Chapter 8 - When the Calling Returned-Larger Than I Imagined

When I accepted the full-time position at the church counseling center, I recognized it as the fulfillment of a calling I once believed I had missed.

At first, it simply felt like the next faithful step. I was grateful. Aware of the responsibility. Conscious of the long road that had led me there.

Then, quietly, a thought settled in me:

I am now doing what I once thought I had lost.

But it felt different than I imagined years earlier. When I was younger, calling carried urgency. There was pressure to discern it perfectly, to move quickly, to avoid missteps. I believed timing was fragile — that one wrong decision could derail everything. Now, the calling returned without that weight. There was no striving. No proving. Just alignment.

What once felt like a destination now felt like stewardship.

Across decades — through administration, systems work, leadership, technology, fear, and growth — God had been shaping capacities I didn’t yet understand. The experiences I once labeled detours had quietly become preparation. And then something else became clear.

The calling had not only returned — it had expanded.

Through video-based counseling and training, I began serving missionaries across distance and cultures. Some were exhausted. Some were isolated. Some were discerning whether to continue. God allowed me to sit with them in sacred moments of honesty and endurance. What once felt administrative became pastoral care across continents. And their lives refined my theology.

Watching faithful men and women follow God under pressure reshaped how I understood calling. Fulfillment did not mean clarity. Obedience did not eliminate struggle. God’s will was not fragile. The calling didn’t return when I was ready to claim it. It returned when I was ready to steward it well. And it returned larger than I ever imagined.

The years I had thought delayed me had actually matured me. The calling was never lost. It was being prepared.

-----------------------------------

Has something you once thought was gone quietly returned in a deeper form?

Where might God be expanding — not just fulfilling — what you once believed was your calling?