This week's "thought" comes as one selection from a series of Advent Devotional Thoughts sent out by an organization called CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach) which seeks to place people for Gospel outreach purposes on college campuses. One of the things it focuses on in its discipleship of students is to help them see that their career (in whatever field it may be in) can be their "calling from the Lord" just as much as some full-time work in the local church or missions. One does not have to go into the ministry, or some exclusively "Christian" service, to be "serving the Lord full time." This is nothing new, as Martin Luther stressed it 500 years ago as one of the many insights of the Reformation. Yet it does continue to get overlooked (even to this day) in some Christian circles. The author is Gene S. Twilley who serves as CCO Campus Ministry Staff at Delaware County Community College in Media, PA. Enjoy.
Attitude Adjustment
Eight
months after finishing my undergraduate studies, I started working as an auto
liability claims adjuster for a very large insurance company. There were ample
benefits with the job—from day one, I was vested in a matched 401k; I had a
pension, nearly a month of vacation per year, and great health benefits.
I loved the people I worked with. An older African American woman called me her
newly adopted son. We worked in collaborative cubicles—four to a large cube—and
laughed a lot. But I hated the work. In a claims environment, every
call is a complaint. The workload is heavy. I was threatened with physical
violence over the phone, bullied with potential lawsuits, and accused of all
sorts of character flaws. There were and are far worse places to be
employed. But in the moment of any sort of seemingly bad circumstance, we don’t
usually think about what could be worse. We long for something better.
Then
my wife and I attended a wedding for one of her coworkers, and I was making
small talk with a woman I didn’t know, and who I probably wouldn’t recognize if
I saw her today. In the midst of conveying to her what I did, before I
had the opportunity to complain about my job, she exclaimed, “How exciting! You
have the opportunity to help put people’s lives back together every day.
Sobering.
Clarifying.
Convicting.
Clarifying.
Convicting.
I
was willing to approach my work as a Christian who had hope in Jesus, but
not as a Christian who had hope that my work actually mattered. I don’t
know where this woman was in terms of faith, but she pointed out something that
I was completely missing. Isaiah 61 is a messianic prophetic
utterance. Jesus took up this section, read it in a synagogue in Nazareth, and
explained, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke
4:21).
He
was anointed to preach good news to the poor.
He was sent to proclaim liberty to captives.
He was sent to give sight to the blind.
He came to release the oppressed.
He was sent to proclaim liberty to captives.
He was sent to give sight to the blind.
He came to release the oppressed.
In
all of that, Jesus was announcing the “year of the Lord’s favor.” In the
broader context of Isaiah 61, we see other really good things too! There is
comfort for those who mourn. Those who sit in shame and in repentance are made
beautiful. They are planted deeply into God’s grace, that they might praise
rather than mourn. The people of God are called by the Servant of God to be
re-creators of things that are broken… All that hope, that expectation, that
rebuilding of the things that have been broken—it’s in Isaiah 61. It all
finds its beginning, current, and end in Jesus.
And
this is the kind of hope that can lift me out of myself and all my meandering
thoughts about greener pastures. I start to ask different questions.
After all, aren’t we called to care about the situations that God has placed us
in, the broken places already in our midst? How can we make the most of our
God-given opportunities today? How might we redeem the time that he’s given
into our possession?
As
a claims adjuster, I was occupied with my work—getting through the day, looking
for the next best thing. It was a job, not a calling. Or was it?
What if every opportunity to serve others is a calling from the Lord? Tim
Keller explains, “our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a
mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of
work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes
a person.” Calling is found at the sweet spot where my vertical and
horizontal relationships meet—where I love the Lord and where I love my
neighbor. Too often, maybe we’re disappointed with where we are because we
simply don’t see the potential of the work ahead of us. But what if some of us
are so concerned with our own emptiness that we don’t see the joy set before
us? Isaiah 61 tells a bigger story, and in this story, work becomes
service, pain becomes joy, and despair becomes hope.
Come, Lord Jesus.
Give us eyes to see."
One of the blessings of understanding the biblical concept
of "the priesthood of all believers" is to grasp
that all believers are called to minister Gods grace in all is various forms to
others, but not all are called to do it in the same way or in the setting of
being on staff at a church, parachurch organization or a mission. People can
live out their divine calling while being an engineer, nurse, teacher, athlete,
lawyer, accountant, construction worker, farmer, technician, programmer, and so
forth and so on! Their "prayer room" is their office.
Their "congregation" consists of their co-workers. Their
"pulpit" is their position. And their "testimony" is their
honesty, approachability, and integrity -- all done for the glory of
God -- which paves the way for opportunities to share the Gospel over
a cup of coffee in the break room, or as they frame a house together with
others. God forbid that the only place "ministry" happens is
through the pastor in the church! That's NOT how God ever
intended it!
As
Gene Twilley reminds us, any job, profession or occupation can become exciting
when we see it as a way to be "re-creators of things that are
broken." A simple "job" can become a calling
from the Lord when we come to see it as "an opportunity to
serve others." Or as Tim Keller reminds us: “our work can be a
calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond
merely our own interests. Thinking of work mainly as a means of
self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person.”
So,
as Christmas approaches give yourself a present. Re-envision your job as
a ministry. God has placed you there. Opportunities for service and
outreach abound. In many places of employment, you will rub shoulders
every day with people who have never heard the Gospel. Redeem the
time. Work well and with integrity. And as the opportunity
arises, "be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you
with meekness and fear" ( I Peter 3:15). God may
have strategically placed you where you are for the very purpose of
reaching out to that one person who would never darken
the doors of a church, but may come to Christ because you -- outside
the doors of the church -- cared enough to reach out to them in love.
In
The Service of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff
