I recently grabbed a coffee with one of our past DTS students.
During his DTS, God began speaking to him about a country he had never been to before, a country that wasn't even one of the outreach possibilities for his DTS. The country was India. God gave him a call to India. So naturally, at the end of his DTS, he went home.
Wait... what?
You see, at the end of his DTS, he felt God telling him to go home instead of going to India. So he went home. He got a job, invested in his local church community, and did what some people might call "the normal thing."
But what made his journey far from normal was that he held on to the call God had given him while trusting God's timing.
I think we often assume that when God calls us somewhere, we're supposed to get there as quickly as possible. God calls you to missions? Go! God gives you a dream? Make it happen! God puts a country on your heart? Start looking at flights!
But following Jesus doesn't work like a five-year plan.
Sometimes God gives you a destination without giving you the timeline. Sometimes the next step isn't going. It's staying. It's getting a job, serving your local church, growing in character, and learning how to follow Jesus in the ordinary.
Going home wasn't my friend's way of abandoning the call to India. Going home was the next step of obedience.
Two years later, he's now planning to go to India. The call didn't disappear. He just had to trust that the God who gave him the call also knew the right time to fulfill it.
I think there are two really easy ways to mishandle something we believe God has spoken to us about.
We forget the call. Life gets busy. The excitement fades. Other opportunities come along. Eventually, we stop thinking about the thing God put on our hearts.
We force the call. We get so excited about what God might do that we start trying to make it happen ourselves.
I tend to do the latter. God says, "Here's the thing I'm going to do," and I hear, "Here's the thing you need to make happen immediately."
But God's timing doesn't always align with our own. Just because God has spoken doesn't mean we need to rush ahead of Him.
There's another question I think is worth asking when it comes to God's calling: Are you where God wants you to be?
My personal opinion is that the best possible answer is, "I think so."
Why? Because if your answer is "no," then you know it's time to start seeking God about what needs to change.
But there's also something dangerous about being completely convinced that your answer is "yes." As soon as we become convinced we're on track, it's easy to stop checking back in with God to make sure we're actually on track.
Self-doubt gets a bad reputation these days. Obviously, I'm not talking about constantly questioning whether God loves you or whether you belong to Him. I'm talking about having enough humility to recognize that I could be wrong.
There's an old saying: "The more I know, the more I realize I don't know."
And another one: "Pride goes before the fall."
The more convinced I am that I'm right, the easier it is to stop listening.
Following Jesus means staying close enough to Him to keep asking, "What's next?" Not because we have no faith, but because our faith is in Him, not in our ability to figure everything out.
This is one reason community matters so much.
If you're trying to figure out what God is calling you to do, don't do it alone. Immerse yourself in a community of people who love Jesus, are seeking God, and are asking the same kinds of questions.
You need people who can celebrate your dreams with you, but you also need people who can ask, "Are you sure God said that?" "Have you prayed about this?" "Could God be asking you to wait?" "Are you following Jesus, or are you trying to make something happen because you're excited about it?"
Sometimes we need other people to help us notice when we've stopped listening.
Two years after his DTS, my friend is preparing to go to India. And I think that's one of the coolest things about his story.
He didn't have to make India happen. He didn't have to figure out the whole journey. He just had to keep saying yes to Jesus.
Sometimes that yes looks like going to another country. Sometimes it looks like going home. Sometimes it looks like getting a job and serving your local church. Sometimes it looks like waiting. And sometimes it looks like taking the next step without knowing what comes after that.
That's what following Jesus is about. Not having the whole map, but trusting the One who does.
This is also why I believe DTS can be such a transformational opportunity for a young person.
DTS (Discipleship Training School) isn't designed to give you a five-month plan for the rest of your life. It's an opportunity to spend five months learning how to hear God, trust Him, obey Him, and follow Him.
You spend those months surrounded by other young people who are hungry for Jesus and asking big questions about their lives: Where is God calling me? What does obedience look like? What does it mean to actually trust Jesus? What do I do with the things God has put on my heart?
My friend started navigating his call to India during DTS. But his DTS didn't immediately take him to India. It taught him how to follow Jesus. And sometimes that's more important than knowing where you're going.
Maybe God has already spoken to you about a people group, a place, or a purpose. Maybe you know exactly where you want to go. Maybe you're already there. Or maybe God is asking you to wait.
That's okay.
You don't have to figure out the entire journey today. You just need to keep saying yes to Jesus.