Vocation as vision and vivifier

I’ve been doing some research on vocation for an upcoming masterclass I’ll be teaching (Vocation Vision). Of course the majority of material out there treats vocation as merely a synonym for job. Perhaps it adds some connotation of liking your job or finding meaning in your job, but your vocation remains something apart from your daily personal life. 

Not surprisingly modern secularism is making the opposite error of the medieval clerical version of vocation, where vocation was only found within the Church. Luther considered vocation a vital concept to reclaim and recover, teaching that God works in us through all the work He gives us to do. So we can rightly say all our work is vocational, is calling. 

If we are to do all we do for the glory of God, then all we do is, in some sense, our calling. God is the One who has prepared beforehand the good work for us to walk in — whether that’s dishes, laundry, helping the mom in the parking lot load her groceries, or writing a blog post.

Vocation doesn’t refer to a career. It also doesn’t refer to technical skills toward a career, as implied by the modern “Vocational Skills Center.” What a downgrade for the word! 

Even still, according to the dictionary, vocation means “A calling of an individual by God,” though that meaning is relegated to last and shoved under the subset of Theology. 

The first definition given in “A regular occupation, especially one for which a person is particularly suited or qualified.” Occupation might be another word for your career, but at its core it only means an activity occupying your time.

We can work with that because God does qualify us for the work He gives us to do. It’s less that the work is suited to us and more that we are suited to the work. God works in us through the work He gives us.

Vocation can also mean, “An inclination or aptness for a certain kind of work.” We tend to picture choosing work we like, pursuing work that comes naturally to us. However, the inclination for a certain kind of work can also come by learning to love what must be done. Aptness typically follows practice, not innate talent.

Under the theological use of the word, the definition also specifies, “especially for a religious career.” Ah, yes, “full time ministry” is a vocation. Such is the category Luther strove to break apart! He said of vocation:

 “To serve God simply means to do what God has commanded and not to do what God has forbidden. And if only we would accustom ourselves properly to this view, the entire world would be full of service to God, not only the churches but also the home, the kitchen, the cellar, the workshop, and the field of townsfolk and farmers. For it is certain that God would have not only the church and world order but also the house order established and upheld.”

We all have vocations: divine callings on our life. We all have work that God has prepared for us to do. We don’t find the work we are suited to, that fits our own particular “zone of genius,” but rather we find the work God has laid before us, and we do it for His glory. 

Thus, cleaning toilets is part of the vocation of a mother (as is teaching the skill to her children) and not just of a janitor. Making dinner is part of the vocation of a mother, not just of a chef. According to Luther’s vision of vocation, it’s not the level of skill exercised in the work that makes it of service to God, but rather that it is done for others. 

God feeds our children through our meal prep. We love God by loving our children through food. We love God by loving our families and guests through keeping clean toilets. No work is menial or insignificant if undertaken in obedience to God and for His glory. Luther put it this way: “God does not look at the insignificance of the acts but at the heart that serves Him in such little things.”

If we are having a hard time learning to love what must be done, if we are frustrated by work that feels insignificant and dull, then we need a refreshed understanding of vocation in our life. God gives all of us many roles and responsibilities—we all have several vocations—and when we know that we are walking in them, we have the joy of obedience as wind to our back, bringing us delight in work that used to bring us down.

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