Courage and Calling: Embracing Your God-Given Potential

God has called you--first to himself, to know and follow him but also to a specific life purpose, a particular reason for being. This second call, to a defining purpose or mission in life, is often termed a vocation, from the Latin root meaning "calling." And while it has implications for your work or occupation, it also reaches wider. It includes your giftedness, your weakness, your life in community, what you do day to day. In this book, Gordon Smith invites you to discover your vocation by listening to God and becoming a coworker with him.

• What is my calling?
• How do I live it out in the midst of difficult relationships or moral challenges?
• Will my vocation change as I enter a new stage of life?
• As I cope with competing needs and demands, how can I craft a balanced, ordered way of living?
• Where do I find the courage to follow God's call?

Smith addresses these questions and many more, pointing the way in this book toward freedom--and toward emotional and spiritual maturity. If you long to hear and follow God's call to you, here is the book that can get you started.

Smith (academic dean of Regent College, British Columbia, and author of Listening to God in Times of Choice) simplifies the process of sound vocational decision-making. Smith explains that God has given every person three expressions of vocation: the general call to follow Jesus as a Christian, the specific call that is each individual's mission to the world and the immediate call that includes the duties and tasks for which we are presently responsible. In Part One ("Taking a Sober Look at Yourself"), Smith raises four questions to ensure vocational integrity: What are my gifts/abilities? What is my heart's desire? Where do I most connect with the needs of the world? What is my unique personality? This section evaluates our suitability for our chosen vocations. Using Jesus' promise of an easy yoke and a light burden, Smith writes that our vocation can be an easy yoke if it is fitted around our character, strengths, potential and personality. Part Two ("To Be All that You Are Called to Be") illustrates the necessity of developing courage and character, expanding our capacity to learn throughout our lives, facing hardships with maturity, working effectively within organizations and developing a life balanced between solitude and community. Smith's text is thoroughly engaging as he deals with one of life's most important issues. (Jan.)
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