Reader,

I used to want to be a rock star. I even tried to drop out of college to go on the road full time and start touring, but my dad wouldn't let me. (Thanks, Dad.)

After college, I tried to get a "normal" job. However, after a year of stumbling along, I threw caution to the wind and decided to embrace my dream.

"Music is my calling and my passion," I declared. Fueled by this conviction, I launched my music career with a fervent prayer: "God, if you give me this platform, I'll honor you and bring you glory by writing music that moves people closer to you—and by becoming famous!"

Spoiler alert: I'm neither a rock star nor a professional musician today.

I gave it a good, hard run for five years. I toured as an indie artist and released three full records. But one day, my wife looked at me and said, "If we're going to have a healthy marriage and be able to move forward with our lives, you can't be on the road nine months out of the year."

"But this is my calling," I protested. "It's my passion! My purpose!"

What do you do with a crisis like that? Where you believe so strongly that something is your calling, and yet it doesn't work out?

I know firsthand just how disorienting that feels, and in the years since, I've seen countless others wrestle with that same dilemma.

To those of us who tend to put so much pressure on ourselves when it comes to this question of calling, I have a question: can we just relax?

Because here's what I believe:

Your calling is not about a specific person or career or gifting. Your calling is about you becoming fully who you are and then bringing all of that fullness to the people and the roles and the moments that are unfolding right in front of you.

Now, does God call us to specific people and places at specific times? Maybe.

But the operational instruction from the Scriptures seems to be simpler:

So try this: work towards maturity and healthy ways of relating in the relationships that you are currently in. Bring your best efforts to the jobs and responsibilities that are yours today. Whatever challenges, uncertainties, and even struggles you're facing, walk them out faithfully.

If you do these things, I believe you'll be living out your calling in real time. And let's just see where that leads.

I am with you.

I am for you.

And you've got this.

Jake.