Living Above the Noise: When God Calls You Out of Your Old Life and Into an Uncommon Life
- Douglas Vandergraph
- 14 hours ago
- 6 min read
There comes a turning point in every believer’s life when something deep inside begins to shift. It does not begin with fireworks. It does not arrive with an announcement. It starts quietly, almost imperceptibly, deep beneath the layers of your daily routines. You wake up one day and realize that the life you have been living no longer feels aligned with the person you are becoming. The conversations feel too small. The habits feel too shallow. The cycles feel too old. The identity you’ve worn for years suddenly feels foreign on your spirit. You feel a pull, a stirring, a tension that makes your comfort zone feel too tight for someone God is expanding.
That is the first sign that God is calling you into an uncommon life.
Most people ignore the shift. They suppress it. They drown it in noise. They blame it on stress, exhaustion, or restlessness. They convince themselves they’re imagining it. They try to silence the discomfort by clinging to the familiar. But the stirring you feel is not anxiety. It is not confusion. It is not instability. It is divine awakening. God is pulling you into the next chapter long before you can see the page turning.
When God begins calling you higher, He first disrupts what is comfortable. Not because He wants you to suffer, but because He wants you to grow. The familiar often becomes the greatest enemy of your future. Comfortable patterns become invisible chains. Familiar environments become silent prisons. And God loves you too much to let you stay bound by what feels safe.
The earliest signs of transition are always internal. Your appetite changes. Your desires change. Your priorities shift. Your spirit no longer tolerates what your flesh once enjoyed. You feel misaligned with your surroundings, even though nothing external has changed yet. That is because God transforms His people inwardly before He shifts them outwardly. He lifts your identity before He lifts your position.
You may not be able to articulate the change, but you feel it. You may not know where you’re going next, but you know you cannot stay where you are. You may not see the door God is opening, but you feel Him closing the ones that once defined you. Spiritual awakening always begins with spiritual discomfort.
And this is where many believers retreat. They run back to what feels normal. They go back to the voices that once guided them. They return to the old habits that once soothed them. They choose common living instead of uncommon identity. They choose imitation over transformation. They choose comfort over calling.
But you, if you are reading this, are not one of those people. Something in you already knows that God is shifting your direction. You feel the pull, the tension, the restlessness. You feel the old version of yourself fading. You feel the new version rising. You feel heaven moving in your spirit.
And that is why this season feels heavy. You are changing faster inside than life is changing outside. You are outgrowing environments God has not yet released you from. You are rising into new identity while still walking in old surroundings. You are developing discipline while still being confronted with distractions. It feels contradictory, but it is divine timing. God develops character before He shifts position. If He elevated you without preparing you, you would collapse under the weight of a calling you were not ready to hold.
This is why separation is always part of the process. Every person God elevated was first pulled away from what shaped them. Noah was separated from his generation long before he built the ark. Abraham was separated from his homeland before he became the father of nations. Joseph was separated from his family so God could shape him in places he never would have chosen. Moses was separated for forty years before he ever confronted Pharaoh. David was separated from the crowd on the battlefield because destiny required a different level of courage. Esther was separated through preparation. Daniel was separated through conviction. Peter was separated from the boat. Paul was separated from everything he once understood.
Separation is not rejection. It is refinement.
God removes what cannot travel with you into the next season. He exposes habits that limit you. He reveals attachments that drain you. He highlights relationships that cannot support your calling. He uncovers the places where you have been spiritually asleep. He forces you to confront the cycles that have kept you small. And He does it not to break you, but to free you.
Most people never reach the fullness of their calling because they cannot endure the discomfort of separation. They want purpose without pruning. Calling without cost. Growth without change. Breakthrough without discipline. Elevation without release. But the uncommon life you are being drawn into demands something deeper.
It demands that you stop following followers and start following God.It demands that you stop making decisions based on comfort and start making decisions based on conviction.It demands that you stop letting your environment define your identity.It demands that you stop shrinking to fit into rooms God never meant you to stay in.It demands that you stop excusing patterns that your spirit can no longer tolerate.It demands that you rise.
Most of the people around you may never understand this. They will say you are acting differently. They will say you have changed. They will wonder why you no longer show up in the same places. They will question your distance. They will question your discipline. They may even question your motives.
But what they cannot see is what God is doing inside you. They cannot hear the conversations between you and heaven. They cannot feel the stretching of your spirit. They cannot see the identity God is shaping. They cannot grasp the magnitude of the calling being formed in the quiet places of your heart. They cannot understand the weight of the uncommon life you are stepping into.
And you cannot wait for them to understand. Obedience demands movement before understanding. Not everyone is meant to walk with you into your next chapter. Not everyone is meant to witness your transformation. Not everyone is meant to handle the version of you God is building. And that is okay.
The people who misunderstand your separation today will witness your elevation tomorrow.
Living an uncommon life means you must be willing to make uncommon choices. Choices that others mock before they admire. Choices that others criticize before they comprehend. Choices that others resist before they recognize God’s hand on your life.
You must choose discipline over distraction. Purpose over popularity. Growth over comfort. Faith over fear. Obedience over opinion. Conviction over convenience. Identity over imitation. Truth over trend. Calling over crowd.
And the more you grow, the more you will realize that the uncommon life is not glamorous. It is not shiny. It is not always applauded. It is not always understood.
It is rugged. It is lonely. It is stretching. It is demanding. It is deeply personal. It is spiritually intense.
But it is worth every sacrifice. Because on the other side of this transformation is the life God actually intended for you. A life of clarity. A life of purpose. A life of identity. A life of spiritual strength. A life where you walk in who you truly are rather than who the world told you to be. A life where you rise.
So if this season feels heavy, overwhelming, confusing, or uncomfortable, let this be your confirmation: nothing is wrong. Everything is right. God is shaping you. God is awakening you. God is elevating you. God is breaking what you built in your own strength so He can rebuild what He designed in His.
Do not retreat. Do not shrink. Do not apologize. Do not negotiate your calling. Do not try to fit back into a version of life God has already delivered you from.
Rise into the identity God is carving into your spirit. Walk into the future He is preparing. Step out of the cycles that once imprisoned you. Become the person He envisioned when He breathed life into you.
This is your moment. This is your shift. This is your calling. This is your uncommon life.
— Douglas Vandergraph
Comments