Redeeming Work III: Choosing the Right Job

(Disclaimer: the podcast is probably better than this outline by the grace of God)

How do you choose the right job? This is a plaguing question these days since people are extremely mobile and most have a new career every 5 years. This is partially culture, but more so indicative of people trying to find the perfect job. Hardly the dream we all had as kids. We all wanted to be firefighters, astronauts, football player, actor or actress, etc. We want to be good at what we do. We want to do something of significance and some of us want to shoot for the stars.

But reality is a little different, remember this monster.com commercial?



1) Work is a part of your identity
Part of the struggle is that work is a such a large part of our identity. How we describe ourselves and how we evaluate ourselves. In the Bible, everyone had a job. Abraham was a rancher, Noah was a shipbuilder and a farmer, David was a shepherd, a king, and a general, Jesus was a carpenter, Peter was a fishermen, Paul made tents, Luke was a physician, etc, etc, etc. Apart from Aaron and his sons, no one was just a “full time ministry.” The truth is there is no division in scripture between one’s secular job and ministry! We Protestants have fallen into the same error of the medieval Catholic Church’s division between “laity and clergy.”

What should characterize your work? Not lazy, you should have a time of rest and not work seven days a week. It should be characterized by high quality and for the common good. Lastly, it should be guided by God.

2) Knowing the Will of God
The primary passage for us to focus on is Rom 12:1-2. After previous 11 chapters of Romans Paul give an overview of Christian beliefs and from 12 on, he gives the ethical implications, beginning in verse 1.
(NIV) 1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This brings up the question, what are the sources for knowing God's will?
I took this list from a chapter on "Vocational Counseling" in Collins, G. R. (2007). Christian counseling: A comprehensive guide (3rd ed.) Nashville, TN: Nelson.

i. Christian maturity and character (my addition in light of Rom 12:1-2)
ii. Family and Friends
iii. Interests
iv. Aptitudes/Talents – things you have a capacity to become good at
1. Career match tests rely on the assumption that what you are good at you enjoy.
2. God’s redemptive work in my life has made me realize I am good at things I didn’t used to enjoy.

v. Skills – things you have learned to do proficiently
vi. Values
vii. Circumstances, for many of us nothing is holding us back, but not so for many others who simply do not have the opportunities most of us have.
1. Luxury of western life to even think about this
2. some Minorities and the poor do not have opportunities that many in upper classes have. It is a tremendous blessing to even have such opportunities.

viii. Scripture (my addition)
ix. Prayer (my addition)
x. God – this brings up the issue of calling (thus, to the rest of the outline)

3) The Call of God
There are four components to how discerning calling is described (this too, is from Collins, but I have seen it in many other places).
Those four are: 1. Recognition of a Need, 2. Strong desire to meet the need, 3. Ability to fill the need (not your talent, but willingness to use gifts for his purposes), 4. Growing impression of one's life's work.

Os Guiness in his excellent book, The Call gives some helpful ways to understand calling properly.
1 - Corporate and Individual, your individual calling is subordinate to the corporate calling of God's people and his kingdom purposes.
2 - Special and ordinary, supernatural calling of some vs. the ordinary calling of us all. We all have one, but we all don't get a "writing on the wall" moment. For many, it is just a burning conviction within us providentially guided by God.
3 - Central and peripheral, there are some pieces of one's calling that are essential and other that are not. To find work that fits perfectly is a blessing not a right but do its central components fulfill your greatest desires.
4 - Clarity and Mystery, through living a Christian life "be transformed by the renewing of your mind", clarity will come slowly. Yet, as Os says, you shouldn't be able to describe your calling in a single sentence. there should be some mystery and vagueness to it, so you keep pursuing it.

5) Offer Your Whole Lives as Living Sacrifices
Your work as Os says, is to give your whole life of service, to play before an Audience of One. God alone is your audience. Remember the song, "Little Drummer Boy", you play your best all the time for Him, and him alone. God will give you the grace to play your best no matter your circumstances (1 Sam 10:6-7).

Be renewed by the transformation of you mind - this is analogous to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Matt 6:33). Erasmus had a great quote on this, “If we would bring the Turks to Christianity, we must first be Christians.” In seeking his kingdom, to be more like Jesus, in offering our whole lives to God in everything we do, we will know the will of God. We must not become prideful in this. If you have success it is the grace of God not your own talent. Chesterton has a great quote, “For if a man can say, ‘I like to find something greater than myself,’ he may be a fool or a madman, but he has the essential. But if a man says, “I like to find something smaller than myself,’ there is only one adequate answer – ‘You couldn’t.’”

6) Conclusion
God’s will for your life is to serve him with the whole of your life and to live it in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given you a wealth of resources to discover this, but mostly you need to be transformed to think biblically and theologically about the whole of your life! Your pursuit of fulfilling God’s call on your life is to live faithfully and carry out his redemptive plan. What you do is not nearly as important as how you do it. 1 Sam 10:7; Col 3:17

Os Guiness – “The problem with Western Christians is not that they aren’t where they should be but that they aren’t what they should be where they are.” The key to finding the right job is to live the Christian life faithfully.