Nick Kross
Have you ever wondered who you are? Have you ever been confused trying to work out what course to take at a particular junction in life? Which friends to invest time in? What to look for in a life partner? There are so many choices each step of the way. Some are of little consequence, like which T-shirt to wear. Others can alter your life direction and destiny. How do we prioritize our choices?
I remember feeling a sense of just drifting when I was younger, floating from one Saturday night to the next, from one relationship to another. While there was a sense of freedom at that stage of my life, I could tell I wasn’t aiming at anything. I was like water running down a stream, bouncing from one rock to the next.
All this changed one weekend when I was 19. My parents caught me doing something wrong, and this caused a major blow-up. My dad yelled at me for 30 minutes and told me, among other things, to move out of the house. He said that I was no longer his son and that I’d shamed the whole family. Then he stormed up to his bedroom and slammed the door.
The incident rocked me as nothing before. I loved my dad. He was my hero! To make it worse, I worked for him as a carpenter, so he was my boss! The following morning, I decided I had to see if he meant what he’d said the night before. As I walked toward the bedroom, he saw me coming and turned away. I entered the room and sat on the bed, waiting for my instructions. The silence was deafening as we both avoided eye contact. It was the longest five minutes I’d ever experienced. Finally, he turned and looked me in the eye and said, “Nick, you made a big mistake.” He continued, “When I was young, I made some big mistakes myself. But just like Jesus forgave Peter after he denied him, I’ll forgive you, and I’ll never mention it again. Go, and get ready for work.” Then he gave me a huge carpenter’s hug.
That morning, I found out what Jesus was all about. My dad’s love and forgiveness broke my heart, and in that teachable moment, Jesus started to redirect my life. I experienced the grace of a forgiving Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for me and was calling me to live for Him. From that morning onward, I vowed that my life would make a positive difference. I had no idea what that would look like, but I realized I needed to take Jesus more seriously.
My sense of calling emerged from a burden to help other young adults get their lives together. I knew the Bible had the answers to life’s big questions, and I had an insatiable desire to master the Word of God. Biblical literacy became my passion. I discovered that the core message of Scripture is that people are valuable and that they’re broken and need healing. God used this difficult life experience to motivate me to tell everyone that Jesus died to save them and that they would find their purpose when they found Him. I wanted to share my conviction that the most important thing in life is to find one’s sense of calling.
THE SENSE OF CALLING
My sense of calling led me to apply to Avondale College, Australia, as it was known in 1982. I can still remember waking up the day I was to leave, and asking myself, Why am I leaving home? I was the oldest of five children and was working with my father and his brothers. I was set to take over the family business, and here I was leaving everything I knew to start a theology degree about which I knew nothing. At that point, I asked God to give me a verse as a confirmation that I was making the right decision. I opened the Bible my mother gave me at the age of 12. One underlined verse stared at me:
“‘I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them’” (Isaiah 42:16, NIV).*
I thanked God for the confirmation that I was making the right choice in following my burden to enter ministry. This promise has become a foundational text for me. Every time I begin to feel I’ve lost my way or that things are not working out as they should, I remember that I can’t see the road ahead but God can. Now, 43 years later, having completed three degrees and 35 years in pastoral ministry, I can see how Jesus has led me into a life of influence, primarily through working with young people from the age of 6 through to the 30s.
IN JESUS - THE CORRECT USER MANUAL
It’s amazing how finding Christ can make an incredible difference in how we see life. Many voices are claiming to offer the solution to life’s issues and dilemmas. Social media is crammed full of selfproclaimed authorities on every topic imaginable. Discovering Christ gave me a filter through which to run my ideas, to help navigate my direction and prioritize my time and energy. When you find Christ, as one preacher said: “You become truly you.” When you find Christ, you suddenly receive the correct user manual, as it were.
This reminds me of the apostle Paul, who at one time was known as Saul. He thought he understood his identity, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless” (Philippians 3:5, 6). Little did he realize that meeting Jesus would radically alter his sense of calling and reframe his identity and life journey from being a persecutor to a public evangelist. Unbeknownst to him, Saul was precisely who Christ was looking for as a candidate to take the gospel into the Gentile world. Saul was raised as a Roman citizen as well as being Jewish in a pagan country. He was articulate, confident, and determined. He possessed almost everything Jesus needed in a person to push back the powers of darkness and open the minds of the pagan world to the reality of a risen Savior who died to save them on equal footing with the Jewish nation. When he committed himself to Christ, his eminent qualifications were reconfigured, and Saul became truly himself—the inimitable Paul.
As I reflect on how I’ve been led over the past 43 years I feel awed by what God has done, taking me from building houses to building lives. I’ve learned over the term of my ministry that I can trust Jesus with my life. How about you? Are you truly you? Only by following His call in your life will you be able to answer that question. Don’t wait too long; we need workers in His harvest field who are all they can be.
* Scripture references in this article are quoted from the New International Version of the Bible. Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- On a scale from 1 – 10, how aware are you of God’s calling in your life?
- If you’re unsure, what will you do to help gain more clarity?
Nick Kross (DMin, Fuller Theological Seminary, California, U.S.A.; MA, La Sierra University, California, U.S.A.) is Director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty, Associate Director of the Ministry and Strategy Team; and the Youth Liaison for the South Pacific Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Wahroonga, Sydney, Australia. E-mail:
Recommended Citation
Nick Kross, "Becoming Truly You," Dialogue 36:1 (2024): 15-17
