Following Calls

When I was still in high school, Sir Kiking (our religious education teacher) beautifully explained to us life’s three equally important calls: [1.] the religious life, [2.] the married life, and [3.] the blessed singleness. Of course you can choose only one. I was thinking of choosing the first call but I end up heeding the second.

Later in life, I realized that each day we are faced with a lot of calls and each of them demands our wise decision. Some of them are so simple (such as choosing which clothes to wear, whether to drink Coke or not, etc.) and some are complicated (such as deciding which course to take in college or whether or not you should change your job). Sometimes we find it hard to decide which path we should follow but I think decision making is a necessary a part of the free gift of will and intellect which was given to us back the time we were conceived in our mother’s womb.

Just recently, I have been facing the dilemma of changing my career. It’s not that I no longer care for the environment. It’s because I have been thinking a lot about my family’s welfare. I have been working with an environmental NGO for about nine (9) years now and I so love the job that I hate even the thought of leaving. But the problem is I still got nothing saved in the bank until now. Now that my mother is sick and my wife and I are at the brink of unemployment because of the said organization's critical financial status, something tells me that I should lift that butt and start looking for something else.

What lies before me now is the choice of staying with this NGO until the end or to start a new career as an insurance agent. I’ve attended several meetings and seminars with an insurance company and known of people who became successful in this business in such a short period of time. It’s a very tempting choice but the problem is I don’t have much connections and definitely not a single experience in selling, except maybe the time when I tended my grandmother’s sari-sari (variety) store when I was still a kid. But they say that in time I will be able to build a good number of referrals and knowledge and skills in selling will be earned from the numerous free seminars that the company is offering. I have been considering this job a lot but I still have doubts and fears.

I’ve heard a sermon by Chuck Swindoll of Insight for Living just recently which talks about our very limited vision of things. He says that in due time (or especially when we are finally home with our Heavenly Father) we will see ALL things being unfolded before us. By then we will understand the purpose of each and every event of our life. But now that our vision is still limited, we can be assured that God’s loving hand is constantly guiding us even in the darkest or lowest moments of our life. All we have to do is to hold that hand (to trust God completely) and we will arrive at our destination safe and sound.

This idea may not be able to solve my dilemma right now but it gives me the assurance that God is in control – that he is sustaining our every single need. I know that he will always be there taking care of me and my family whatever my decision will be. All I need to do is to “[t]rust in the Lord with all [mine] heart; and lean not unto [mine] own understanding. In all [my] ways [I’ll] acknowledge him, and he shall direct [my] paths.” (Proverbs 3:5, 6)