Pastor's Blog: The Most Wonderful Work in the World
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For the longest time I always thought that I had the best job anyone could ever ask for. As a pastor, I get to be a teacher, a salesperson, a counselor, and a business executive, all while sitting in the same chair. This kaleidoscope of opportunities is why I’ve always described my calling as “the most wonderful work in the world.”
But in recent years, I’ve begun to see my task differently. I haven’t lost my joy for my job, not in the least. It’s more I’ve come to see that the fulfillment I find in my line of labor should be something that everyone else knows in theirs. In other words, every occupation ought to provide deep purpose for its workforce.
The word “vocation” comes from a Latin root that means “to call.” In church we like to speak of those in clergy life having “answered the call” to ministry. While there’s no doubt that no one should dare contemplate ministry without a deep sense of calling, I’m not sure that the same logic shouldn’t apply to every other form of work. Think of the difference it would make in your labor if you approached your responsibilities out of desire to honor God and to experience His presence in the midst of them. One thing would be certain: Your work wouldn’t be just a hodgepodge of utilitarian chores that drain the joy from you. It would instead become the means by which you express your primary purpose in life and even help others to do the same.
How, then, might one move in that direction? A good place to begin is to set out each day with a small prayer on your heart, one that invokes God’s presence and help in making that day’s labor its most meaningful. In his book, A Book of Irish American Blessings and Prayer, priest and author Andrew Greeley gives us an example of a prayer we can offer for ourselves as well as others in this regard:
May your work bring order where there was chaos, wisdom where there was ignorance, brightness where there was obscurity, purpose where there was confusion, warmth where there was harshness, laughter where there was pain, challenge where there was boredom, and God’s holy peace where there was hate. May you create in the name of God who creates, be wise in the name of God’s revealing Word, and loving in the cause of God’s Spirit who serves.
If each of us would approach his or her labor in that spirit, then perhaps we couldn’t tell much of a difference between our work and our worship, and the sad separation between our Sunday world and the world in which we live in the rest would be no more. Indeed, worship and work, profession and vocation, it would all be the same thing, to the glory of God, which is truly the most wonderful work in the world.
“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and He will establish your plans” (Proverbs 16:3).