I love living in the Great Lakes State, especially this time of year. But Michigan has a bafflingly strange state motto:
Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice.tr
“If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.”
The motto, made official in 1837, is a reference to our being situated between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Yes, Michigan is a peninsula (two, technically). But the motto just always gives me a chuckle.
I try to imagine a situation in which that sentence could have been uttered in real life. Like maybe a weary traveler stumbles into the territory and a native Michigander asks him, “What are you looking for?” The traveler replies, “A pleasant peninsula, good sir.” The native gestures broadly as he replies, “Well… if you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you!”
I don’t know. Makes me smile.
But I bring this up because I wonder if Christians should adopt a similar motto when it comes to the question of calling.
When I was a campus minister, college students would frequently ask about calling—who to marry, what to major in, which career to pursue. It was always some version of “what does God want me to do with my life?”
I would tell them the answer is actually simpler than they were making it. They didn’t need to try to peer into the future or read the tea leaves. Instead, I would tell them:
“If you seek your calling, look about you.”
Of course, I do understand the desire to seek the Lord’s will on big life decisions. And I wasn’t trying to belittle that with my simple reply. But I do think, somewhere along the line, many of us have confused guidance and calling. But if we don’t get calling right, we aren’t going to get guidance right either.
When Martin Luther was seeking to recover the biblical doctrine of vocation, he demonstrated that calling was more of a matter of observation than of prediction. When we want to know what God has called us to do, we don’t need to peer into a crystal ball, but rather look at the responsibilities He has already given us.
Luther was just following the Apostle Paul, “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (1 Corinthians 7:17).
In other words, “If you seek your calling, look about you.”
The truth is, we don’t know what God has for us in the future. And while we should seek divine wisdom and surround ourselves with a multitude of counselors when we need guidance, we should not overlook the fact that we already know what He has called us to right here and now.
It’s easy to get so preoccupied with looking to the future that we neglect faithfulness in our present responsibilities. It’s easy to miss the glory of the mundane. But all of our responsibilities are important as we do them as worship unto the Lord and love to our neighbor.
Are you seeking to be holy as He is holy, reflecting the image of Christ in whatever roles or responsibilities you have right now? Whether you are working a job, studying for school, serving in church, or doing the dishes, your calling is to be maximally faithful to the task He’s given you.
If you seek your calling, look about you. Then pursue it with excellence, for His glory.
