There are at least three ways we can define our daily work:
Job: a paid position of employment; may be full-time or part-time.
Career: a paid position involving work pursued for a significant portion of one’s lifetime.
Vocation: the pursuit of a particular career with a strong impulse or motivation; a calling.
How do you see your daily occupation? Is it a job to be done, a career to be pursued, or a vocation to be fulfilled? How do you see your Christian life; is it a set of responsibilities you have been assigned, something you are responsible for day by day, or calling to live for the Lord and serve Him?
There is a story set in medieval times that tells of a traveler who comes upon three stonemasons on a worksite. He asks each in turn: “What are you doing?” The first answers, without hesitation, “I’m cutting this stone.” The second, who appears to be doing the identical job points to the wall and says; “I’m building this wall.” The third, also doing the same job, slowly raises his eyes to the sky and says, “I’m building a cathedral.”
In John ch. 1 we read, “There was a man sent from God whose name was John” (v. 6). How John was sent we do not know. Did God appear to him in a dream or vision? Was he sent his commission by an angel? Did he receive a message from the Old Testament scriptures as he read them? Somehow he was given a direct commission to announce the One who was coming.
We don’t know how John received his commission, but we know he did receive it. When he spoke the people listened. He commanded them to be baptized and they were baptized. They confessed their sins and accepted his message of the coming Savior.
John saw his mission as a vocation, a calling from God. He faithfully preached the message he had been given and many responded. He must have been encouraged when one day he saw the Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove. And one day he would have given his blessing to some of his disciples when they left him to follow Jesus.
But the road was not always smooth. At one point John was imprisoned, and as he lay in prison he heard of the rising fame of Jesus. No doubt he heard that Jesus had called him the greatest ever born. Even having experienced these things, there came a day when he doubted and sent some of his disciples to Jesus to ask if he was really the One. John was not perfect, but he could rest on this one thing—he had been sent by God; he had a calling, a vocation.
Delivering his message was not a job or a duty. It wasn’t even a matter of following a career. It was a vocation that drove him through all of these ups and downs. He was called by God. He was sent. The message burned in his heart and fueled his tongue. He was driven by a passion for people to know the One who was coming.
Prayer: Lord, today I ask for two things: First, I ask for a sense of calling in my daily work so that I do absolutely the best I can with Your help. Second, give me a passion like that for sharing the gospel, not as a job, a duty I’m expected to fulfill, but as a passion. Let the gospel burn so brightly in my heart that it must spring out at every opportunity. Let that drive me every day to share the message with anyone who will listen. May I see myself as one sent by You to this place at this time, Lord.
Author: Lindsay Hislop was raised in southern Scotland and southern Ontario and now lives in the southern United States. He worked in the engineering field for 15 years (mostly in Canada) before pursuing an academic career. He has taught for over thirty years at Columbia International University. He also serves as an elder in his church, where he teaches and preaches regularly. He is married to a wonderful wife Pam and has two terrific children, Holly, who lives in Canada, and Doug, who lives in Columbia. His four grandchildren, Isaac, Madeline, Lindsay, and Dolan, are also pretty special. He likes doing carpentry and odd jobs around the house.
