Page 10 | Volume 2 | The Leadership Journal of Dallas Baptist University

10 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY of their calling, followed by external summons and destiny. Duffy et al. reported a similar focus on perfect fit to understand calling's origin when describing a study done with college students.40 At the core of a modern Christian understanding of calling lies the theology of vocation, which views work as the perfect expression of Christian identity in everyday life. God ordained work as a good endeavor. Work became synonymous with toil after the fall of Adam and Eve.41 Immediately upon expulsion from the Garden of Eden, man sought to regain meaning in his work. Man's attempt to redeem work leads to a desire to find a vocation that gives life purpose and makes a difference in the world.42 God originates the call in the Christian understanding of calling, and others may serve to validate the call.43 Guinness described his personal calling as God's way for him and likened calling to a "beacon ahead of him" and a "fire within him."44 Buechner poignantly described calling as God's direction to "the place where your deep gladness…and the world's hunger meet."45 Dalton similarly defined calling as having "a deep inner conviction that one has a personal destiny that guides life."46 Others echo the depth of a call and its pull toward a God-given purpose of serving God and others.47 Blackaby and Blackaby and Guinness asserted calling comes in two forms: a primary/corporate call and a secondary/personal call.48 The primary call involves the invitation to the Christian faith. God calls an individual to himself in the primary/corporate call, and out of the primary call flows the secondary/personal call.49 The personal call to a vocation stems from the Calvinist understanding of calling. In personal calling, humankind finds individual purpose and lives life in service to God and neighbor through a specific vocation or life role "that works toward an orchestrated master plan."50 Guinness explained, "our secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live and act entirely for him."51 Smith characterized three calls in the life of a Christian: the general, specific, and immediate.52 Like Blackaby and Blackaby and Guinness, Smith described a general call pertaining to salvation.53 Smith's specific

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