how to kick butt at your calling from God

real practical advice on abundant fruitfulness

Let me tell you a real story of an area of life that I’m kicking butt in and how it serves my calling.

I cook every meal in my house. Every. single. one.

And my family LOVES my food.

People sometimes wonder, “Phil how do you manage to work, write, workout, and THEN still cook every meal in your house?”

The answer is easy: Because cooking is easy for me.

Now, this isn’t a boast. I’m serious. Cooking is easy for me not because I’m naturally good at it (although I might be!). Cooking is easy for me because over the years I invested in the skill of cooking.

I started learning how to cook in college (that was a very long time ago!). And over the years, I’ve devoured cookbooks, learned videos, tried recipes, learned from mistakes, and asked other chefs how they did things.

All that has culminated in the 30 minutes I take to cook dinner every night. But there’s much more to that. As a seasoned designer would say, “It didn’t take me 1 hour to draw this. It took me 10 years”.

This ability has allowed me to flourish as a father, make emotional connections with children through food, and facilitate a warm environment for dining. This has been critical in my calling as a father from God.

Here’s the lesson:

If you want to kick butt in your calling from God, invest in your SKILLS.

The more skills you have, the easier fruitfulness becomes. Whether it’s preaching, real estate investment, counseling, writing, parenting, teaching–whatever your calling is from God, invest in the skills that enable those functions.

Joseph didn’t manage the famine in Egypt by accident. He had the SKILLS that enabled him to fulfill God’s call on his life.

I see talent and opportunity as akin to the money in the parable of the money. If you remember, God gave 10, 5, and 1 denari to people. And he expected a return. The parable is about money. But I also really believe it is about talent and opportunity. In other words, if God gives you talent and opportunity in your calling, grow those things.

I see so many Christians talk big ambitions but don’t put the work into learning the skills to carry out those ambitions. And when the opportunity comes, they don’t kick butt at it.

Listen to this. I guarantee that:

• Joseph knew about accounting, math, and agriculture when he planned out famine prevention for Egypt

• Daniel knew all sorts of knowledge to impress the Babylonian king

• Paul knew how to argue, debate, and write before being an apostle to the churches

The common thread in all of those? They all had the SKILL to carry out their calling.

Invest in your skills, and when you are living your calling, you’ll be kicking butt.

Do you actively invest in your skills?

You were made for greatness,
Phil