On Work and Vocation

On By Mike Niebauer
Rethinking our expectations for meaningful work. Originally published at The Common Vision
There was a period of life in which my father slept every other day.  He took an overnight job running coal truck deliveries for the local mine.  I have never asked my father if he was created for operating a coal truck, or if he felt like it was a good use of his God-given gifts.  I doubt that he contemplates such a notion, and would most likely ridicule me for asking.  My father operated the truck because he had no money, and wanted to have and raise children, and provide those children with food, clothing, and shelter.The relationship between gifts and duty is so often missing from millennials’ internal monologue of vocational discernment. What the Lord may be calling us to may not equal what we think we are good at, or what makes us happy.  It may be instead what the Lord desires for his glory and the benefit of mankind.  Here, our gifts may be wrapped up in our duty to God and others.

In fact, duty seems to have disappeared from the discernment process altogether, both for those looking for a career and those who wish to serve in a church.  We have the enormous fortune in our society to have a large degree of freedom in choosing a career, and many spend the majority of their 20s and 30s attempting to match career with god-given ability.  This is all well and good, but what can easily be lost is a sense of obligation.  Self-fulfillment is one component of work—we also work to glorify God, interact with God’s creation, provide food, clothing, and shelter for ourselves and our family, earn resources to give to those in need, strengthen our mental and physical capacities, and much more besides.  The purpose of work is complex, and there are times where devotion to God requires the subordination of our perceived personal fulfillment for the sake of our obligations to our Lord.  Our duty to God requires us to sacrifice ourselves, perhaps even sacrifice our personal vocational goals, for the sake of following God and serving others.  This is a calling worth celebrating.

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