Vocation - Introduction: Why is Vocation Even Worth Talking About?

As a Christian, I have struggled a great deal with understanding what it is that God expects of me vocationally, and sometimes feel guilt and confusion for returning to a "secular" vocation instead of following through on my original plan to work full-time as a missionary. This is a long story, but the short of it is that I have been doing software development (and loving it by the way) for a number of years now, despite originally coming to the USA to train for missions work within the Christian church.

Every step of the way I have seen God's providential "hand" in how things have worked out, but sometimes I have felt uncertainty about whether I should stay in my chosen career, or move into a more “spiritual” and “significant” vocation. However, I love my job and find it hard to see how I could feel close to fulfilled doing anything else. 

Note that I have put quotes around some of the words above; I do this because these words need further nuance.

The reality is that the sacred/secular distinction is false since, as the Scriptures affirm, "The earth is the Lord's and all it contains." This is not only a comprehensive ownership, but also indicates an active teleology - the world has a purpose and a destiny. Also, while many would see church-work, or some kind of religious service (full-time or part-time, paid or voluntary) as more significant and spiritual than other seemingly more mundane pursuits (such as raising kids, doing the dishes, paying one's taxes, going to work, helping shovel snow off one's neighbor's sidewalk etc).

I feel that I lack a comprehensive framework of understanding for what it means to think "Christianly" about my profession so that I can move beyond a mere superficial approach to develop a deeper understanding of God's call on my life and how that can be expressed through my vocation as purposeful and sacred work. I also have difficulty in seeing how my marriage, parenting, studying, church involvement, mentoring, profession etc all fit together as significant aspects of my overall calling.

I decided that my need could best be stated as something like this:

Lack of a working theology of vocation sufficiently holistic to function as an integrative mechanism for the various facets of my life in community with God and others, particularly as it applies to my profession.

Long-winded, I know, but the bottom line is that I would like to move towards a clearer and more holistic understanding of how my professional life “fits” into being a Christian, and vice versa.  With that in mind, I decided to embark on my Denver Seminary training and mentoring program this semester with a view to developing such a working theology that I may be able to draw together the various vocational streams of my life and make some sense of how I ended up where I am.

We are required to commit to two major knowledge learning strategies in order to help us achieve our goal. So I chose the following two books to work through with my mentor:

• God at Work by Gene Edward Veith
• Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation ed. by William C. Placher

Each book is excellent in its own way. God at Work is partly a 150 page distillation of Gustaf Wingren's Luther on Vocation. Veith has produced a marvellously accessible introduction to Luther's thoughts on vocation that will enrich anyone who takes the time to take it up and read. Callings is an anthology of Christian writings on vocation, and it would be difficult to find anything that comes close to the depth and breadth of coverage that this book provides. 

I would like start by reviewing God at Work, highlighting some of the insights that I found most helpful. I will tackle this in my next posting.