Does God have a unique vocation for everyone?
Christianity is a working religion. Christ did not call us to retreat from the world. Christ sent us into the world to work for the kingdom. Human beings were created for work. “The lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). Work is good, but human beings forsook their calling to serve God through work and made work into a useful occupation for self-fulfillment. So, God cursed human work with vanity and futility. Christ restored the dignity of human work by giving it a new purpose. He came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many, and God used his work to conquer death. We are called to walk in Christ’s footsteps. Victory over death and the arrival of God’s Kingdom on earth is the new goal of work. Jesus promised to reward us at the resurrection for work done in this life (Matthew 5:12).
A general calling to work leaves unanswered these questions:
• What is my vocation? Does God have a unique work for me to do?
• Does work need an eternal goal to be a vocation, or is temporal work only a means of survival and self-aggrandizement?
• Does working for God use personal inclinations and motivations, or does work for God suppress personal ambition?
• Is work for God limited to church ministry? Can secular occupations be God’s calling?
Paul discussed these questions and others in his first letter to Corinth. We will summarize Paul’s view of vocation and then pose some questions that may help discern your personal vocation. We need to consider God’s calling whenever we consider life’s purpose.
What is a Vocation?
A vocation is a special way each person can show God’s self-sacrificial love to the world. Thomas Merton puts it this way:
All vocations are intended by God to manifest His love in the world. For each special calling gives a man some particular place in the Mystery of Christ, gives him something to do for the salvation of all mankind. The difference between the various vocations lies in the different ways in which each one enables men to discover God’s love, appreciate it, respond to it, and share it with other men. Each vocation has for its aim the propagation of divine life in the world. (“Vocation” from No Man is an Island)
Discussions of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life often focus on spiritual gifts. Often overlooked is the claim that to each is also given “different kinds of service (diakonia)…” (1 Corinthians 12:5). Diakonia is the Greek word from which we get the English word “deacon.” The Greek term means servant, slave, helper, or messenger. “To each…” is given a unique service for the common good (1 Cor. 12:7). Service is a vocation to manifest God’s love in a unique way.
Each person has a unique vocation, but not all vocations manifest God’s love equally. Some vocations manifest God’s love to more people. For example, marriage restricts the number of people served, while a single person can serve more people. Internal motivations and inclinations also constrain the type ofservice. The type of service God gives to each person results in a functional hierarchy of spiritual gifts. “God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues” (1 Cor. 12:28). Nothing in this list implies a difference between vocations within or outside the church. Nor do higher vocations imply more love of God. Higher gifts come with higher requirements because they serve more people. Marriage choices tend to be made between two people without church approval, but officers in the church have special requirements because they serve more people. So long as the love of God is a factor, a vocation cannot be confused with a search for identity or hedonistic pleasure.
External constraints and internal motivations make each vocation unique. I have family members with autistic disorders who are evangelists. Paul’s remarks on marital liferevolutionized the everyday love husbands and wives share. Their calling to please one another is a concrete example of “devotion to the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 7:35). Even a slave is called to be the “Lord’s freed person,” though they have little control over external circumstances (1 Corinthians 7:22). God calls each person to serve him with their constraints and natural inclinations, not despite them. We need to hear God’s calling in our circumstances.
How do you hear God’s calling?
God calls; we listen. If we really believe God is present and wants our love, then we will be willing to take the time to ask questions and wait for his answers. Gordon Smith in Consider Your Calling suggests some questions that will help us discern God’s calling.
• What is the world is God doing? “Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. (Psalm 111.1). What God is doing will succeed. What family and friends expect may not be what God wants. He wants us to express his love in a unique way. If you love God, you will love what He does more than any other person or thing in this life.
• Who are you? “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:14,16).” Mature self-reflection focuses on the good that matters to you most, not immature aspirations to greatness or adventure. The good that matters to you most is what make you happy. Happiness pertains to a person’s vocation when it is part of their character, both spiritual and physical. Here are some character traits specific vocations require:
Beauty
Compassion
Justice
Truth
Wisdom
Prudence
Courage
Faith, Hope and Love
• What age are you? “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Life goes through stages. Twenty-somethings have different life tasks than thirty-somethings. Men and women who postpone age-appropriatelife tasks face immense deficits in the next phase of life. Age-appropriate life choices become more obvious with advanced age (e.g., retirement). They don’t necessarily become easier. Those in earlier life stages need to be reminded about the transience of life and the necessity to make age-appropriatedecisions.
• What are your life circumstances/constraints? “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14).” Name your realities and use them as opportunities to express God’s love in a unique way. Are you a woman? Under what circumstances would you serve in a troubled community? Are you physically or mentally challenged? Where would you best exemplify God’s love? Do you need financial security to fulfill God’s purpose?
• What Cross are you willing to suffer? “In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Assess risk. How do you respond to criticism? To failure? What will you do if God does not give you the career you imagined?
• What do you fear? “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—and he will delight in the fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:1-3). Jesus feared God. The question is what do you fear? We no longer fear condemnation or separation from God. We fear that we will miss out on rewards for service done in his name. Being loved by God, a person dares to choose God's calling, even if it ends up in a different place. We can only follow God’s calling. A prudent choice to serve, not self-promotion, requires perseverance. Perseverance is the fruit of godly fear.
Why do Christians need a Vocation?
Picture this conversation. You are a third-grade teacher in an inner-city school. You go to a cocktail party with friends. You get the typical American question. “What do you do?” The conversation takes a conventional turn. “I teach third graders.” “Where?” “At Cézar Chavez Elementary School.” End of conversation. Chances are that the new friend has categorized you economically and socially in ways you find dismissive and demeaning.
Now imagine a different conversation. You go to the same party;you get the same question. Instead of following the conventional pattern, you take the conversation in an unexpected direction. You talk about vocation. “In am working to improve justice in the inner city by teaching 9-year-olds to read.” Chances are this conversation is not over. A new friend may be drawn into a deeper discussion about the correlation between reading at grade level and adult incarceration.
A vocation is not a career. Careers in managerial culture come with status symbols, promotions, and income perks. Vocations serve eternal goods and shape character irrespective of ego satisfaction and prestige. Eternal goods like justice, life, beauty,or compassion change the world and give glory to God. A lifetime is necessary to achieve eternal goods. It takes a lifetime to acquire character shaped by those goods to pass them on. Francis Su, a Christian Professor of Mathematics, and Christopher Jackson, a convicted felon, exemplify Christian vocation in a beautiful book on Mathematics and Human Flourishing, in which they show how math meets basic human desires—like play, beauty, justice and love—and cultivates human flourishing.
Human flourishing happens because of human intentions. Christians receive vocations because they believe in a God who has intentions. God is not finished with this world. He is working reconcile the lost world to himself, and He has invited us to work with him. Do you believe God has you here on this earth for a special purpose? Can you summarize your unique vocation in one short, summary statement?