Many of us, when we are introduced to someone, pretty soon are identifying ourselves by what we do? I’m a student, a nurse, a pharmacist, a pastor, etc. Yes, these may be things that we do, but they really aren’t who we are, our identity. Yes, they are often the way we identify ourselves in a society that encourages people to find their identity in a job that demands a 24/7 preoccupation. Psychologists tell us that a fundamental drive is the fear of insignificance. In Western culture the popular mark of a significant person is a hard worker, someone with a successful career. And in the current climate where people so often lose their job, it is easy to feel worthless or that that we have lost our identity. But our identity, our true identity, isn’t found in what we do. I think that we intrinsically know this. Maybe this is why for many people there is so much monotony, boredom, repetition and dissatisfaction associated with their work. For many people, it does not fill them or satisfy them. That is because, no matter what we do, work does not justify our existence. This is why it is important to distinguish work, a job, from vocation, that is, a “calling.” Vocation comes from the Latin word vocatio, and literally means a summons or an invitation. In the Christian understanding, vocation has to do with our God-given identity – who we are called to be in Christ. And because that is who we fundamentally are, it’s possible to lose a job but not our identity. Who we are is more than a job we do.
If we understand this more basic, fundamental, defining understanding of our identity, work, like all aspects of life can be a means through which we can know and love God more deeply. In the end, what we do is not as important as how, for whom, and to what end you do it. The Apostle Paul reminds us: “whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Now, of course, there are some things that we can do that clearly do not glorify God because they are contrary to who God is and what he calls us to be in Christ and what God desires for the creation. And realistically one of those things that might not glorify God is the mind-numbing, totally unsatisfying job you may feel you are stuck in. If that is your situation, there are some personal discernment questions you have to ask yourself – am I here because I am too afraid or too lazy to risk looking for something else? Am I here because I really have no other choices? Am I here because I should be and I have found this work unfulfilling because somehow I have left God out of it? Sometimes we need help making this discernment. But maybe the job I’m in isn’t all that satisfying, but is there a way that I can do it that will enable me to be a greater witness to God’s grace and life? Maybe the job is simply a way to earn a salary that frees me up for other areas of service? We should never live to simply work, we work to live and with that life we find ways of serving God and others.
Work, when it is meaningful is both challenging and stressful. As followers of Jesus, we can learn to hold our jobs, our careers with a “light touch” and enjoy a sense of personal peace in those places we find ourselves. We know that our identity is not in what we do, but in who we are. We are God’s children, made in God’s image, people of inestimable worth. And because we know that, it is much more important to be focused on how, for whom, and to what end you do our work.
