Using your Vocation for God
We have too often felt that to be missional we have to leave behind our career, qualifications and skills to serve the Lord abroad. Yet this narrow view of mission is not what God has for us. Instead, God calls us to use the education, opportunities, blessings and skills he has given us. Maybe His plans for you are bigger than your own?
Susan, trained as a lawyer and has used her professional skills in her work with OMF International for many years in her home nation of Singapore as well as abroad. Her career has pivoted based on the changing needs of the country she worked in, and how she could add value and be a blessing.
Susan joined us at Work + Go Manchester 2022 to help us to consider how we can use our work skills and experiences to cross cultures and live and work overseas.
Bezalel and Oholiab
‘Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.
So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded.’
Exodus 35:30-36:1
In this passage Bezalel and Oholiab are called by God to lead a team of designers, weavers and embroiders and craftsmen to build the tabernacle for the people of Israel.
There are three things we can learn from this passage:
The call to the work came from God himself
Our particular skills are God-given gifts
Our excellence in work glorifies God
1. The call to work came from God himself
God called Bezalel and Oholiab to this important task by name. It’s not just ‘hey you!’, God uses their names. This reminds us that first and foremost God calls us to personal relationship with Him. He calls us to him as a person, the task comes as a secondary call. All the same, God calls us to our work and vocation.
As Tim Yearsley explored at Work + Go Manchester 2022 and in this blog post, our work is part of God’s good design for the world and mirrors God’s work in the world.
2. Our skills are God-given gifts
Moses tells the Israelites God has filled Bezalel with ‘the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills.’
It is ultimately God who provides Bezalel and Oholiab with their technical skills. And that extends to their team as well. Moses calls ‘every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill’ to get involved in the work.
This means that when we use our gifts and skills, we have opportunities to glorify God.
Susan shared that she felt called to use her vocation overseas, she was encouraged to give up her vocation and go to Bible college. Yet, she believed God had given her a vocation so she could use it for him. Susan found as she used her professional skills, she had surprising opportunities to bless the country she served in, including working with government officials and being salt and light for Jesus. Changing circumstances brought changing roles. We have to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25) and practice what John Stott called ‘double listening’, that is listening to God and to the world around us, to find the best ways to serve in a fast-changing world.
3. Our excellence in work glorifies God
God doesn’t only work in the church. God works in society. He works in politics, he works in business, well, he works in the arts and entertainment, and so on. He uses us to change those to redeem those areas for him.
Doing great work is part of our witness to Jesus. In describing the work on the tabernacle, Moses says ‘All those who were skilled among the workers made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by expert hands.’ (Exodus 36:2). The work of building the tabernacle was done expertly. In other words, it was a high quality piece of work.
As followers of Jesus, we can bring this commitment to excellence to every part of our lives. One Christian who shows us this beautifully is Eric Liddell, the Olympic athlete featured in the film ‘Chariots of Fire’. Liddell won the gold in the 1924 Paris Olympics but also went on to serve God in China. His life demonstrates how faith and vocation were made to go together. Whether he was running, working as a Chemistry teacher, discipling a group of young men, or playing cricket with his friends, his whole life was one of worship. A life that glorified God.
This vision of whole life ministry was captured in the film, where in one scene Eric's sister Jenny accused him of losing his focus on God because he was training so hard for the Olympics. Eric reflected on her rebuke and responded with the most famous line of the film, ‘God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.’ He knew God had given him the gift of running and made him for a purpose.
So, God doesn't just feel pleasure when you're at work, or doing Bible studies, or when you're praying. His pleasure comes because of your identity in him, as we discover and use the gifts he has given us. And when your whole life is one of worship to him, you can truly say like, Eric, I sense God's pleasure when I do what I was made for.
Liddell’s desire to honour the Lord in all he did – whether that meant not competing on Sundays, committing to hard training and pursuing excellence in work and study – pointed people to Jesus.
May we all take that to heart and have that same spirit to be excellent in everything that we do, glorifying God as we do so.
Sign up for the Work + Go newsletter for more resources and inspiration for seeing your faith at work. Plus get exclusive discounts on future Work + Go events.