By Drew Larson

No Job Is a Calling (and 4 Reasons That’s Good News)

Few things in life are as frustrating as a terrible job.

Daily life, at least Monday to Friday, is roughly divided up into thirds: sleep, work, and leisure. For one third of that time—sleep—we are insensible. Which means that, for people in bad jobs, exactly one half of their waking day operates as a negative drag on their quality of life. It’s hard to feel good about life when half of it makes you feel bad about being alive.

This difficulty is compounded by two things. One is that we know that not everyone hates their job. Some people seem to have jobs that fill them with great joy and satisfaction, people who seem to have lucked into the fulfillment of that old adage “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Hmmph.

The other is that there floats in Christian circles this idea of “calling”—a sense that there are certain jobs or fields of work that God has set you apart for, purposed you for, “called” you into. The idea is that, to have a satisfying vocational life, one must first discover his or her unique calling, and then pursue it. Without either that knowledge of calling or the successful pursuit of it, one’s job will always be an impoverishing experience, a drain on spiritual joy and vitality.

Taken together, both of those ideas can be a great discouragement to those struggling in unfulfilling jobs. If a job is supposed to intrinsically satisfy me and I'm not experiencing that, what am I doing wrong? If everyone has a vocation they're called to and I'm not experiencing that, am I living at less than God’s best for me?

Job, Work, and Calling

My perception is that popular Christian rhetoric on vocation has often been shaped by upper- and middle-class cultural values such as “fulfillment,” “satisfaction,” and “passion,” as opposed to biblical reality.  To paraphrase one writer (the name escapes me, but the thought is not original to me), “Would anyone who works on a factory floor feel comfortable at our ‘theology of work’ conferences?”

There is much that is useful elsewhere regarding a theology of work. I encourage you to find it and absorb it. Here, I just want to try to make a distinction that I hope will help you think about this more deeply: a distinction between your “job,” your “work,” and your “calling.”

A job is the name of the thing that you do for money, in order to earn the means to stay alive and provide for yourself and/or your family. It is the thing that the apostle Paul commanded all the believers in Thessalonica to have so that they could eat their own meals and not have to mooch food (1 Thess 4:11-12; 2 Thess 3:10). 

What a job is, what it does, what one does in it, whether one likes it or hates it, whether one makes lots of money or no money at all, is (from our earthly perspective) incidental. Some people will be born wealthy, go to Harvard, and become pediatricians because they have every avenue open to them and love every second of it. Some people will be born in rural China and be subsistence farmers because they have no choice and simply work hard at a difficult job forever. Whose life gets what job is in every way a product of cosmic providence. Your sphere of vocation is mysteriously, providentially God-assigned and God-managed, yes (2 Cor 10:13), but from our perspective, mostly circumstantial.

Work, on the other hand, is something else. A good starting definition might be the outward exertion of cultivating energy on creation. Work is a God-ordained, good part of creation (Gen 2) that was marred by the Fall and subsequent curse and made difficult and sometimes painful (Gen 3). It is the thing of which Paul can say:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Col 3:23-24)

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. (Rom 12:11 NLT)

Furthermore, your “calling” might be best summarized in Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 1:9:

For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.

Note the distinction in the Colossians passage, with my parentheses: “Whatever you do (job), work at it (work) . . .” “Job” is a narrower category of naming (what we call our employment), while “work” is a larger category of activity which both includes our job, but is not limited to only our job. Expressed more poetically: your job is a bucket; work is the water. 

Note also what we are called to in the 2 Timothy verse: not a unique, special, personal vocation which God has tasked you to identify, but the general, everyday life of a normal Christian disciple in your individual circumstances.

Why Is That Better?

I make this distinction in order to bear out this truth as clearly as possible: your calling is something fully independent of, and fully distinct from, your job situation, and that knowledge is a life-giving wellspring of glorious freedom.

You are freed by that truth in these four ways:

  1. You can know, with 100 percent clarity, what God’s will is for your life in your job because Scripture tells you: to work hard because God sees it and is glorified by it, and to be an obedient and faithful disciple while employed (etc.).
  2. You do not have to worry about being outside God’s favor/will for your life because you want to do something else for your job and you currently are not. If you are passionate about X, go do X. If you love Y, try to do Y. If you just hate your job but don’t know what else to do, join the club. The quality of one’s job does not define the conformity of one’s life to God’s will for you.
  3. You are freed from worry that you are wasting your life because you are not doing something that you feel “called” to. God has called you to be a disciple. He has given you a job. He will never un-call you to follow him. He may, or may not, someday give you a different job to do. The distinction is a crucial one.
  4. You do not have to worry about the amount of success you have in making lots of money or achieving an important vocational status. Your calling as a follower of Christ, and identity as a child of God, is utterly independent of any job “success” or failure to achieve vocational “achievement.” 

It may be true that for some of you, a career change is indeed necessary. You are a bad fit in your position. You are not inherently skilled for it. Your passions lie elsewhere. These are all reasonable things, and you are entitled to pursue better work, to pursue something different, to follow your passion if you like. 

But hear this: we are not entitled to success in those new areas simply because we feel more “called” to them. Nor are we entitled to disparage the job God has given us because it seems like less than we should have received.

A job is a job. It is a thing you do while you are alive on earth. If by God’s grace you find yourself in a job that you enjoy, savor it and give praise to God for what it is: a gift to you. 

If you do not enjoy it, that is understandable because many jobs are awful. Give praise for it as a gift also, and enjoy and savor God elsewhere. 

In either case, remember that your calling is not for a specific job but for a specific purpose—God’s mission—and for a specific person—God himself.


 

Image by twentyonehundred productions team member Matt Kirk.

Drew Larson works as a writer on InterVarsity’s Communications Team in Madison, Wisconsin. You can buy his book hereYou can support his ministry with InterVarsity here

Comments

What if my job could be considered immoral and how do I decide whether it is or not? I work in finance and help rich people to avoid paying taxes. It's all lawful but feels wrong. I have two children and need the job as I can't find anything else to fit school hours but I'm conflicted.

Abbie, I just thought I'd throw my 2 cents in here. If what your doing is not illegal and it does not go directly against any biblical teaching, then I'd say what your doing is not at all wrong. I don't know all the details, but pray and consider if any of the below speak truth into your circumstances: - Could the concept of helping rich people stay wealthy bother you merely because mainstream culture disdains capitalism? There is nothing inherently wrong with helping rich people steward their financial life shrewdly, remember that they are employing tons of people like you :) - Could it be that the devil is trying to sneak fears and /or lies into your mind that have no truth or biblical founding? Remember that the devil wants us to live in fear of things other than our loving Father. My opinion, be it pretty ignorant of your exact circumstances, is that you are doing work that can indeed glorify God - provided it honors the laws of the country and does not encourage you to sin. Praying that God puts peace in your heart on any decisions or resolutions you need to make on this matter.

I have worked as a dispatcher for 6 years. I have changed to a smaller department that is a lot slower pace. I feel passionate about helping woman keep themselves and children safe. I feel that is where I need to focus my time. God has spoken to me know I must obey.

Hmmmm... To be quite honest, I can't see the difference between "job" and "work" in your explanation. Defining work as "the outward exertion of cultivating energy on creation" seems, simply put, confusing. Toiling the field with the sweat of his brow was part of the curse that Adam was given. Coincidentally - its also the poor Chinese farmers "job". Yes! God has called us to be a disciple - But without delving a bit deeper into what it means to be a disciple - how can we understand out calling? Being a disciple is not easy. John and James left Zebedee on the boat (immediately). Mathew left his position as a tax collector. The key feature of discipleship rests on leaving something and following Jesus. Following Jesus, takes everything! Your job, your family, your time, your money, everything. So sometimes you have to leave your job to find your calling. None of the disciples were part-time fishermen and part-time apostles. They left their job as fishermen or tax collector, and set out into the world for their "CALLING" - which is proclaim the good news of Christ. The dissatisfaction comes in when we fail to find the calling IN our job. We cannot separate our job from our calling. Its not something we just "do while we are alive" and it is not something independent of our calling. No no way. So then, according to that logic, I sleep for 8 hours, I am at a 'job' for 8 hours and lets say after pretty much everything I am left with 4 hours for leisure. So when and where do i allocate my time for my calling?? The calling for every child of God is to preach/share/live the gospel for the sake of his kingdom and glory. We have to incorporate it into our daily lives. Our calling is much bigger/more important than our job - that while we do everything(even our job or leisure activities) we are doing it for his glory. I guess the individual has to question himself/herself as to why they are not happy with their job. Philippians 2:13 says - God puts the desires in our heart. Obviously by praying about it and seeking the Holy Spirit's guidance, we can ask God to, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 37, "Grant us the desires of our heart". Look, if the focus is misplaced, meaning you believe you will be happier if you are wealthier, famous, socially accepted in another job - then yea, that may not be the way to understand our calling. But I believe as Christians we have to ask God to show us/call us/reveal to us - a job where we can glorify him and share the good news. We have to pray for an environment where we can show love to others, and draw others to Christ as was told to us by Christ himself. So our jobs and our calling are very much intertwined. In fact, most people spend most of their day on their "job". So, we've got to make sure that our calling is visible and experienced by others through our job.

Very encouraging and a great word for me as I was just laid off and went to a new job this past month!

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