There is an element that if allowed to be loose in your life or your organization will absolutely kill your calling.

Well, kill may be too strong of a word. But this element will absolutely destroy, distract and delay you from fulfilling and walking in your calling. It will decrease your effectiveness so severely that one day you will look back and say, “How’d I get here?” or “How did this happen?” This element is deceptive, familiar and diabolical. This element that will disrupt, destroy and distract you from your calling is simply pride.

Do not think that even the littlest bit of pride is good.

Can the littlest bit of poison kill you? Can the tiniest germ make you sick?

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

(Romans 12:3)

1. Pride is actually an unguarded and self-guided life.

Pride pushes you to say yes and conditions you to want to hear yes from others. Does a little child need to hear yes every time? Of course not. Why? Children are inherently selfish. They have to learn to share and learn to not get their way. This tells them, you are not the center of the universe. You are an important piece with a valuable purpose, but the world does not revolve around you. So, it is immaturity where we always want to hear yes. Maturity, which is impossible without humility, is where we learn to listen and be told no. Hearing no is good. A calling tells you “no, that is not for you” and “No, stay out of that.” A calling not only guides your life but it guards your life. An unguarded life will soon be a destroyed life.

Pride works to kill your guard and kill your guide.

Pride pushes you away from a “safe life” into dangerous living. Christians today must understand that it is dangerous to live and operate independently of Jesus Christ.  To think “with sober judgment” means to think under self-control. Self-control is a life that is guarded. Humility makes a great guard. It is absolute arrogance to think that you can accomplish, keep or maintain anything apart from the grace and goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t be led by Jesus and led by your pride at the same time. Pride is sin. Pride always leads you to disgrace, downfall and destruction.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

2. Calling guards your life

Humility is a great guard. It is only in humility that we learn to say no. No to ourselves, no to our pride and no to others that would exploit our pride. When you let go your humility, you down your guard. There is only pride or humility. One will be active in your life. Both cannot. You are always either one or the other. Have you ever issued a half-hearted apology? It means half-your heart wasn’t really apologetic. There is no half-humility. It is either total or lacking. A vacuum of humility is always filled instantly and immediately with pride.

Humble people keep their calling

It takes humility to keep you in your your calling. It takes wisdom to walk in your calling. If Jesus has called you, then he will also equip and resource you to excel, thrive and execute that calling. A calling is a serious thing to Jesus. And Christians must take their calling as serious as they take anything in their lives. There are far too many Christians who are living far too comfortably and far too casually in light of their calling. It is pride that causes us to focus on ourselves, our wants and our pursuits. It is pride that pushes us away from our calling. The only way to keep from killing your calling is to stay humble and walk humble.

Pride causes your self to swell up like a balloon. A swollen self is useless in Christ’s kingdom. Humility is like a gentle pin prick that lets the air out of the balloon. Have you ever had your pride checked? It’s often more like a kick than a prick, but a humility check knocks the air out of you. Why? because you are too full of yourself.

Called to Spiritual Success not Worldly Success

Christian, you must never think for one second of one minute of one hour of one day that you are capable of living your life apart from Jesus Christ and experience any modicum of true spiritual success. You must first learn to value spiritual success over worldly success. Pride always pushes you toward the pursuit of worldly success. Spiritual success can only ever be discovered as you stay humble, as you go lower. If you experience worldly success, push it away from your heart. Don’t listen to the praise of the world. Humble yourself and praise Jesus.

Jesus didn’t show you your need for salvation, deliver you and then cut you loose to live however you want. He did all of that and simultaneously has called you to live a holy life, an obedient life, a life in service to others for him and a life that has been given an invitation that gives your life the deepest, most truest meaning you could ever gain. Every Christian has a calling, but not every Christian will live, discover and fulfill their calling. You can know Jesus and miss your calling. Pride is the #1 culprit that will cause you to miss the fulfillment of your calling.

What is a calling?

A calling is an invitation or a summons that once received has to be entered into. You must think about a calling as an irrevocable invitation. A calling is not something that you give yourself, because an invitation is not something you give yourself. In order to be invited, it has to come from another.

A calling is an invitation and every Christian has been given an invitation from Jesus Christ, but not every Christian will open that invitation. When you open your invitation, you are opening your life to your calling. A calling is not always understood perfectly at first, but what is understood is who called you. This means, who sent you the invitation. Pride will keep you from your calling, because pride keeps you from opening your invitation. Or pride keeps you from going back to your invitation once opened.

Let’s say you receive an invitation in the mail. The hand-writing looks familiar. But, you are busy and distracted, so you forget to open it. Some time later you look at the invitation and finally decide to open it. You only pull the invitation out of the envelope a fraction and then decide you don’t really want to read all of it, because if you read it, you then become responsible. This is pride. Why is this pride? Because pride says, “I know best.”  Pride keeps you from being all that you can be, because only as you live out your calling can you ever truly be all that Christ has called you to be.

3. Calling guides your life

Living in your invitation to follow Jesus keeps you from straying off course and staying on course. Every life, every family and every organization has a course. There is a humble track and a proud track. Lives, families and organizations that live on a proud track are headed for a humbling. This is why the mighty fall, they get on the wrong track. A Christian can live successfully on no other track than the one Christ has called them to. Pride pulls you of track. You must look back and see where you got on, where you were called. You must never forget who called you. You must never forget to whom you were called. You are never called by yourself to your self. If you are truly called, then you are called by Christ to others. He gives the assignment. He lays the track. Pride will cause you to get off track. The only way to get back on track is to look back to where Jesus called you and then humble yourself to go back there.

Once on track you can’t give it back. Kill your pride before it kills your calling.

(c) Alex Vann, 2018