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Why Your Calling Starts With a Problem, Not a Passion
13 Plays15 days ago
Most people are told to “follow your passion” to find purpose in life and work. But what if that’s the wrong starting point? In this episode of Buried Talent, hosts Ken Freire, and Patrick Lowndes unpack why your calling should begin with a problem that breaks God’s heart—not just something you enjoy.
They explore the false belief that passion equals calling, the dangers of a self-centered approach, and the biblical truth that calling flows from God’s purposes, not our preferences. Along the way, they highlight frameworks and resources that help Christians discern their calling by asking the better question: What does the world need—and what has God wired me to help solve?
This episode is part of the four-part Clarity of Calling series. Resources Mentioned
- Clarity of Calling Assessment
- Solving the World’s Greatest Problems
- Praxis Labs Opportunities for Redemptive Imagination
Timestamps
- 00:03 – Welcome to Buried Talent and today’s focus: why calling starts with a problem, not a passion
- 00:35 – Patrick on the danger of starting with passion instead of what breaks God’s heart
- 01:28 – Why hobbies and interests don’t always equal calling
- 02:19 – The false belief: chasing passion = finding calling
- 03:08 – The real goal: glorifying God, not self-fulfillment
- 04:04 – Aligning passion with God’s purposes
- 05:09 – Introducing the Clarity of Calling assessment
- 06:14 – The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals vs. God’s lens
- 06:40 – Faith Driven Entrepreneur’s framework for solving global problems
- 07:59 – The power of praying through global problems
- 08:26 – Praxis Labs and Opportunities for Redemptive Imagination (ORIs)
- 10:22 – Avoiding the trap of feeling obligated to solve all problems
- 11:30 – Intersection of gifts + God’s need = calling
- 12:26 – Example: how Frontier Operators grew from these intersections
- 12:48 – Why “Start with Why” (Simon Sinek) is incomplete for Christians
- 13:57 – Discerning your “what” before your “why”
- 15:06 – Why calling takes time and seasons to develop
- 16:00 – Next steps: take action, explore resources, and pray through problems
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Buried Talent Podcast
00:00:08
Dan Sanchez
Welcome to Buried Talent, the show for young professionals that tears down false beliefs about faith and work so you can unbury your God-given talent right where you are.
00:00:20
Dan Sanchez
I'm Ken Freire and with me, my co-host Patrick Lounds.
Personal Callings: Problems vs. Passions
00:00:23
Dan Sanchez
And today we're talking about why your calling starts with a problem, not a passion. Patrick, why, why are of all things in this four part series? Why are we talking about this, where your calling starts with a problem, not a passion?
00:00:40
Patrick
I think it has to do with people getting super excited about, am
Aligning Passion with God's Concerns
00:00:45
Patrick
I passionate about? They get very introspective. And as ah as a Christian, follower of Jesus, we're actually not called to start with
00:00:54
Patrick
We're actually called to start with what is breaking God's heart in the world? How am I called to serve? It's an orientation that's others focused versus what am I passionate about?
00:01:05
Patrick
And that's why i I get fired up about this because it's also, from an entrepreneurship perspective, it's a bad way to start a company. Like I'm passionate about know this thing.
00:01:15
Patrick
So clearly other people want this too. It's good to work on something you care about, but there's a big difference of like, does the world actually need this?
00:01:18
Dan Sanchez
Yeah.
00:01:24
Patrick
And so that's why i get super fired up about starting with the problem.
00:01:28
Dan Sanchez
Yeah. And just because you like something doesn't mean one, it should be a business. And two, it doesn't mean that it's actually a problem you need to solve. Right? Like there's hobbies out there that we're great at, but there are bigger problems.
00:01:41
Dan Sanchez
And love how you said it. And i want to sure everybody doesn't walk away from that. It's like, what breaks God's heart? And those are the types of problems that that want to solve. And we're not denying passion. Passion is good, right? Like you should be passionate about certain things.
00:01:56
Dan Sanchez
But passion alone cannot guide you, especially when you're trying to figure out how do you fall into God's purposes and his kingdom and what you're called to be doing in his life.
Misconceptions about Passion and Calling
00:02:05
Dan Sanchez
So Patrick, kind of walk us through little bit of like these false beliefs tearing us today that if I chase my passion, I'll find my calling and Why does that even look appealing for most people?
00:02:18
Patrick
Yeah. Yep. I mean, when you follow your passion, like you feel like it's all inspiring. And you see this a lot with people who like, well, I'm getting business degree, but I really like doing this art stuff on the side. and I'm just trying to follow that passion, even though I'm just kind checking the box and my parents want me to go through school or something like that.
00:02:36
Patrick
I think side hustles and passion projects like that, those terms, like it's okay. The thing that I think we miss though as Christians is my goal in life to to just go have fun and feel good.
00:02:49
Patrick
Like it's my goal to feel good. Yeah. Because if we're all about like, what is my, you know, what is my passion about? And we're not really taking the time to say, God, what is the why of like, why am I even here?
00:03:04
Patrick
Last time I checked, it wasn't the chief end of man wasn't so that you can just enjoy yourself and follow your passions. That's not it, right? It was to, it's to glorify And so as you're thinking about that question, I like to start us out on this topic of how do shift away from me-centric question about your career and your calling, what am I passionate about, and shift it instead to what does the world need?
00:03:31
Patrick
And maybe more importantly, what does God say the world needs? How do we start with that question instead?
Societal Encouragement vs. God’s Desires
00:03:38
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, absolutely. And again, also want to make sure we're painting passion in a negative light. That's not always the case. But the most part, the way our culture and our society here in the West paints passion, it's like just follow your own desires, follow whatever you want.
00:03:56
Dan Sanchez
and and that's what we're coming um against it's that it's not about what you want it's about what god wants it's about his story uh now if you are in line with god and you're serving him and loving him your desires or your passion should be in line with what he wants so there are times that it's okay to look at your passions and say hey yeah do they fall in line but if your passions lead you away from god's heart and god's problems in the world or not God's problems, but the problems in the world that God wants you to work through, then I think that's when your passions are in error and that's when they need to be realigned.
00:04:27
Patrick
Yeah.
00:04:31
Patrick
Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:33
Dan Sanchez
So, so Patrick walk us through a little bit of like the, a lot of times we talk about big problems and culture, the internet has given us a varied way to look at problems today.
00:04:35
Patrick
That's right.
00:04:50
Patrick
Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:50
Dan Sanchez
But many of them are not within gospel-centered or kingdom lens.
00:04:55
Patrick
That's right.
00:04:55
Dan Sanchez
So like, how can people actually look at the problems today and be like, whoa, these are things that I should be looking at in solvents?
00:05:01
Patrick
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
Christian Organizations Solving Global Issues
00:05:03
Patrick
We're going to hit on a ah couple of examples. If you've already taken the Clarity of Calling assessment, you probably kind of have a score maybe on this already from that assessment, but it's against a free assessment. And one of the questions, the sections in there is about your why. Why are you here? What you excited and passionate?
00:05:22
Patrick
And so we do talk about passion in there, but you'll notice the questions in there do lean more towards problems that on God's heart and things that God wants to solve. And so if you've already taken that, you've probably seen some of that. If you haven't taken it yet, go ahead and jump and take a look at that. It's the clarity of calling assessment.
00:05:40
Patrick
But Ken, what's really encouraging to me is, you know, there's two three groups that I could i point to here. And we'll start with like, what is the world saying these days?
00:05:50
Patrick
And there's a lot around social ventures. And, you know, ah and unfortunately, like, you know, the United Nations with the Sustainable Development Goals, but call them SDGs, right?
00:06:01
Patrick
And there's a number of different paradigms, but SDGs is one of the more popular ones where there are 17 things that like clean water and and, you know, health and and variety of different kinds of things around economic stability.
00:06:13
Patrick
There's the world's way of talking about it. But what's really powerful is when you look at it from view of a follower of Jesus is how do we think God looks at those same kinds of problems?
00:06:25
Patrick
And i want to call out two groups that have done a really good job. The first one is, you of you know, the Faith Driven Entrepreneur Movement, and they've launched this initiative around solving the world's greatest problems.
00:06:38
Patrick
And when you look problems that they call out there, again, it's at solvingtheworldsgreatestproblems.org. There's a big list of the problems that are there.
00:06:48
Patrick
It's like 35 problems. What you'll see is we're starting with this question of what is hurting the world from a sickness, poverty, violence, vulnerability situation.
00:07:00
Patrick
economic exploitation, isolation, idolatry. And so I love how they do a great job of under those categories, it's about seven bigger categories, breaking down specific problems and challenges.
00:07:13
Patrick
And so if you're listening to this and you're like, wow, I've never heard of that or I haven't really prayed through that, I would challenge you, pray through the list of problems. This is such a powerful exercise. Just pray through them, read them and and say like, God,
00:07:28
Patrick
breaks your heart about that? And you're going to find that you resonate. God has put something in you that you're going to resonate with a handful of these problems that they call out.
00:07:39
Patrick
So, Ken, that's one. The Faith Driven Movement has this solvingtheworldsgreatestproblems.org.
Prayer and Reflection for Purpose
00:07:44
Patrick
That's the first one. We'll link it in the show notes where you're going to make sure it gets linked, right?
00:07:48
Dan Sanchez
now i will.
00:07:49
Patrick
Now we will. Yes. And the other cool thing is that that group is focused really on how do we not only build, but invest and even give. How do we use philanthropy as a way to solve some of those problems? So it's not like 100% like business is way to solve it.
00:08:05
Patrick
The other group is a really great job of this, I think, is Praxis. Frontier operators, we're a Praxis lab ourselves as part of one of our programs, and so we've been through the training. a a Praxis, it's P-R-A-X-I-S dot co, Praxis dot co, they have something called ORIs, or Opportunities for Redemptive Imagination.
00:08:30
Patrick
And as you think about that, they ask this question, like, what will the creative action of Christians be? Like, like if you fast forward 100 years, what are they going to say about the Christians who live in 2025?
00:08:43
Patrick
Right. What did we do that was creative, that was solving some of these big questions? And so I love how Praxis breaks it down and thinks about, like, who are we? Where do we live?
00:08:53
Patrick
How do we work? What are the problems related to the things of our day and what we're going through, where we're headed in the future? Praxis does a really nice job buttoning these ones up. Also like 30 different things listed on the ORIs.
00:09:06
Patrick
And like, for I'll just give you an example, because maybe it feels a little bit pie in the sky. But for frontier operators, we really closely associate with a Praxis framework, these two issues around entrepreneurship and capital for upward mobility, and then also developing new models, labor models and good jobs, they would say.
00:09:29
Patrick
And so it's a lot focused around developing entrepreneurial ecosystems, focusing on parts of the world where they're overlooked a lot. It's very similar to the kinds of things that we're doing at Frontier Operators.
00:09:41
Patrick
But yeah, Ken, those are two of my favorite lists. And man, if people listening would just like pray through those and just listen for like, what are the big challenges that God has called me to to a part of and to solve?
00:09:56
Patrick
I think that's a great place to start.
Gifts, Needs, and Balance
00:09:58
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, absolutely. And, and one of the things that I have found, and this might just be me. So you let me know, Patrick, if I'm kind of crazy.
00:10:08
Dan Sanchez
I remember looking at lists like this and feeling obligated that I was supposed to do all of them. And at same time, there were times where I was really passionate about a lot of different things, right?
00:10:15
Patrick
Thank you.
00:10:20
Dan Sanchez
I was like, Oh, I really want to solve that problem, that problem. Like I see the need and I want to solve them all. And I love how you just said it like, man, we just got to go to prayer. And I figure out what are the few things that I'm destined, or maybe you might just be one and that's totally okay.
00:10:34
Dan Sanchez
Right. Which is one thing that you're going to devote your, this season and hear me clearly. I just said season. I didn't say your whole life, right? This season to that, because seasons change and you might shift priorities and to different needs.
00:10:50
Dan Sanchez
Or your whole season may be your whole life, and that's okay too. You got to allow some flexibility, I think, to see what things really tug at your heart and saying, this is the need I'm going to fulfill for God.
00:11:03
Dan Sanchez
I think a great breakdown or a great way to look at it is this, is that your calling isn't about just finding what makes you feel good. It's about aligning your gifts with the real need in this world.
00:11:16
Dan Sanchez
So, so your why should intersect two things. One, what energizes you and two, the problem God's wired you to solve.
00:11:26
Patrick
Yeah, it's good.
00:11:26
Dan Sanchez
And, and if those two intersect, man, you're in a great place. I remember.
Discovering Purpose Over Time
00:11:32
Dan Sanchez
to just give an example. I remember there was a time when I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm just going to work with young people and just help them.
00:11:40
Dan Sanchez
And over the years, it slowly started to shift where I was like, man, really love working with young people. But then I was like, I have this desire for entrepreneurship and business and young people with entrepreneurship and, and also business leaders. And like, I didn't know how to like bring all of it together. And lo and behold,
00:11:58
Dan Sanchez
Frontier Operators was started and you were like, hey, do you want to come help work with this? And I'm like, wow, there's an intersection in this season of where I want to do stuff. So i was was like, man, Lord, you're a sovereign and you listen.
00:12:07
Patrick
right.
00:12:10
Dan Sanchez
And I'm like, okay, I'm in this season now working with you.
00:12:11
Patrick
Yeah. That's good.
00:12:13
Dan Sanchez
But for everyone who's listening to this, that's how you got to figure out was what are those whys? What's the bigger need that you want to solve?
00:12:20
Patrick
I got to hit one more just cultural thing that's out there. Simon Sinek, start with why. Got to hit on this. let me hit on that and then you can wrap it up and close this out.
00:12:29
Dan Sanchez
Yep.
00:12:29
Patrick
But the start with why, like Simon Sinek's famous, you know, TED talk a long time ago, that concept is super popular. And it's very popular when you, again, you have a ton of clarity around what your message is and and why you're going to do something, how you're going to do something.
00:12:48
Patrick
And so the why starts with why. I'm going to do like Apple, like think different. That's my why. Think different. and And when I think different, by creating beautifully designed things. And oh, by the way, we happen to have bunch of computers and things you can buy.
00:13:03
Patrick
That's how he lays it out. And I think it's good for us to get to that point. But a lot of people, when you're in your early 20s, mid 20s, there are people even in their 30s and 40s where they're like, I'm just not sure why I'm here and like why I'm slogging away at this job or that job.
00:13:22
Patrick
I'll challenge you that many times you have to do the what. You have to put in the time doing some different jobs and discern your why over time. It's not something you're just going to pop in the microwave and boom, out it comes and hey, here it is.
00:13:36
Patrick
Some people get that download and that's awesome if that's you. But I'm encouraging you to think about your what first and then your why as in conjunction with that and so it's kind of like two sides of the same coin and so as you're discerning through that that will help you get to the next two parts of the assessment on the where and then also on the how which is what if we're honest we're all kind of anxious to get to the how right ken so just wanted hit on
00:14:03
Dan Sanchez
Yeah, exactly. exactly.
Trusting God’s Timing
00:14:04
Dan Sanchez
no for sure. Because everybody's like, okay, well, where am I supposed to do this? And how am I supposed to do this? I want to be there today. And that's where the encouragement is like, man, sometimes it it does take a little bit of time. And allow yourself that time.
00:14:09
Patrick
yeah
00:14:14
Patrick
Yep.
00:14:16
Dan Sanchez
And again, I'm using myself as an example. I don't i know if everybody's going to act this way or feel this way. I remember feeling like I need to be in such a rush because if I don't get there fast enough, I feel like God was mad at me a little bit.
00:14:30
Dan Sanchez
Like I'm not doing the will of God, I'm not fulfilling his purposes. And then I realized, no, this, this is part of the journey. Like right now where I'm at, God wanted me here.
00:14:42
Dan Sanchez
And he's designing me and he's setting me up so that my character is growing. I'm developing these skill sets. I'm cultivating this why that we're talking about, and I'm learning more about it. So For those of you who are listening to this and may feel that way, the way I felt, man, just be encouraged.
00:14:59
Dan Sanchez
The Lord is going to take this two sides of the same coin, like Patrick said, your what and your why, and he's going to mold both of those as you're taking action.
Actionable Steps Towards Your Calling
00:15:08
Patrick
Yeah.
00:15:08
Dan Sanchez
So today, as you're listening to this, baby steps of action is one, make sure you're doing something, right? You're doing a job or like that. But the next baby step, go check out Praxis. Go check out Faith Driven Entrepreneurs, solving the world's greatest problems, right?
00:15:23
Dan Sanchez
Go check them out and genuinely see like, is there anything there that's tugging at your heart and saying, man, God, this breaks your heart and I want to do something about it. Many times the problems you see are there because God is actually calling you to be a part of solving it.
00:15:42
Dan Sanchez
Not someone else, not your next door neighbor, not your pastor, not your employees, not your employer, no, you. So make sure You go do what God's called you to do. And the best way to start doing that is just taking the next right step.
00:15:57
Patrick
Awesome. Cool. We'll wrap it there. thanks Sweet.