The Challenge To Make A Difference
When have you stopped to give thanks for your career? Your career places you in an elite group that states what you choose to do for earning a livelihood. You expect your career to pay your bills, provide for family responsibilities and provide a certain standard of living. You probably also expect your career to provide certain less-tangible rewards as titles and social standing.
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Do you have a calling? Consistent with the way most people hear this term, a calling involves a clear sense of being commissioned by God for a task. It is your pursuit of the sovereignty of God concerning who you are and what you are doing with your life. It is the sense that God’s hand is on you and he has genuine pleasure in what you are doing. The real secret to fulfillment in one’s life is to have career and calling merged together. I believe God has given you an opportunity to make a difference in the world. I am convinced God wants you to change the world and see your job, business or profession as an extension of the kingdom of heaven.
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The sense that one’s career is also a holy calling should not startle us. If slaves-become-Christians were counseled to “render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord” (Ephesians 6:7-8), then surely you are supposed to be the best employee or employer the Acme Widget Company has ever seen. If not, why not. Above paycheck or promotion, do something that contributes to the good of your world. Let your routine tasks reflect the character and excellence heaven is building into your life. Understand that your work is inseparable from your spiritual life and reflects its authenticity. When your faith cleanses and consecrates your workplace to God, you have found a calling larger than your career.
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Paul refers in Ephesians 4:1, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye, walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” First, he states that he is in the Nero’s prison, but he is not Nero’s prisoner. He is a prisoner of the Lord. He further states, because of this, he is expected to walk worthy of his vocation. Wheat is his vocation? It is using who you are and what you do to help transform lives to the Glory of God. Your job is where you work to provide payment for bills and be able to participate in your vocation. Solomon put it this way: “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their work. This, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25). How will you change the world today? God is ready to be your partner. Praise God For: His joy Thank God For: those who encourage others Ask God’s Forgiveness For: missed chances to bless Ask God To Help: Hurricane Katrina Survivors Ask God To Supply Our Need For: boldness to witness for him
Dr. David L. Lane, minister to the Marsalis Avenue Church of Christ writes this article.
