From bullied to blessed: how God turned my gifts into a calling
I believe my calling on earth is to be a generator of light, an influencer. To share God’s Kingdom with people and influence them.
I thought about this recently and I was attacked in my calling (and how God has redeemed this).
The beginning
I was born 7 to 8 weeks premature. So I was a very tiny, tiny, itsy-bitsy baby. I had to wear baby doll clothes because newborn baby clothes were too big. I was born with an underdeveloped trachea and I struggled to feed. And death was spoken over me. But I survived, and I’m here now!
Childhood struggles
Unfortunately, my health problems didn’t end there. I started to get a lot of throat infections, sinus infections, and ear infections. It was a case of infections, infections. I spent most of my primary school life in and out of doctors’ offices.
Another way I was attacked was against the way I’m naturally created. I love the stage! For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m very eccentric, very comedic. I can be a bit over the top and loud and these are all incredible gifts that God has given me to use to go and influence others.
Unfortunately, as Satan does, he took my gifts and warped people’s perception of them and I got bullied. My self-confidence really took a knock. A lack of confidence is detrimental to being an influencer. I mean, how can you influence and instil confidence in others?
So those were two ways I was attacked but God had a plan.
How God has led me to walk in my calling
Recently, I was trying to figure out where God wanted me to go. “God I really want to live out my calling. Here I am, use me.” And so I did one of the church’s sound trainings and I really, really enjoyed it!
“Oh my goodness, God…is sound engineering the thing that you want me to do? ” I never thought I could do sound engineering. I’ve had ear infections. What if my ears are damaged? What if I can’t hear? What if, what if, what if? I stopped and prayed, “God if you want this, please make it happen”. I found a sound engineering school, and went to the open day – I loved it and I’ve been accepted!
I prayed and asked God for money to cover my studies and bam! I was offered a job in sound engineering.
And then – as an added bonus – God put me on someone’s heart and they organised a sponsorship for me for a brand new laptop so that I can do my studies on the go and work at the same time!
So it’s amazing as I took a risk and stood out to pursue my calling and God has redeemed me and been with me every step of the way.
If you don’t know what your calling is, I really want to encourage you to spend some time with God and figure it out. –Justin
