Living Our Calling (and an announcement)
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
The sermon a couple Sundays ago was delivered by an unlikely suspect—in a tiny little prairie-town church, rocker-slash-evangelist Guiller Contreras (who goes by the artist name Long Live the King) delivered an astonishing one-man show with the same energy he uses in stadiums and while sharing stages with bands like For King and Country. And his message got me right in the feelers.
He talked about our purpose and our calling—our purpose is to love God and love people, and our calling is how we uniquely live that out. He said that if we’re not living by faith, we’re not allowing God to move.
But what got me most, what made me stop and question, was when he said, “The enemy of right isn’t wrong, it's good.”
Being derailed from our calling doesn’t usually look like going off in the completely wrong direction. It looks like doing something that still seems good and worthy—it’s just not what we were meant to be doing.
And how do we know what that is? In part, by the gifts and talents God gave us, because God entrusts us with gifts based on our abilities, and maximizing the fruit from those gifts is our responsibility.
One could even say it’s our calling.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week, because lately I’ve felt stretched in a dozen directions—and I’ve had to ask myself whether I’m being pulled off course or pulled into more of what I was made to do. While I’ve certainly allowed myself to get distracted before, this time, I think it’s the latter.
Right now, I'm deep in collaborations that span multiple creative disciplines, and while it doesn’t always feel easy, comfortable, or even fun, it does feel right.
Which brings me to a very exciting announcement.
Rise of the Grigori is Coming to Audio
Finding your calling and living out your purpose is a theme in many of my books, but none more so than in my epic mermaid fantasy series Rise of the Grigori!
Which is why I’m thrilled to announce that voice actor and singer (and author) L. J. Long has signed on to narrate the audiobooks for this series.
Her audition literally made my jaw drop. The voices! The accents! the emotional range! I cannot wait for you to hear what she brings to these characters.
The first audiobook, The Undine’s Tear, should be ready by the end of the year, and I’ll be sharing behind-the-scenes peeks as we go.
Lisa and I are also collaborating on music, so I’m cramming YouTube tutorials on production techniques like I’m studying for finals. Watch for some exciting new song projects coming soon.
Like this one (though this wasn’t a collab):
New Mother’s Day Song: “You Made Me (Song for Mom)”
In case you missed it, I published a new demo a couple days ago of a song I wrote for my mom. Hope you enjoy it too!
Needless to say, there’s a lot of learning happening over here. It’s not glamorous, and it’s kind of messy—but it’s also exciting. The kind that stretches your faith, because you’re not sure you can do it until you’re in the middle of doing it.
And while I often feel unprepared for (and even terrified by) the things God calls me to do, I find it greatly encouraging to remember that I’m fulfilling my responsibility to bear fruit using the gifts and talents God has entrusted to me.
Because, in the end, that’s all we need to do.
(And don’t worry, I’m still making progress on Every Rose that Blooms. You know, since winter still hasn’t let go, and we won’t likely see actual roses blooming anytime soon.)
How about you? Is there something “good” in your life that might be pulling you away from what’s right for you? I’d love to hear what living out your calling looks like for you. Feel free to share in the comments!
