Crisis

As I have written this blog over the past few years I have shared some of my fears and a few of the things that I struggle with but I have never talked about what I am about to share. 

My greatest fear in life is that my life will never make a difference. 

Have you ever felt the same way? 

Well rest assured that this fear is unnecessary because God created us all in His image, we all have great worth, and we were all given gifts that are meant to contribute something to the world around us, especially to our family's and our communities.

Then why, in spite of knowing these truths, do I still carry around this fear of living a life of insignificance?

I have found that often times I don't see myself as significant. I lack a vision for how God wants me to make a difference in the world through the use of my gifts. What I am experiencing is a crisis of my calling. 

The Bible teaches me that I am called out of my own selfishness to love and serve God and others in very specific ways and responsible to only one person, Jesus Christ. In 1st Corinthians 10:31, God calls me to glorify Him in all that I do, not just the church part. However I think that many of us miss this concept in our lives. 

At most churches, they often tend to focus on salvation, evangelism, and basic discipleship, all of which are important but what about the person that has to work 40, 60, or 80 hours per week?  Where is the teaching that relates to the individual that has no choice but to work these sort of hours? I know growing up in the church I was taught the verses and the songs that related to living a Christian life but I can't honestly say that I was given any practical application. People are being equipped for personal faith but aren't being taught to use it in a public setting. 

Work is often seen as a necessary evil. When was the last time you heard someone say, "Thank God it's Monday!"? I like many other people my age were idealistic when I hit the work force with an unrealistic expectation about my "work" and the success that I desired for my life and career. I am no closer to feeling like I am in my "true calling" than I did 16 years ago when I got in the workforce. I have often felt bogged down in my career and completely unfulfilled. My high expectations were dashed and I felt like a complete and utter failure. Basically, my success didn't come as quickly as I wanted it to. 

The central reason for this in my life was a failure to develop a biblical theology of work in my life. Work was just a means to an end.

Genesis 1:26-28 tells me that I am created in God's image and that I am called to exercise dominion over the whole of creation. Does this mean I am called to take over the world? Negative. But it does however mean that I am called to use the creativity that God has gifted me with to make the world a better place. 

God constantly makes something out of nothing and He is the only one that can do it but He calls us to make something out of something. We have the ability to take a tree, chop it down, mill out the lumber, and make the most beautiful furniture. We can take clay and make a beautiful jar to hold water in or we can take the simplest of paints and make a portrait. 

We are called to work and need to work for ourselves to provide for our families and ourselves but that shouldn't be the central point of what we do. We are created to work but work isn't our life. 

Sin has significantly impacted our attitude towards work and has made answering our callings more difficult. Resistance to doing excellent work can come from the sins of laziness, pride, or greed. The Gospel of Christ not only saves our souls but it also restores us to who God created you and I to be. Yet I feel like the gospel that is often preached is limited to personal sin and personal redemption. Redemption in itself is comprehensive. It is extended to the church, the body of Christ, and to all of creation. Everything and everyone can be redeemed. If we emphasize that redemption works to restore everything that sin has impacted, we would have a theology that could transform all aspects of our lives. This complete redemption includes the one that we will experience when the new heaven and the new earth come to pass as told to us in Revelations 21. Our work today on earth matters for God's restoration of all things. Our work will continue when we get to heaven, minus the blood, sweat, and the tears. In heaven, we will all work for a new purpose and sing a new song as mentioned in Revelation 5 verse 9.

C.S. Lewis saw our eternal state as an ongoing adventure and he wrote about it at the end of his book called The Last Battle. 

All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page. Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Think of it this way: An infinitely creative God coming up with infinite ideas and adventures for us in eternity. It is not a stretch to anticipate human creativity being part of this great adventure. 

How does this view change the way we think about our work?