God at Work - Chapter 1: Part IV

Continuing the discussion on vocation, I think that once we acknowledge that our work is a sacred calling, there is a profound danger of saying that our vocation is our profession. This is just as much a pitfall as the more common tendency to ignore vocation altogether or confine it to church ministry alone.

Veith points out that, "According to the Reformers, each Christian has multiple vocations. We have callings in our work. We have callings in our families. We have callings as citizens in the larger society. And we have callings in the Church." (p. 22).

So we are pulled in many directions, and face many difficult choices as we think through questions like:

• What does it mean to be a Christian parent? Christian artist? Christian software developer? Christian construction worker?
• How can I serve God in my work? What if I have a dead-end job?
• How do I know what God is calling me to, what my vocation is supposed to be?
• What if I want to be married but can't find the right person? And as a friend reminded me last week, what if I am a Christian and have found a wonderful person but they are not a Christian?
• What about our involvement in politics? in the Church?

In this book Veith wisely avoids giving pat answers to these trying questions, but rather is attempting to "provide a spiritual framework for thinking about such issues, and for acting upon them, perhaps, in a different way" (p. 23). Having read the book several times now, I think he largely succeeds in his goal.

Vocation is not a matter of what we should do, but rather what God does in and through our vocations.

A key distinctive point that Veith draws out from Luther's approach "is that instead of seeing vocation as a matter of what we should do - what we must do as a Christian worker or a Christian citizen or a Christian parent - Luther emphasizes what God does in and through our vocations...[thus] vocation is a matter of Gospel, a manifestation of God's action, not our own." (Ibid.)

Libera me, Domine! Free me, Lord, from treating the callings on my life as burdens to bear instead of loving gifts from you. These callings become, as Veith puts it, realms of grace in which we can experience love and grace, "both in the blessings we receive from others and in the way God is working through us despite our failures" (p. 24). 

To find Him in vocation brings Him, literally, down to earth, makes us see how close he really is to us, and transfigures everyday life.

Vocation is not another duty to perform, not another checkmark against my name and not another task on my to-do list. And it is especially not just another thing for me to fail at.

More than this, the mundane activities that make up most of our lives. The routines of dishes, going to work, cleaning the house, shoveling the driveway, paying the bills - these are all hiding places for God.

Ok, that's it for chapter one. Next time, we look at Veith's thoughts in chapter two on God's providence, human instrumentality and common grace. Or, in basic terms, how God works through people.

Technorati tags: Vocation, Christian, Calling