switch the focus on… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … who they would be fishing for, instead of fish it was going… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … to be people, but the same requirements, to get up early and… 

Eryn: Discipline. 

Vivian: … you know, I mean, the discipline, all the things that were already formed in them, in God’s economy, nothing is wasted.  

Elisa: And you know, that’s really insightful, because it’s also unpredictable and out of our control… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: Yes. 

Elisa: … got in the lake to fish, I mean, you know, the best times of day, you know, the best seasons of the year, you know, you watch the weather patterns, so there’s a little bit of it… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … But, you know, they’re getting up and going to fish for people, very unpredictable. And especially in New Testament times, you know, the only reason I think they could ever have responded to a call to a role would be because they were called to a relationship. I don’t want to lose that… 

Vivian: Yeah, yeah. 

Elisa: … it is the overwhelming presence and power of Jesus who called them. So, He calls them to a role, a different kind of role. So, now think to yourself, and going back to your own journal… journeys of how God called you to a relationship, how did you begin to sense Him calling you to some kind of role, maybe the first role, that you occupied for Him? 

Vivian: Part of my story is that I tried to live out as a Christian the best I knew how, so, that really meant going to the bookstore, and buying my first Bible, and trying to read it. It didn’t make sense, I… you know, was trying to do all the Christian things, but failing miserably. And I literally thought, oh, well I guess that was my religion phase… 

Eryn: Yeah, yeah. 

Vivian: … So, I was ready to, you know, it’s just like this band and that… 

Elisa: Yeah. 

Vivian: … perfume and God… 

Eryn: Yep. 

Vivian: … And so, I was really ready to ditch it because it didn’t work… 

Eryn: Yeah.  

Vivian: … And then my dad moved our entire family right before my senior year of high school from Boulder, Colorado to Hong Kong… 

Elisa: Oh goodness.  

Vivian: … and that is what God used to get my attention. And it was there that God really challenged… I… He didn’t even challenge me. I was just mad… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: Yeah. 

Vivian: … kind of had that angry prayer… 

Eryn: Yup. 

Vivian: … and I said, I need a church, youth group, Christian friends, if You do that, I’ll give You my whole life, surrender everything. Otherwise, I’m going to go out, and get drunk, and do something I’ll probably regret, but I’m never talking to You again. And so, God came through and provided a church, youth group, Christian friends, and I surrendered my life, and as I surrendered my life, I really think that unleashed God’s Spirit that was indwelt in me when I came to Christ, but now I could be filled with His Spirit. The Bible came alive, like, there was such a calling to just a natural outflow. It’s almost like falling in love with Darren, and I couldn’t stop talking about him, like, oh my gosh, I just met the most amazing person, you know, you have to hear the story, and in the same way it was with God… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … like there was not, no one had to tell me to go share my faith, it was like, of course, who wouldn’t… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … talk about the most amazing God who came through in all these different ways, and so it was a calling to minister, but it was not anything formal. It was an overflow of this relationship that you’re talking about… 

Elisa: You couldn’t help it, almost. 

Vivian: … couldn’t help it.  

Elisa: I think it’s interesting and somebody else might be called to help the elderly. Or somebody else might be called to give all of their allowance. 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: So, God’s calling you to minister, which if you look ahead in your life, that’s where the for role is going to come. We’ll go back to you, Er-Bear.  

Eryn: All of my… my life and my career kind of both have been a very similar pairing of reminding people of their worth… 

Vivian: That’s right. 

Eryn: … And then I work with people to remind their communities of their community’s worth. It’s the thing I struggle with, but it’s the thing that He wants me to always talk about because I think it’s such a common problem.  

Elisa: It’s a beautiful lesson, Eryn, where you just expressed that the thing that you struggle with is the very thing God wants you to offer, and I think a lot of us negate it because it didn’t make sense, you know, intuitively. And yet, and I love how you shared, you know, that God convinced you of your worth, and your call to a role became wanting others to understand that… 

Eryn: Yes.  

Elisa: … and you’ve lived that out for decades. 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … You know, it’s gorgeous. It’s gorgeous. And… and for me, you know, it would be after I came to know God, too, I wanted other people to know Him. Words became my thing, writing, those kinds of… okay, I’ll put things into words. So, we’ve got this call to a relationship, called for a role. Okay, this other piece is kind of tricky, but every call to a relationship and calling for a role is a calling away from something. Ooh. 

Eryn: I know, we both were like, mm… 

Vivian: I know that’s a… 

Eryn: … calling away. 

Elisa: So, go back to the passage and let’s look at our buddies here, and we’re looking at Simon, his brother Andrew. We are looking at James son of Zebedee and his brother John, Mark 1:16.  

Eryn: “As he passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting Annette into the se– for they were fishermen.” 

Vivian: “’Follow me,’ Jesus told them, ‘and I’ll make you fish for people.’” 

Eryn: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat putting their nets in order.”  

Vivian: “Immediately he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.” 

Elisa: What does Jesus call them from? What do they have to leave?  

Vivian: Well, for James and John, they left their father. 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: Big time. 

Vivian: That’s huge. 

Elisa: They left their nets in verse 18, and then James and John left their boat and left their father in the boat… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … and left one other thing… 

Vivian: The hired men. 

Elisa: The hired men. 

Eryn: The hired men. Yeah.  

Elisa: So, Viv, you were talking about the industry, the first century industry and how it’s handed down familially, okay? So, what would this mean for Zebedee? What would it mean for the boys?  

Vivian: I think it’s complete disruption of what was expected. The expectation that the sons would then inherit whatever fishing business… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: …that’s huge. Costly. 

Eryn: Legacy. 

Elisa: Yeah, so, legacies for Zebedee… 

Vivian: And in a tight-knit community… 

Elisa: Yes. 

Eryn: Yeah, yup. 

Vivian: … that would send ripples, like, the gossip wheel… 

Eryn: Oh, yeah. 

Vivian: … would be going crazy.  

Elisa: Absolutely. How were Simon, who’s Peter, and Andrew, and James, and John, going to support themselves without being fishermen? 

Eryn: No idea  

Elisa: Which reflects on what power and personhood Jesus must have possessed. You just don’t get up and follow a dude…  

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … who’s going to say you’re going to fish for people… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Eryn: Right. 

Elisa: You just don’t do that… 

Vivian: Right, right. 

Elisa: … and you leave your whole family, and you leave your father’s hired people, and you leave all of your equipment, which is the only thing you would have to sell to have any kind of money… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … So, you can see why the importance of the relationship is primary.  

Eryn: Yeah.  

Elisa: You are following a person.  

Vivian: Yeah.  

Elisa: What did you have to leave to respond to Jesus?  

Eryn: A lifestyle, a destructive lifestyle for me. And some relationships… 

Elisa: Yes.  

Eryn: … that I needed to part ways from, that you could either say they weren’t a good influence or that I wasn’t strong enough to be around their influence… 

Elisa: Maybe later you would be? 

Eryn: … Yes. But in the moment, I had to create boundaries. 

Vivian: That’s so scary, because those are the people you know, and that’s the life that you know, and to go in a different direction is costly… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … It’s costly and… 

Eryn: And lonely. 

Vivian: … and lonely. I think, so I… I think I left my ambition, you know, of what I thought my life was going to be about. You know, I really thought that I was going to be driving the fancy sports car, and having a life of just jetting around, like, you know, jet setting…  

Eryn: Yeah.  

Elisa: Was it painful? 

Vivian: Honestly, at the time, no, because I had just, I mean, Jesus was just so real, like, in my friend’s life where Jesus really… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … was so truly evident… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … it was, like, over and over He was proving Himself to be faithful and true, and I just could not deny that. 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: I consider myself culturally Buddhist before I became a Christian, in that we would kind of go through the motions every now and then. During certain festivals we would burn incense and do things, but it didn’t affect my daily life… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Vivian: … And I recognize that there can be cultural Christians too,… 

Eryn: Yes. 

Vivian: … you know, that just kind of go through the motions. But when you’re all in, then there’s this relationship, this intimacy with God that can’t be manufactured, or bought, or mustered up, and it… it was just a…  a taste and see that God is good.  

Elisa: So, called from a lifestyle, from certain friendships. Called from certain dreams, Viv… certain big ideas. And… and there wasn’t this enormous pain, but there was an awareness that you were leaving some things. And… and for me too, you know, after I gave my life to… to God, I went on through high school and then into college, and I thought I was marrying a… a guy who was going to be a doctor and I thought I’d be a doctor’s wife. I didn’t really think about it, it’s back in the seventies. And I was getting a degree in psychology, and we broke up the last semester of college, it was a very, he knew God too, but it was a very honoring, honest decision that we loved each other, but we weren’t to get married. And I’m like, well, now what? 

Vivian: Yeah! 

Eryn: Well, yeah, because you envision your future looking a certain way… 

Elisa: Absolutely…  

Vivian: Right, yeah.  

Elisa: … and I may have been using my words, but not for any money, you know, so, it’s just like, what am I supposed to do?  

Eryn: Totally. 

Elisa: And I began… a friend asked me, when have you felt most alive? I was only twenty-one years old or something. I thought it was when I had done an independent study on death and dying, and I had shadowed a hospital chaplain and helped people in a veterans’ hospital… 

Eryn: Wow. 

Elisa: … who were crossing over, and I felt very alive being a… a mercy angel to them. And I thought, okay, I want to be a hospital chaplain and I’m going to go to seminary. I remember calling my dad, telling him, my parents were divorced and I didn’t see my dad very often and he went, oh, Elisa, there are more men out there. You don’t have to become a nun. [Laughter]  

Eryn: That’s cute. 

Elisa: Which I was like, oh, well, I’m not! But, anyway, I… I… I assured him I wasn’t going to do that, but I did leave my hometown… 

Eryn: Wow. 

Elisa: … and I moved up to Denver, Colorado with my avocado plant and, you know, put my… my wooden fruit crates with my books in them and… and left everything and went to seminary. So, there was a fromness there. So… take us forward into today, and I want to go back to your comment about assignments. You know, the core pieces of call are called to a relationship with an undeniably powerful God who wants what’s good for us… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … and a call for a role where He uniquely places us in opportunities, vocations, where we can use our gifts for His good. And then in order to accomplish those things, we need to leave some things behind… 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: … There’s a call from certain things. 

Eryn: Yeah. 

Elisa: Now bring us up into the present, you know, in our thirties, fifties, and sixties. You know… what does that mean now? And those things are kind of never going to change. 

Eryn: Right.  

Elisa: But our assignments will… 

Vivian: Yeah.  

Elisa: … That is something I think we really need to challenge each other at around tables like this… 

Vivian: Yeah. 

Elisa: … where I can see, you know, Viv, what it was like in your age to go, hmm, now what? And a whole ‘nother life begins to unfurl, but it’s not the same is what I expected. And… and Viv, you can challenge Erin… as she looks at, you know, hers, you know, in a newer marriage, and… and her career continuing, and et cetera, what does that look like? And, Eryn, you’ve got lots of women that you mentor the same way. I’d love to reserve that and take it forward. But as we think about now, women who are listening at all of these ages, I want to assure you that the most important call you will ever receive is the call to relationship. Father, I think there’s probably a, a woman right now listening is going, I have never actually sensed a call. I’ve wondered what I’m supposed to do with my life. I’ve wondered what the purpose was. I’ve wondered why me, why here, why now? But this sounds different. This sounds like a relationship I am way interested in. So, God, I want to respond to You as You say to me, come and follow. Lord, I want to acknowledge, I don’t want to do life by myself anymore. I want to choose to follow You. Lord, help me leave behind those things that do not help me, that… the choices that I’ve made that don’t please You, that are not good for me, those things You would call sin in Scripture and help me to leave them behind as I confess them to You and trust You to make a new way for me. Because of the power of who You are, I trust You to call me for something, and that woman who’s wondering what that is, I pray You’d reveal it to her now. [Music] What is it that You are uniquely inviting her to join You into? She doesn’t have to wait for some kind of a… an invitation to appear in her inbox. It’s there. Because she belongs to You, You have things You have for her to do. And for that woman who’s wanting to respond but is feeling weighed down by things she doesn’t want to release, I pray You would unclench her hands around those things she thinks she needs, to open her palms and release them and allow You to put instead into her hands those things that will equip her for that to which You’ve called her. We trust You for all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.  

[Music] 

Eryn: Well, friends, be sure to check out our website for a survey where you can share your insights with us. What do you think of the podcast? Who would you like for us to have a conversation with? Find that survey and more God Hears Her resources at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.  

Vivian: Thank you for joining us. And don’t forget God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.  

[Music] 

Eryn: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Jade Gustman and Mary Jo Clark. We also want to thank Ken and Linda for all their help and support.  

Vivian: Our Daily Bread Ministries is a donor-supported nonprofit ministry dedicated to making the life-changing wisdom and stories of the Bible come alive for all people around the world. [Music] God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.