Karen Swallow Prior, You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful (affiliate link). Grand Rapids: Brazos press, 2025. 146 pages.
Karen Swallow Prior’s new book is on people’s calling, a topic that has played a key role in my work for years. As a pastor, I walked alongside people who were trying to identify their divine purpose. As a seminary president, I counseled many people who sensed God calling them into ministry. This topic is important and invites diverse views.
Prior opens her book by claiming, “You have a calling. In fact, you have more than one calling. Indeed, you will have various callings over the course of your lifetime” (1). Sometimes we think we have one calling, which is to our job or vocation. But Prior suggests that God will give us several callings throughout our lifetime.
Prior pushes back on several misconceptions surrounding the concept of calling. She challenges the statement, “Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life” (4). Like many cliches, it contains an element of truth. I enjoy what I do, so it often doesn’t feel like work. But Prior suggests that God may call us to do things we don’t enjoy.
Prior claims it’s dangerous to spend your life following your passion (23). She argues that “. . . idealism and unrealistic expectations not only lead us to disappointment and disillusionment but also can rob us of joy to be found in the ordinary” (24). She makes a great point that we might not be excited about our work at first, but we can develop a passion for it over time (37). Yet I also believe we should audit our passions to gain a sense of how God has wired us.
Prior argues that the mantra, “You can do anything” is also dangerous (25). She points out that there are many things we can’t do, regardless of how much we wish we could. She notes, “I just think dreams are more readily achieved by having realistic ones” (27). She states that the concept of “passion” is typically understood to connote love or desire, but she suggests it can also mean “suffering” (29). Following our passion often involves understanding God’s calling in the context of suffering.
I was delighted that Prior cited a story about me from my father’s book Experiencing God (31). She writes, “The fact is that being paid to do what you love has, for most of human history, been the exception, not the rule” (40). This statement is certainly true, and I think Prior provides a helpful caution. There are many fine Christians who don’t necessarily enjoy their job, but it is where God has presently assigned them. We don’t have to love our work in order to do it faithfully. Prior suggests, “As with a taste for coffee, passions are more likely to be developed over time and with experience than to be pre-existing” (44).
Prior writes that there is a difference between our job and our vocation. It would have been helpful if she had provided a set of definitions to clarify that distinction. She argues that “Oddly enough, in a time when we’ve diminished the concept of vocation, we also tend to define ourselves by our work” (66). She notes that our job is not necessarily our calling (67). She also points out that “Any kind of work can be a calling for one person but just a job for another” (68).
Some people want to be called into full-time Christian ministry because they believe it would make them more “spiritual.” Others selfishly wish God would call them to be a famous music star or a professional athlete. Prior notes that “Sometimes we just aren’t called to the things we wish we were called to” (69).
In this book, Prior focuses on truth, goodness, and beauty. She states, “I believe that if you pursue truth, goodness, and beauty in all your work, all your play, all your ways, and all your days, you will find your calling. In fact, I think pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty is your calling. It’s my calling. It’s everyone’s calling” (82).
Prior argues that “Something cannot be beautiful without also being good and true” (83). She suggests that “Goodness is truth made manifest” (104). I have to ponder that idea, as I had not considered that something had to be all three in order to be any one of the three.
Prior affirms Garry Friessen’s teaching in his book Decision Making and the Will of God (affiliate link)(109). Friessen argues that God doesn’t have a specific will for people. Rather, he expects us to use wisdom to discern our best path forward. I have debated with Friessen in the past, because I don’t believe his view is entirely biblical (check out the book How Then Should We Choose? [affiliate link]). I understand Prior’s and Friessen’s concern that determining God’s will can be difficult and that some matters need not be as complicated as people make them. I also affirm that God gave us a brain, and he doesn’t intend for us to agonize over each small detail of our life. But I disagree with Prior’s statement that “The good news is that God has no such perfect plan for your life!” (109). She quotes Gene Edward Veith, who posits that “We don’t have to know what the ‘perfect’ decision is because there isn’t one. Truth is wider and deeper and more abundant than perfection. Truth has latitude for you as you feel your way toward calling—being wise as you can, seeking counsel where you can, and being humble enough to adjust as needed along the way” (110). I believe it’s incorrect to state that God doesn’t know or care what’s best for us. The Bible indicates that the Holy Spirit will guide us in making important decisions. Certainly, God knows which potential spouse or job would be best. But it’s also true that God is constantly adjusting to our decisions, both good and bad, and he can take us on the best possible path from where we currently are. I believe it disregards too much of the testimony of Scripture to think that God simply wants us to do what makes the most sense to us. The Bible (and history) provides ample evidence to contradict such an approach.
Prior presents some interesting thoughts on beauty. She asks, “But what is beauty? Can it really be defined?” (123). This discussion is interesting. Can an evil person create objects of beauty? Adolph Hitler was a painter. Prior is claiming, I think, that true beauty must contain truth and goodness to be beautiful. Prior asserts that “Beauty, in order to be beautiful, must be bound and framed, put together like an essay, like a flower garden, like shoelaces, like thoughtful words” (131). In other words, there is an order to beauty. There is much food for thought there.
Prior concludes with a challenge: “Whatever your calling is, you have been fitted for it. Your true calling looks beautiful on you” (135).
This is a short read that contains some great thoughts. I don’t necessarily agree with her views on God’s will. Nevertheless, I understand her concerns, and I think much of her counsel is helpful. Her thoughts on truth, goodness, and beauty being intricately connected is thought provoking. In a day in which truth has been marginalized, mocked, and marketed, people need help understanding their life’s purpose. I recommend this book!
Rating: 3/5
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