A Sacred Calling

Have you ever felt like your vocation is “unspiritual”? Maybe you’ve thought that your job only matters for earning money, unlike those who work full-time for the church or as a missionary?

The apostle Paul provides a different perspective. He teaches us that our ordinary everyday lives—including our work—are part of our holy/sacred calling, as he wrote to Timothy:
“….who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (2 Timothy 1:9, NKJV).

Paul writes in Romans 12:1 (The Message):

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”

From the two verses above, Paul explains that what we live out, work on, and embody in our daily lives is a sacred calling and an offering pleasing to God!

So, whatever we do—whether at our workplace or at home—is God’s calling. And if He calls us, He will equip us and complete His purpose in us.

Our workplace (and by workplace, I also mean noble roles such as being a stay-at-home mom, for instance) is where our daily life becomes:

• A place of worship,
• A space to learn and grow,
• A forge where God shapes us,
• And an opportunity to serve others and reflect God’s love.

It’s not always about big things that make headlines in the newspapers, but rather in every action we take, even the smallest ones. Brother Lawrence, in his book The Practice of the Presence of God, teaches that love exists in the little things. Our actions or works aren’t about being grand or spectacular; it’s about the love within them. That’s what God notices. So, don’t grow weary of doing good, even in the smallest of acts, when we wrap them in love.

And why do we do all of this? Is it to feel important? To be functional?

I remember a story about Jemima Ooi, a 36-year-old woman from Singapore who has been a missionary in East Africa, in a dangerous area, for 12 years. When asked, “What keeps you going on the mission field all these years?” this was her answer:

Lovers will always do more than workers. If I’m just there because I want to do good to the world, if I’m just there because I want to find meaning and significance, if I’m just there to be functional – these are the waters that will all run dry. The only water that will not run dry is the fire that comes from my intimacy with God.

Similarly, our vocation is both our calling and our mission field. It is part of our journey and intimacy with God. When we see every step we take in the workplace as a step taken with a God who is near and loves us, that is what gives us strength every day.