The Calling Journey

Book excerpt: Ever wish you had a road map to follow to your God-given destiny? The Calling Journey is just such a map, revealing the common stages and transitions leaders go through on the pathway to their call. As you read what successful leaders from all walks of life experienced on the destiny road, you'll gain an amazing perspective on how God is leveraging everything in your own story to make his dream for you come true. Along the way, you'll learn how to identify key stages in your own journey and build a personal calling timeline. When you discover what God's agenda is for each stage, you can lean into what he is doing in you instead of fighting the process. Developed by a master leadership coach, the timeline model emerged from comparing the life stories of biblical characters to those of contemporary leaders. Through hundreds of coaching encounters, plus extensive interviews with Christian leaders in business, ministry, politics and other spheres, Tony discovered that God takes each of us through predictable stages of upward growth separated by "valleys" of adversity and inner formation. While we tend to view the difficult times in the valleys as failures or detours, Tony shows how they form a vital part of God's strategy for leadership development. Just as Joseph's repeated betrayal and elevation birthed the life message that is his greatest legacy ("You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good"), The Calling Journey shows how the Great Redeemer transforms times of heartache into the seedbed of a world-changing life. The Calling Journey depicts four stages and three valleys on an easy-to-understand graphical timeline. Dozens of personal stories (along with tales of historical and biblical travelers) bring the journey to life. Coupled with an innovative understanding of call as the unique way Jesus is incarnated in us by our story, this in-depth look at the purpose of life reveals how God truly is good all the time.