The Call – Os Guinness

Os Guinness, The Call (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2018), 247 pp.

Twenty years ago, Os Guinness penned The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life. Since the release of his timely book, the matter of vocation has been at the center of many lectures and discussions.

Thomas Nelson recently repackaged The Call which is revised, expanded, and included a new preface. Guinness sets forth the thesis early in the book:

“This book is for all who long to find and fulfill the purpose of their lives. It argues that this purpose can be found only when we discover the specific purpose for which we were created and to which we are called … Nothing short of God’s call can ground and fulfill the truest human desire for purpose.”

The author develops the theme of calling with great skill and dexterity. He explores calling from a variety of angles and is quick to remind readers that calling is ultimately grounded in God’s purposes for his people. “Calling,” writes Guinness, “is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service.”

Guinness dismantles false views of calling and replaces these views with solid and substantial reality: “We are not primarily called to do something or go somewhere; we are called to Someone. We are not called first to special work but to God. The key to answering the call is to be devoted to no one and to nothing above God himself.”

Calling is an immensely helpful book. The principles that Guinness shares are timeless. These transcendent realities helped shape cultures and continue to shape the way people live their lives. “Answering the call is the way to find and fulfill the central purpose of your life,” writes Guinness. Anything less is tantamount to idolatry.

I commend Calling without reservation and trust that many will be strengthened by this work that is destined to become a classic.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.