Christian Vocation Is God’s Hidden Help to Others

A couple of years ago I tagged along on a class field trip with my oldest sons to a coal-fired power plant. The tour guide showed us many things that day, but what stuck with me the most was what we learned in the control room. The turbine generating the electricity doesn’t move at a constant speed; instead, its speed depends on the demand of the power customers. If somebody turns a light on in a bedroom, for example, the computers (and the people manning them) sense the increased draw of electricity and compensate by speeding up the turbine.
At that moment it became clear just how many different people saw to it that I had all the electricity I needed: the people who unloaded the coal; the people who manually operated and maintained the furnace; the people who ran the control room and watched over the steam turbine and the generator. All those people—and I never knew about them! Their help had been hidden from me.
That is the nature of living where God has called us to live. Our vocations are God’s hidden help to other people. We do not know how the Lord will use us to help others.
God Gives Our Vocations Purpose
At times not knowing can frustrate us. Certain tasks seem menial and pointless. Aspects of daily life seem trivial. We try to avoid paying the bills, not because it bothers us to part with the money, but because it’s boring.
Where God has kept some things hidden, He has revealed others. St. Paul reminds us that even the seemingly small matters of this life, such as eating and drinking, are to be done to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). In His Law He has commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18).
So it is that God gives our vocations purpose. The next time you find yourself balking at one of those unpleasant menial tasks, remind yourself: “I am doing this for God’s glory and out of love for my neighbor.” Think about how what you are doing will be a help—perhaps even giving people opportunities to learn about Jesus.
God Promises to Bless Our Vocations
In addition to giving our lives direction, the Lord also has promised to bless our daily callings. First of all He promises to work through your life—your words and actions. God “works in you both to will and to do according to His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). When you work hard at your vocation, whether it’s in the area of your career, in your roles as husband and wife and mother and father, or even in the vocation of friend and neighbor, God’s hidden hand will be working through your hands to be a hidden help to people you never met.
Most importantly, when we fail—and we will, as fallen sinful beings—God has promised to be there with His forgiveness, given to us for the sake of the One who perfectly fulfilled all His vocations in our place. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world (1 John 2:1–2).
We may never know how something we did was a help to someone else. Yet we know that the greatest hidden help we have in our vocations is the help God already provides.
Reverend Piet Van Kampen
Christ the King Lutheran Church
Green Bay, WI