What is your definition of a perfect job? Is it attainable? How should Christians make career decisions to ensure that our jobs are in God’s will?
In 1991, I left my Melbourne job in an Australian law firm and relocated to Singapore in order to pursue a romance. Two things happened within months. I obtained a position as a lecturer in business law at a Singapore university; and then the relationship with my girlfriend foundered and broke.
The first event meant a career change from being a practicing lawyer to an academic. It ushered in a marvellous decade in academia and began a passion for teaching which continues unabated today. The second event pained me deeply. To make matters more depressing, I was worse off financially because the shift from private legal practice to academia involved a 40% pay cut. By then, things looked so bleak that I seriously wondered whether the relocation was a grievous, irreparable mistake which would doom my career trajectory.
However, more than a decade later and with the benefit of hindsight, I realized that the change was one of the most enriching and rewarding decisions in my life. As a result of my relocation, I came into contact with a warm and supportive group of Christians in Singapore, many of whom are still my friends today. In the aftermath of my break-up, I prayed more and fasted more. I probably read more Christian literature during that period than in any equivalent time since. My faith grew. And it was in Singapore that I met my wonderful wife who is now my best friend and the mother of our precious children.
After reflecting on my Singapore experience, it is clear to me that many Christians face similar difficult decisions over job choices. In an era when international job relocations are common and the variety of careers is greater than ever, the key question is: how should Christians make career decisions? In this article I seek to answer that question by teasing out the concepts of “calling” and “vocation,” discussing the role of divine guidance, and then providing some pointers for making career choices.
Calling And Vocation
The Latin word vocare, from which the English “vocation” is derived, means “to call." So it’s not surprising that many believers today use the two words interchangeably.1 The difficulty comes when we try to understand more precisely what people mean when they use the term vocation and calling. Some use vocation and calling to mean a specific work or job which God has in mind for each individual. Others use vocation and calling only in the context of church-related careers such as missionaries and ministers.
How do these differing views on vocation and calling compare with Scripture?
Interestingly, when the New Testament talks about “calling,” it refers chiefly to the call to salvation. Ours is a call to follow Jesus (Phil 3:14). We’re called to be partakers of a heavenly scheme of things (Heb 3:1).
This does not deny the fact that there are instances when God calls an individual to undertake a specific task. But these are exceptions. As exceptions, they are predicated upon a clear communication from God. Moses had his burning bush and Paul had his blinding light. But for the large majority of Israelites toiling in Egypt and the Jews under Roman occupation, there were no specific directives from God regarding their daily work. Indeed, Paul explained that when a person becomes a Christian, this in itself does not necessarily require a change in his employment or personal status (1 Cor 7:20-24).
If so, then calling should not be confused with careers. Otherwise, we risk implying that every Christian is obliged to discern his or her own career sweet spot – the one and only work which is divinely ordained – an obligation which tends to breed unnecessary anxiety.2
If this view is correct, then all God’s people enjoy an “equality of calling.”3 Our true vocation is foremost to be a faithful child of God. Faithfulness is not determined by our occupations but by our lives. It also follows that there is no hierarchy of jobs in God’s eyes. Church-related jobs are not more godly than jobs in the banking, hospitality or manufacturing sectors. According to Martin Luther, the great reformer, what matters is that in all jobs we glorify God.4
Decisions And Divine Guidance
If vocation and calling are generally not about careers but about faithfulness, this still does not solve the practical question of how I should decide what work I should do. Should I shift careers from journalist to public relations specialist? Should I seek the promotion and relocate overseas? Has God left us totally to our own devices when it comes to exercising our freedom to choose jobs?
I don’t think so.
I believe God intervenes and limits our freedom in at least two ways. Firstly, He creates some parameters to our freedom by deciding the century we are born in, whom we will have as parents, and the society we will be a part of. To that extent, God limits our freedom. Thus, if I had been born in Somalia in the past twenty years, it would be highly unlikely that I would ever be the president of the United States. It was in this vein that William Perkins, the Puritan writer, described our station in life as our “particular calling” in contrast to the “general calling” to be a child of God.5
Secondly, God intervenes by giving us guidance as we contemplate our career choices. He offers wisdom from above to anyone who asks for it (Jas 1:5). The Scriptures contain numerous stories of decision-making, good and bad, which provide us with examples of what to do and not to do. In this way, God gives us freedom to choose, but that freedom is to be exercised in faith.
What about divine guidance? When I reflect on the life of Joseph in the Old Testament, I am struck by how devoid it was of God’s direct miraculous intervention. Unlike Adam and Eve, Noah and others, there is no record of God speaking directly to Joseph. The closest thing to it was his dreams. Even so, he did not seem to gain specific directions from them. Moreover, his dreams were devoid of the raw power and physical directness exhibited by other Old Testament miracles.
I mention the absence of God’s miraculous intervention in the life of Joseph chiefly to comfort myself and other Christians who often wish for but have never received any direct, conclusive guidance from God when making career decisions. At the very least, Joseph’s example assures us that on earth we can be God’s child without enjoying the thrill of a direct communication with Him.
The Anglican scholar, J I Packer, shifts the emphasis from relying upon God’s direct communication to understanding His Word:
How does God guide? By instructing. How does He instruct? Partly by His shaping of our circumstances and partly by His gift of wisdom to understand the teaching of His Word and apply it to our circumstances…God’s guidance is more like the marriage guidance, child guidance or career guidance that is received from counselors than it is like being “talked down” by the airport controller as one flies blindly through the skies. Seeking God’s guidance is not like practicing divination or consulting oracles, astrologers, and clairvoyants; but rather is comparable with everyday thinking through of alternative options in given situations to determine the best course open to us. The inward experience of being divinely guided is not ordinarily one of seeing signs or hearing voices, but rather one of being enabled to work out the best thing to do.6
Practical Principles For Career Decisions
Assuming that we wish to rely on God’s wisdom in helping us make job or career decisions, what should we do? Below, I suggest five guidelines.
Examine Your Gifts
The first guideline is to examine ourselves. For each individual, there are certain jobs which provide a better fit than others. Much of the shape of this fit depends on our natural temperaments, aptitudes, and inborn skills. When our gifts are perfectly suited for the challenges that meet us at work, we find enormous satisfaction in the work we do.
In my own case, I liked English in high school. In university I drifted into law – a wordy discipline if there ever was one. Now I’m continuing my love affair with words and writing through a mix of academic lecturing, business consulting, preaching, teaching, and writing. Words very much lie at the heart of my work.
Consider The World’s Needs
For the second guideline, we move to an examination of the world around us. What openings are available in our city or community? What opportunities exist in a particular business? There are also professions where the need for Christian influence is especially pressing. Hugh Hewitt, an American radio talk show host and former White House staffer, decries the fact that Christian influence is rapidly ebbing from positions of power and influence such as politics, media, and education.7 If possible, we should fill these needs.
Respond To The Pull-factor, Not The Push-factor
The third guideline is to make career choices based on pull-factors, not push-factors. Even if difficult work situations generate strong push factors to leave a job, it’s good advice to stay on the job wherever possible. This is to ensure that we are not running away from problems of our own making. In my own life, several times I persevered with difficult job circumstances and resisted the temptation to walk away. In each case, I learnt that perseverance breeds maturity (Jas 1:3-4).
Embrace Uncertainty And Take Risks
The fourth guideline is to embrace uncertainty and take risks in trying out different jobs. I realize this sounds somewhat heretical in our era of risk-minimization. Yet, there is value in uncertainty. For one thing, uncertainty helps us to appreciate the present. Vulnerability spurs gratitude for safety just as man’s transitoriness raises trust in an eternal God. If God is a master of making good things out of bad, then Christians can afford to take risks!
Trust God In Everything
The fifth and final guideline is based upon Psalm 37:3-5. Whatever job situation we find ourselves in, there are two key imperatives: continue to trust God and continue to do good. This is especially pertinent when we have to deal with the remorse of having made a potentially bad job decision. If this fear of missing out on God’s perfect career grips you, listen to these wise words from Simon Chan:
First, a person who is really concerned about God’s will is probably already in it. The willingness and desire after God is the will of God. Second, making a mistake in one choice does not mean forever missing out on God’s perfect will. God’s will for one’s life is found in the process of living in love and obedience, not in one crucial choice we made or failed to make. Third, the wrong choice may be the very means that God is using to bring the Christian to the place of contrition and humility that enables him to be… what he is now.8
Conclusion
Like Joseph in Egypt, it may take me more than twenty years to discover my life’s destiny. Or, perhaps never in my lifetime will I find what Frederick Buechner describes as “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”9 Whatever the case, there is one big consolation. If it is true that virtually all occupations can be a holy calling, then perhaps what we do for paid work is not the critical question after all. What is more important than what we do is how we do it – and how that work changes us.
1 Stevens, Paul R. Liberating the Laity: Equipping All the Saints for Ministry. InterVaristy Press, 1985.
2 Bernbaum, John A & Steer, Simon M. Why Work? Careers and Employment in Biblical Perspective. Baker, 1986.
3 Gibbs, Mark and Morton, Ralph T. God’s Frozen People. Collins Fontana Books, 1964.
4 See the discussion of Luther’s views in Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice and the Design of Human Work (Eerdmans, 1990) 51-59. Paul Althaus, a leading scholar of Luther’s writings, explains that according to Luther: “… everything that we do is secular. However, it all becomes holy when it is done in obedience… and… faith”: Paul Althaus, The Ethics of Martin Luther (Fortress Press, 1972) 10.
5 Perkins, William. “A Treatise of the Vocations or Callings of Men” in Puritan Political Ideas. Edmund S Morgan (ed). Bobbs-Merrill, 1965, 35-37.
6 Packer I, James. Hot Tub Religion. Tyndale, 1987.
7 Hewitt, Hugh. In, But Not Of: A Guide to Christian Ambition and the Desire to Influence the World. Thomas Nelson, 2003.
8 Chan, Simon. Spiritual Theology – A Systematic Study of the Christian Life. InterVarsity Press, 1998.
9 Buechner, Frederick. Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC. Harper & Row, 1973.
Benny worked with law firms in Melbourne and Hong Kong before joining academia in Singapore. He and his wife and their four children now live in Melbourne and are part of the Belmore Road Church of Christ. Benny has a PhD in law from the University of Melbourne and splits his week doing consulting work, adjunct teaching at the Melbourne Law School and Melbourne Business School, and volunteer church work. This is an edited version of a chapter in his 2005 book, God On Monday: Reflections on Christians @ Work.
The New International Version of the Bible has been referenced.
Read "Spiritual Life & Work Life Balance... An Impossibility?" for a review on Benny's book, God on Monday: Reflections on Christians @ Work.