Over the past few years, I’ve read a number of good books about our calling or callings, the latest of which is Master of One: Find and Focus on the Work You Were Created to Do by Jordan Raynor. In some ways, the book reminded me of Jeff Goins’ helpful book The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do. In his book, Raynor uses “our one thing” to mean our calling.
Do you know what your “one vocational thing” is? We often hear people say that they are a “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Perhaps you have said it as well. Raynor tells us that we are often good at a lot of different things, but we aren’t excellent, masterful, or exceptional at any one of them. He tells us that this is the wrong approach. He tells us that we were not created for mediocrity, we were created for mastery. He says that to best glorify God and love others through our vocations, we must do our work with excellence. And we can’t do our most excellent work until we discern the work God has created us to do most exceptionally well, and then, once we’ve found it, focus on becoming a master of that craft. We need to discern the one vocational thing God has called us to in this season of life and work at it with all our hearts. Importantly, Raynor tells us that the purpose of focused, masterful work isn’t for our own glory, but rather to glorify God by reflecting his character of excellence to the world. Continue reading →