Last week was the week where you sign enough paperwork that you think, Maybe I just bought a house or something. But actually, you’ve just registered your kids for school. I lost track of how many boxes of pencils and packages of notebook paper I purchased. And one of my kids is starting high school, which may mean that I am old?
Either way, the principal introduced himself as I walked out with my freshman (man, just typing it makes it sound real). And here is what I liked: Our new principal, in his last district, was also an elder in his church. So was our new superintendent. These intelligent, gifted men could presumably be doing a lot of things with their giftedness. But as I chatted with the principal, I thought, I’m really glad you’re doing this particular job. It matters to me and my kids and their discipleship. People like you preserve our schools so they don’t become “unreached”.
Your Highest Calling?
I wrote awhile back about how our churches can prefer certain personality types. But I think we also favor certain occupations, too. This post from A Life Overseas, Fictitious Billy and Life’s Highest Calling, addressed something tender in me: it presents the fictional scenario of a grown-up missionary kid who decides to be a professor. All his life, the kid’s been told that being a missionary is the best occupation he could possibly have. So he feels like a sellout.
As one who’s returned from overseas, I get this. I get the heroism associated with being a missionary or being a pastor. “Hi. I’m a freelance writer/marketing copywriter” just doesn’t have the same shine in an introduction. For awhile, I specifically kept myself from mentioning Africa in conversations (while still longing to bring it up, since my heart was bleeding all over the place). I knew the “special” status it offered—and that honestly, I craved.
What We Know
So I think through what Scripture says on this. I know Jesus asked 12 guys to leave their occupations to be “fishers of men”. I know the apostles in Acts said they shouldn’t give up preaching the gospel to “wait tables”, helping the poor. I know God asks us to give special honor to pastors who serve us; their job of spiritual shepherding is real and praiseworthy! And I see him telling guys like Jeremiah and Moses that it doesn’t matter if they don’t see themselves as capable; he does, and he equips.
But I also know that in several places (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4), God says there are lots of jobs he’s made for people. They are all critical, all worthy of honor.
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? (1 Corinthians 12:17-19)
No one ever thinks they want to be the kneecap of the Body of Christ. But try walking without a kneecap.
And there’s this: a quote by Andree Seu Peterson I’ve been chewing on:
So maybe I’m shoeing a horse in this season of my life. Maybe not. But I don’t think that being great in the eyes of God is as dependent on my occupation or my spiritual “resume” as he is with me being faithful to whatever he’s asked me to do, or even just loving him with my whole heart (insert first and greatest commandment here). I’m not held accountable to how many unreached tribes I’ve reached if he’s asked me to stay in the States and, say, be an adoptive mom or be a non-adoptive mom or take care of a sick parent. From the cross, Jesus asked John, a “son of thunder”, to care for his mother. So in the time you could be evangelizing or discipling, I want you to take a slice and actually care for Mom instead.
Your Ticket to the Inner Circle
As my husband told me this week, we cannot see Christianity as a special club where, if you do the right things and hold the right offices, you’ll be on the inner circle. If God hasn’t made you as a leader? Serve another way. Our goal isn’t for everyone to become a leader, or even to do.
The author of the abovementioned post writes,
Paul says these words: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” But it’s important to look back at what he says a couple of verses before this… “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings.”
The high calling Paul talks about is knowing God and the power of the resurrection. The high calling is sharing in his sufferings, no matter where they happen to be. It is not about being something or going somewhere.
Only One Thing
What we do for God—our usefulness—is simply not the value statement of our lives. (That, I’ll propose, is an Americanized version of Christianity.) It’s what Jesus did. There are many things, but only one is important. And Mary chose it, not Martha: Enjoying God. Reveling in his acceptance and beauty.
Our service pours from there, not from a sense of achievement or religiousized ambition.
It’s tremendous if you’re #thatparent whose kids are all in ministry. …Unless one of them should have been a high school principal, which is not “formal” ministry but ministry all the same. Let’s flatten our hierarchy of occupations a bit and encourage people into their occupation as God’s, whatever and wherever their zipcode finds them.
Like this post? You might like…
THESE BOOKS:
Tim Keller’s Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work
Dave Harvey’s Rescuing Ambition
THESE POSTS:
Do our churches prefer certain personality types?
Look What I Did! On an Illusion of Spiritual Achievement
Blessed are the “Middle Class in Spirit”? On Coming to God as a Child
2 Comments
April Knapp - 6 years ago
Amen to all of this! There is dignity and significance in every type of work. It’s unfortunate that our western culture, which places so much emphasis on occupation, leaks into the church. When we meet someone the first question we ask is, “So what do you do?” I’ve been trying to avoid asking this question for past few years and asking something about them personally, like “What do you like to do? What activities give you life?”
As a missionary myself (though stateside), there can be a lot of pressure in that answer too in the church. Often in the church, because the position is so elevated, people expect near perfection from you-and very often, a certain personality, especially if you’re a woman, I am so blessed to be in a church where I feel safe to bring my brokenness to light.
Janel Breitenstein - 6 years ago
Wow, I am so thankful for a church like that with you, April! I like your response to people, too. I may have to cob that one for myself…! Thanks for your encouragement on this, since it felt like I was saying something way out in left field for our culture. I really appreciate your perspective.