Calling Is Formed in Surrender, Not Certainty

This past weekend, Pastor Aaron Brockett at Traders Point Christian Church taught from Mark 1, inviting us to sit with one of the most unsettling moments in the Gospels:
Jesus calling ordinary fishermen to drop their nets and follow Him—immediately, without explanation.

What struck me wasn’t the drama of the moment, but the pattern it reveals about calling.

Jesus doesn’t begin with assignment.
He begins with surrender.

That emphasis aligns deeply with what Lisa and I have learned—and what I tried to articulate in From Success to Surrender:
calling is not discovered by clarity, but formed through obedience.

Calling Begins with Lordship, Not Vocation

One of the most grounding aspects of Aaron’s message was his insistence that calling is not primarily about occupation or even ministry—it is about lordship.

Jesus did not invite the disciples into a role.
He invited them into relationship.

In the book, I describe this as the moment where striving gives way to surrender—where identity is no longer rooted in productivity, success, or security, but in belonging.

Before the disciples became “fishers of men,” they had to release the thing that had defined them.
The nets weren’t just tools.
They were identity, income, and control.

The Myth of the Fully Revealed Path

Aaron rightly dismantled the assumption that God owes us a detailed plan before obedience is required.

That myth is one many of us—especially leaders—carry quietly:
If I just had more clarity, then I’d move.

But Scripture—and lived experience—suggest the opposite:
clarity often follows obedience, not the other way around.

In From Success to Surrender, I reflect on how God rarely provides “five-year plans.” Instead, He provides daily bread.

Manna, by design, could not be stored.
It required trust—every single day.

Calling works the same way.

Vocation Is Lived, Not Announced

One of the tensions Aaron named is the confusion between calling and platform.
We are often tempted to believe that calling must look significant, visible, or decisive.

But the book tells a quieter story.

Much of my own formation happened in seasons where:

• the assignment was unclear,

• the results were invisible,

• and obedience felt painfully ordinary.

Those seasons were not pauses in calling.
They were the means by which calling was being shaped.

As Aaron noted, you don’t discover vocation by standing still.
You discover it by walking faithfully within what God has already placed in front of you.

Dropping Nets Is Often Internal Before It’s External

A final thread that deeply resonated was Aaron’s question:
What nets are you still holding onto?

In the book, surrender is rarely framed as a dramatic exit.
More often, it is an internal release:

• releasing the need to know what’s next,

• releasing the illusion of control,

• releasing the belief that usefulness equals worth.

The disciples dropped literal nets.
Most of us are asked to drop subtler ones.

And yet the invitation is the same.

A Shared Invitation

Aaron’s sermon and From Success to Surrender are speaking to the same underlying truth from different angles:

Calling is not about elevation.
It is about alignment.

It is not about certainty.
It is about trust.

And it is not reserved for pastors or missionaries.
It is formed wherever a person is willing to say, “Jesus, You are Lord—today.”

If you find yourself in a season where the future feels undefined, perhaps that is not a failure of calling.
Perhaps it is the very environment where surrender is doing its deepest work.

The nets will make sense later.
The invitation is always now.