I remember when I was a senior in high school and was gearing up to go to college to begin my pathway to becoming a heart surgeon. This had been a lifelong dream. No. Really. I had planned on being a doctor since first grade.
But when I entered college, my path changed dramatically.
The summer after my freshman year, I began to be more serious about my faith, began to read the Bible voraciously. Shared my faith indiscriminately. Prayed fervently. There was nothing more enjoyable than talking to people about their relationship with God and contemplating the divine.
No one would have said this out loud, but there was an unspoken expectation that if you were as sold out and on fire for God as I was, you would go into full-time ministry. And that’s the path that was laid out for me.
I get it. There’s a need for young men and women to go into full-time ministry. A need for humble and earnest people who want to simply serve and not make a name for themselves. But I wish someone would have told me what I’m going to share with you.
You can serve God in whatever vocation you choose.
It’s not a concession. It’s a reality that the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Because this is true, you can bring honor and glory to Jesus wherever you are.
In fact, we get the privilege and have the calling to do so.
As you consider what God’s will for your life is, I want to give you two biblical principles and three practical applications to get crystal clear on.
God’s Will is Clear
Have you ever said, “I wish God would just tell me what His will is for my life”? He has. And He’s written it in ink. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4.3: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.”
In a world of so many options, it’s easy to get sidetracked with very many good things. As Martha hurried around trying to care for the needs of her guests, we, too, can be occupied with many good things — and forget the greater thing is to be near to God. In the ever-increasing catalog of vocational options, it is a good reminder that your primary calling in life is to know, love, and be conformed into the image of Christ.
Your Calling is Clear
While our overarching calling is to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy (aka “sanctification”), we can get even more specific in how we are to operate in this world He has given us as our inheritance. When we think of vocation, a great place to find direction is God’s Word, and a great place that brings these two concepts together is 2 Corinthians 5:16–21:
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
If you have put your faith in Jesus, you are His representative. Wherever you are.
Four Practical Applications
Having these two major biblical components, it’s helpful to get to the practical. How do you actually start moving toward something with clarity?
Wisdom
The Book of Proverbs is an excellent place to see that the life of faith is a pathway. It has been walked by many brothers and sisters over centuries. It is filled with practical ways we actually live out a life of holiness.
As you think about what you want to be when you grow up, you need to weigh your options with whether it honors God or not. You can’t be a righteous thief or drug dealer, for example.
Passion
What gets you excited about life? When you look out into the world, where do you see opportunity for change?
Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon to hear people disparage Christians from listening to their heart. Our heart, when tempered and anchored by God’s Word and wisdom, is a way God directs us. If we have been given the Spirit of God, He often communicates with us through the things we get excited about. We need the church to help guide us by God’s Word to get clarity.
Skill
In his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love, Cal Newport says that while passion can be important to what we do in life, it ought not be the primary reason we pursue a vocation. In fact, as you get more skilled in something, you begin to love it more.
What do people ask you for help in? What are ways you can hone your skills so that you become better at it?
Opportunity
You can be very excited for a job and have the requisite skills, but then you need to consider if there is an opportunity to be had. For example, you could love working on typewriters, but the need for those is slim to none.
One of the most overlooked opportunities is where you are right now. We often think about the next project or the next chapter, when often we simply need to stop and look around. There are a host of opportunities all around you.
As you think about your next chapter of life, consider these four areas. List out the opportunities you have right now to put your roots in deep so that you might bear fruit where you are.
— Matthew Wireman has served as the program director for Christian Ministries at North Greenville University Online since 2014. He also serves as lead pastor at Christ the Redeemer in Greenville, which he and his family planted in 2017.