Good morning, Purposeful Hearts! Over the next three weeks, we’re exploring the topic of vocation, and I’d love for you to get deep and personal with your reactions to this topic! (A little self-reflection is good for the heart!)
Let’s begin by exploring some definitions of vocation. Our culture’s view of the word vocation is limited to jobs and careers, which clearly devalues the notion of multiple vocations in the Christian life. Also, our individualistic culture emphasizes personal achievement and self-actualization over service and selflessness. From a Christian perspective, vocations are the multiple roles and responsibilities that God has placed into your Christian life. These might be roles you play in a family, such as parent, spouse, son/daughter, brother/sister, etc. They might be the current jobs you hold or roles you take on in the church or community. Vocations might also rise up out of life circumstances that you walk through, and your experiences can benefit others who are now walking through similar circumstances.
So, we have a lot of roles to play and people who need us. So what? I’ll tell you! Vocation runs deep into our core purposes on this earth! Vocation is a calling from God to use the abilities He’s given us to serve the people around us. As we are all uniquely gifted and called, our diverse abilities create a beautiful cycle of interdependence. We benefit each other, care for each other, and love each other through vocation, but it’s ultimately God taking care of us by using the people of His creation.
Vocations are for Christ in that, as Christians, we want to fulfill our vocations out of gratitude for what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. Vocations are connected to God – vertically – because of our identity as His redeemed children, and they are connected to neighbor – horizontally – because our grateful fulfillment of vocation spills over with blessings into their lives.
Do you see how personal and meaningful these concepts of purpose and vocation are? Over the next few weeks, we’ll expand our discussion to cover the side effects of knowing your vocation and how we can support each other in discovering and developing our unique vocations in this life! Join me next week!
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