Vocation Gives Us Purpose

A young man said recently, “What is the use of getting up every day and going to school?” Many people have felt this way about the drudgery of everyday life. Whether one is at work or at home, the daily routine can feel crushing and unnerving.
Such an attitude should not be surprising since through Adam’s sin, work became a punishment as God told him: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground” (Genesis 3:19). God created mankind to enjoy creative work done to His glory, but sin brought to our work pain and drought, weeds and hindrances, drudgery and tiredness. In addition, King Solomon expressed another sad consequence of sin: I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind (Ecclesiastes 2:11). Solomon describes this uselessness further: I hated all my labor… because I must leave it to the man who will come after me (Ecclesiastes 2:18). Another aspect of work in our fallen world is discontentment: “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver. All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied” (Ecclesiastes 5:10; 6:7). Now God gave Solomon plenty of everything the world could offer, yet this very abundance led Solomon away from the worship of God for a time. And having wealth will cause others to rise up and take it away by force or by theft.
Work can be drudgery, but our vocation is a blessing because it gives us a purpose in life. As explained before in this series, one’s vocation is a “calling” from God to carry out tasks and responsibilities in service to God, to society, to family, and to oneself. In order to fulfill His callings, God gives people the skills, interests, and abilities necessary to carry them out.
The teaching of vocation also gives God’s children a purpose for their tasks. St. Paul writes, “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” and adds that he does not seek his own profit, “but the profit of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:31, 33). By serving our neighbors through our vocations, we “present [our] bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is [our] reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
Vocation shows that our whole life is a service to others and therefore a service to God. Parents raising children to know God’s Word and to learn a skill contribute to the peace of society as they teach obedience. Workers in a factory are involved with making things for others. By doing their best work, Christian workers serve those around them and the people who purchase the products to use in their homes or businesses. Christians working in a service job can go out of their way to help people deal with life, get the care they need, or fix what is broken.
When vocation is viewed as helping others and having the purpose to serve God, our work and everyday life takes on greater significance. For through our daily labors, God is helping other people and giving us opportunity to serve Him in thankful devotion for His salvation in Jesus!
While on this earth, all is vanity because all people die and leave what they have to others; on the other hand, we thank God for giving us “a time for every purpose and for every work” (Ecclesiastes 3:17), so that we “do not grow weary in doing good” (2 Thessalonians 3:13) through our vocations.
Theodore Gullixson is an ELS pastor emeritus living in Mankato, Minnesota.