My Calling In Life

“What is my calling in life?” I’ve written tons of posts and a book (Discovering God’s Calling) to help you find your adventurous calling from God. But why do I do this? In this post, I want to share my calling, and explain why I do the things I do.

The Unacceptable Need

I spent two years doing missions work in the Middle East. Taking this wild step of faith was hard, especially because I didn’t know why God was leading me there. It wasn’t until the end of my second year in the Middle East that God spoke and made it all clear.

I thought for certain I’d spend the rest of my life in the Middle East because God showed me the desperate need of the unreached. My heart broke every day as I saw more people than I could ever hope to share the gospel with passing me every day.

Almost all of these people I knew would end up in hell.

I can say this with relative confidence because they have never heard what Christ did for them on the cross, and they never will. Why is this?

They are called the unreached.

I’d give anything to see as many of these people as possible come to Christ. I don’t always do my best at striving toward this goal, but my life is dedicated to this cause.

If I had to, I’d die to further this goal, and perhaps one day God might give me this privilege.

The Unreached

It’s hard for us to see it in the western world because Christianity is all around us, but this is not the case around the world. In North Africa, the Middle East, and the south half of Asia, people will go their whole lives without ever hearing the gospel once.

How can we let this be? How in the world can we sit around and live our lives when people around the world are dying without a single chance to trust in Christ.

Why do we spend so much time and money re-reaching people in the US who have already heard the gospel and rejected it when there are so many who haven’t even heard it once? This is unacceptable. It’s like organizing a huge fundraiser to feed the hungry in Africa, and then we give all that food to those who already have food and completely ignore those who don’t have any. Does this make sense at all?

The only reason why we do this is because it’s easy. This way of life allows us to stay inside our safe and comfortable American bubble and still feel like we are doing the work God’s called us to.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I also live in the US and I share the gospel with people around me who I’m sure have heard the gospel several times. None of this is wrong. What is wrong is ignoring the massive need in the world.

My Calling In Life

Yes, I know God is faithful and he can move without using people. However, God chooses to use us. He wired us so we can be the most fulfilled through following him. This is why I can promise the most meaningful, adventurous, and rewarding life we can ever find through following God and his calling for our lives.

I saw this need around the world, and I was ready to dedicate everything to see as many of these people come to know Christ. But God spoke and called me back to the US. He sent me to the Middle East so I could see this need and care deeply for these people, but this was just the beginning of his plan for my life.

God spoke to me one day in a coffee shop (yes, sometimes I do enter into the land of coffee drinkers despite my distaste of the burned bean juice). He revealed that he desired to use this new burden he birthed in my heart to inspire others. He called me to wake up the American church through writing and being a traveling speaker.

God asked me to use my love of writing fiction to challenge believers to take part in His Great Commission and send them out to reach the unreached.

The purpose behind this is that I could reach about eight people per day, but every person I helped send could do the same thing. If I helped send out ten people, then I’d successfully multiply anything I could’ve done ten-fold.

My Strategy

I now work with the Great Commission Alliance. Through them, I travel and train people in evangelism and discipleship. But, no matter how many trainings we teach, videos we produce, or resources we develop, the only people who will ever attend, watch, or read our content are those who already have a passion for evangelism and discipleship. But, how do we reach those who don’t have a passion for these?

The answer is fiction and the art of story-telling. Fiction has and always will be a great way to help build in people a heart for something they didn’t already care about. This is why Uncle Tom’s Cabin was so pivotal in our history.

So, I start by appealing to the felt need of many to experience a life of meaning and adventure. That’s why I came up with the tagline “Live Wilder”, and why I created my pen name Philip Wilder.

This isn’t a manipulative tactic. In fact, it’s these desires for meaning and adventure are part of what made me want to go to the Middle East in the first place. Manipulation is what the world does when it says, “If you want adventure and meaning, then you need to travel the planet, go backpacking, and climb Mount Everest.” All this appeals to our sense of adventure. Though it does partially meet this need, there’s always an empty hollow feeling that makes us say, “Is that it? What now? What next?”

However, following God on the adventure he leads will never disappoint. God meets us where we are at. From there, he takes us into an adventurous life that’s perfectly fitted for who he made us to be.

Why I Write And Speak

Now, you might notice a potential disconnect here. My goal is to send people out to share the gospel with the unreached, but my strategy is to write fiction to challenge believers to live wilder. Let me explain how this makes sense.

I write to challenge believers to adventurous and Christ-filled lives through wild steps of faith. Through these books, I hope believers begin to see what life they could have by taking these wild steps of faith. The end goal of this is to help believers depend on Christ more and fall more in love with him.

I often write about the lost and the unreached, but my goal is to help Christians start living out adventurous and Christ-filled lives through wild steps of faith. As they do this, they’ll grow to care more about what Christ loves, which is the lost and unreached. So writing does both directly and indirectly lead to this goal.

And this is the point. I don’t know who God is challenging to go and be missionaries, but God does. So my goal is not to send everyone but to instead help everyone turn to God with a humble heart. I desire to see everyone honestly pray “Lead me as you desire, I trust you, and I am willing to go wherever and do whatever you want me to do.” As a result, the right people will go and the right people will stay and send.

And my goal of speaking follows this same trend and purpose.

Hopefully, as a result, many more believers will choose to be missionaries to these unreached peoples so that everyone get’s at least one chance to hear the gospel before they die.

What’s Your Calling?

This is my calling in life, and I want everything I do in life to funnel down to these goals, whether that be through writing, speaking, blogging, etc.

what’s your calling in life? Is there a way I can help you find your calling? Please feel free to comment down below.

We all have a calling in life. Ultimately, every plan should center on reaching the lost or loving others. He wants you to know and start walking down that path that’s perfectly planned out to make your heart and soul come alive.

Now that’s living wilder.

 

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If you don’t believe that God has a special plan for your life, then I’d encourage you to check out my blog: God Desires to Use You!