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- Apr 25, 2006
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29 February 2008
Word on the Web
John 17 v 13-19
"I am coming to you now. But I pray these things while I am still in the world so that these followers can have all of my joy in them. I have given them your teaching. And the world has hated them, because they don't belong to the world, just as I don't belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world but to keep them safe from the Evil One. They don't belong to the world, just as I don't belong to the world. Make them ready for your service through your truth; your teaching is truth. I have sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. For their sake, I am making myself ready to serve so that they can be ready for their service of the truth.
How do you choose your career? Of course, work is not everything, and a work/life balance is important, but we expend a lot of our waking time and physical/mental energy at work, so it makes sense to choose well. To some it's obvious: maximise your income, get comfortable, then retire and enjoy life. To the Christian, I suggest, it's about vocation. In the early Church this word was used to identify God's call on a person to the religious life: to be a priest, monk or nun. Martin Luther broadened its meaning to any job in which a Christian could serve his/her neighbour with a clean conscience before God. Jesus here gives us two key concepts. One is that of being sent (Latin: "missio - I send"). Christians are "on a mission". This means that our working lives have a God-given purpose. We are meant to be and do something. God sends us out to be it, to do it. But maybe you have suffered at the hands of a "purpose-driven" person who was on a mission. I have! Such a person only has half the Christian idea of work. The second is that of service. A Christian's work is to benefit others, not use them to meet your targets. God sends us out to serve. Does that help you chose a career?
Dear God, thank you for the dignity of work. Help me to find my vocation: the work you want to send me out to do. In whatever it is, help me to work in the service of others, to the glory of your name. In the name of Christ, who was sent to earth to be the servant of all, Amen.
Written by Richard Martin
Word on the Web
John 17 v 13-19
"I am coming to you now. But I pray these things while I am still in the world so that these followers can have all of my joy in them. I have given them your teaching. And the world has hated them, because they don't belong to the world, just as I don't belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world but to keep them safe from the Evil One. They don't belong to the world, just as I don't belong to the world. Make them ready for your service through your truth; your teaching is truth. I have sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world. For their sake, I am making myself ready to serve so that they can be ready for their service of the truth.
How do you choose your career? Of course, work is not everything, and a work/life balance is important, but we expend a lot of our waking time and physical/mental energy at work, so it makes sense to choose well. To some it's obvious: maximise your income, get comfortable, then retire and enjoy life. To the Christian, I suggest, it's about vocation. In the early Church this word was used to identify God's call on a person to the religious life: to be a priest, monk or nun. Martin Luther broadened its meaning to any job in which a Christian could serve his/her neighbour with a clean conscience before God. Jesus here gives us two key concepts. One is that of being sent (Latin: "missio - I send"). Christians are "on a mission". This means that our working lives have a God-given purpose. We are meant to be and do something. God sends us out to be it, to do it. But maybe you have suffered at the hands of a "purpose-driven" person who was on a mission. I have! Such a person only has half the Christian idea of work. The second is that of service. A Christian's work is to benefit others, not use them to meet your targets. God sends us out to serve. Does that help you chose a career?
Dear God, thank you for the dignity of work. Help me to find my vocation: the work you want to send me out to do. In whatever it is, help me to work in the service of others, to the glory of your name. In the name of Christ, who was sent to earth to be the servant of all, Amen.
Written by Richard Martin
