Our Vocations

“I solemnly urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who will someday judge the living and the dead when He appears to set up His Kingdom: Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:1-2 NLT)

While the powerful message (above) was originally written to Paul’s young protégé Timothy, there is application for each of us who know and love our Savior Jesus. Regardless of our stage in life – young-old, male-female, executive-manual laborer, or retired – if we know and love Jesus we’re still in the “business” of helping people meet Jesus.

Tim Keller wrote: “Our vocations are one avenue for doing God’s work in the world.” I can’t pretend to know all he meant by that, but how it speaks to me is this: there’s never a time in our lives that God is not engineering circumstances to put us in contact with someone He wants us to point to Him.

If you look back over your life you’ll be amazed at the number of, what you thought to be, random occurrences when you met someone who made a lasting impact on your life. I think of several people I met while I worked in various jobs, while also pastoring a small church. In casual conversation we learn things about one another that cause things to “click” between us, and we end up being lifelong friends.

Would it be a surprise to you to know that God engineered the circumstances in your life to meet that “stranger” before the foundation of the earth was formed? Why would He do that? Because He loves you and He knew that there would be a contribution you each would make to one another’s life that would be beneficial in pointing each of you to Him.

Why is that important? Because we typically think of “witnessing” as some type of Gospel “presentation,” when in reality, we witness with our life in EVERY conversation, even if the name of Jesus is never mentioned. How so? Through our work ethic, our language, our attitude, our demeanor, our kindness, friendliness, openness, our willingness to work cooperatively with others, and on and on it goes.

At heart our true “vocation” is to be a child of God, the Lord just puts us in jobs to earn a living and give us a platform to honor, bless, and share Him with others. “Yeh,” you may be thinking, “but I don’t even like the people with whom I’m working, and they don’t like me.” Does that prevent you from doing and being any of the things I mentioned above? Do you not realize that we don’t have to like someone to be kind to them and to genuinely love them?

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:18: “Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.” If we’re patient and conscientious to do our very best at whatever work we do, it will open doors of opportunity to meet and get to know the people with whom we work.

“Witnessing” for Christ entails a whole lot more than speaking words about Jesus. Ideally, those opportunities will present themselves, but if someone doesn’t “believe” in you, they’re likely not going to put much stock in your words about Jesus.

Being retired now I try to take advantage of every opportunity to be kind and engage people who come to my house to do service work. I know they’re on the clock and want to get finished with what they’re doing, but I can offer them a bottle of water or allow them to use my bathroom or give them an invitation card to come to my church. It’s no accident they’re there, so, if the Lord sent them, He may well want to draw them closer to Himself through our thoughtfulness, kindness, and invitation to church.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊