Welcome to All Called

We want to provide you with a companion on your journey to discover meaning and purpose in life. This is the ordinary way people like us come to understand our callings throughout our lives. Sometimes we discover our calling through experiences of joy and celebration, other times through difficulty, challenge, or loss. For many, by discovering their calling they come upon a much deeper meaning and purpose for their lives. They discover a loving, merciful, and gracious God who wants to accompany them on their life’s journey.

We invite you to explore calling through your experience of loss in three movements. Begin with the Enter & Experience videos and questions that introduce the possibility of finding a calling during your life transition. Move deeper through the Engage & Explore videos, reflections, and discernment questions that provide inspiration and guidance for discovering your calling. Be sure to take time for reflection with the song, Scripture verse, and prayer. Conclude by considering your next steps in Embrace and Encounter. We’ve listed a variety of next steps, including connecting to a faith community that can support you in discovering and living your calling today. ​

Find Meaning and Purpose in Your Experience of Loss

Loss is an inevitable part of life. Loss comes in many different forms—loss of a loved one, the loss of health, relationship break-up, end of a job, leaving home, loss of financial security, the letting go of a long-held dream—to name a few. Dealing with a significant loss can be one of the most difficult times in a person’s life – and an opportunity to discover an inner strength we didn’t know we had.

Watch the story of one person’s experience of loss and what she discovered.

Find a New Calling in the Midst of Loss

Our losses come at particular times in our lives—when we’re in good health or ill, when things are going smoothly or are otherwise difficult, when we have good friends around us or no one to turn to. All of these circumstances contribute to the way we make our way through our losses. Losses never come in a vacuum, but always in the context of the rest of our lives.

​Each one of us has an individual style of coping with losses. Some of us take personal time alone, talk to family or friends, seek counseling, join a support, read books, listen to music, exercise, engage in social activities, and seek spiritual support.

As you work through the experience of loss (and mourning and grief), might this be a time to discover God calling you?  Watch two stories of discovering calling through loss.

Discover Your Calling through Loss

Out of the despair of loss—of loved ones, jobs, roles, homes, physical abilities—many people keep on living, finding purpose and meaning. They also turn to God. God does not make everything better or return our life to what it had been before our loss. But God never hides, abandons, or forgets us and our loss. God is always and everywhere present, seeking out those who have experienced loss and who suffer and bear great pain.

God offers us care and compassion for our health and wellbeing. God is like a friend, walking alongside and listening. God is a confidant, holding us during our difficult times. God is present as a comfort and guide. ​Sometimes it comforts us to see how God may be calling us through the difficulties with face.

We may have thought that God calls people only once, for just one purpose. In reality, it is safe to say that God calls us many times throughout the situations and seasons of our lives, and each call challenges us to stretch further than we might have anticipated or imagined.

How might you discover your calling during this time of loss? ​

Watch the video, Discerning God’s Call, by Jennifer Haworth and then use the reflection questions below to help you discern God’s call. ​

Discerning Your Call​

Consider these three insights as you begin discerning how God is calling you through your experience of loss.

1. Pay attention to your daily experience and what it stirs within you. 

In the stuff of everyday experience – your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your routines – God is at work, inviting you  to notice what brings you joy, what you’re good at, and what others need you to do. Pay attention to where God is active in your life.

2. Reflect on what you notice, sorting and sifting in order to understand what is leading you to an abundant life and what is not. 

Understanding develops through reflection, taking the time to see the patterns in your experience, and grasp their significance. While you can begin to notice and interpret God’s action in your life, if you want to hear deeply, see clearly, and choose wisely, trusted companions on the journey are essential.

3. Take loving action on what you have learned. 

Discernment does not end with becoming aware of how your experiences are drawing you closer to or further away from God. You must eventually decide what you want to do with this knowledge. How will you act on what you’ve learned?

We grow into our distinctive callings if we are willing to become aware of God’s movement in our lives, to reflect on this movement prayerfully alone and with others, and to take loving action on what we have learned.

Take Time for Reflection in Song, Scripture, and Prayer

In Song: Nothing to Fear – Porter’s Gate

In Scripture

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
   for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;
   save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord,
   for to you do I cry all day long.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
   for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
   abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
   listen to my cry of supplication.
In the day of my trouble I call on you,
   for you will answer me. (Psalm 86:1-7 NRSV)​

In Prayer

God of grief,
be our light in darkness,
our comfort in sorrow,
our strength in doubt,
our support in suffering,
our peace in fear,
our love in loneliness,
our hope in despair,
our healing in pain.

Be for us
all that this world cannot be:
lasting joy,
unfailing love,
abiding hope,
enduring peace.

Help us to trust
in the hope of your name
and the promise of your word.
Amen.

In Daily Reflection

We are hoping that you will continue your journey – growing deeper in your sense of calling and finding ways to live your calling in everyday life. We want to offer our encouragement and support – and a few ideas to help. ​

#1. Engage in daily reflection and prayer.

Start using the Daily Reflection to conclude your day (at the end of Engage & Explore section). Try one or more of the following apps to incorporate prayer into your daily life.

3-Minute Retreats invite you to take a short prayer break right and spend some quiet time reflecting on a Scripture passage.

• • • iOS
    • Android

Pray As You Go is a daily prayer session, designed to go with you wherever you go, to help you pray whenever you find time, and lasting between ten and thirteen minutes with music, scripture and some questions for reflection.

• • • iOS
    • Android

Daily Prayer is an experiential app designed to develop long lasting spiritual rhythms of prayer and scripture reading. Join in prayer and read scripture in the morning, in the midday, in the evening, and/or in the late evening.

• • • iOS
    • Android

Abide is a Christian meditation app to stress less and sleep better. Find deep rest as you listen to stories based off the Bible. Wake up with the daily meditations that will fuel your mind for the day ahead.

• • • iOS
    • Android

Soulspace meditation app has been created to help anchor your thoughts to the love of God and the way of Jesus. Soulspace seeks to rid the soul of fear and stress while filling it with truth and life. This creates the opportunity for true and lasting wholeness.

• • • iOS
    • Android

#2. Have a conversation with a “calling companion.”

Find a significant trusted relationship – family member, friend, colleague – who can be your “calling companion.” Find time for a cup of coffee together or video chat. Share your story of discovering your calling through loss. Share your highs and lows, good days and difficult ones, in discovering and living your calling. Turn to your calling companion regularly for support and encouragement.

#3. Find a support group of people who have experienced a loss like you have.

There are groups in your community focused on supporting you during loss. First, check out support groups sponsored by local religious congregations, community organizations, schools, hospice organizations, etc. Second, check out the following national groups that address the loss of loved one: 

• • • The Compassionate Friends – Support after the death of a child
    • AARP Grief and Loss Resources – Support after the death of a senior
    • National Widower’s Organization – Support for men grieving a loss
    • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention – Support for suicide survivors
    • Griefnet.org – Support for adults grieving a loss
    • Hellogrief.org – Support for adults and kids grieving a loss

You can also find (and build) local support groups by using the MeetUp website and app to meet new people, learn new things, find support, and pursue your passions with others.

#4. Grow through reading about calling.

We have selected several books to deepen your understanding of calling and vocation. Each book offers practical ideas for living your calling now and into the future. Go to our Resource page for the description of each book.

• • • Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life – by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
    • Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation – by Parker Palmer
    • ​The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work – by Steven Garber
    • Sustaining the Spirit: Callings, Commitments, & Vocational Challenges – by Catherine Cronin Carotta and Michael Carotta
    • Consider Your Calling: Six Questions for Discerning Your Vocation – by Gordon T. Smith
    • Your Vocational Credo: Practical Steps to Discover Your Unique Purpose – by Deborah Koehn Loyd
    • Live Your Calling: A Practical Guide to Finding and Fulfilling Your Mission in Life – by Kevin Brennfleck and Kay Marie Brennfleck

#5. Find support and encouragement in a local faith community.

We want to encourage you to consider connecting to a local faith community that can support you in discovering and living your calling today. Congregations are great places to find a course, attend a presentation, participate in a small group study or a support group, engage in service to the community and world, and, of course, worship with a community of people.

To make it easier to find a faith community in your area we have developed a list of churches with a link to their website so you can learn more about their ministries, and another link to what they are doing to support people in discovering and living their callings.

You find a welcome home in a faith community that wants to support you and help you live your calling at this time in life.

Go to All Called Connect >