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Print By Leann Guzman When you’re at work, having a bad day, wishing you were anywhere but here, think about this possibility—God could have called you to be where you are. I’m not talking about how God has given you your job to provide you with income, or how He has blessed you by allowing you to have a job. I mean, have you thought that He actually called you to do what you do, like He called your pastor to be a minister? Trust me, I know that on some days, that can be a tough concept to imagine. But God can and does call people to jobs and careers other than full-time church-related work. Until a few years ago, I didn’t understand how broad the words “calling” or “ministry” are. To me a person was only “called” if he was being asked by God to be in “ministry,” which to me meant full-time, church-related work. But I have come to realize that a calling and a ministry is not confined to those in full-time church work. God does call people to be things other than preachers and missionaries. He calls people to do what I do. And He calls people to do what you’re doing now.
Called to Teach Law A perfect example of this is Dr. Walter Bradley, currently Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Baylor University. In a recent interview he discussed how he was called to be a Christian professor. At first, he started with just letting his students know he was a Christian, which led to him being able to minister to many of his students and to open their eyes to Jesus. Then God opened doors and allowed him to use his education, training and profession to give talks and write on the topic, “The Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God.” “I think people need to take a careful look at where their professional work either directly interfaces with a Christian worldview, or where their professional background at least provides the opportunity to work in an area that has some significant import to the Christian worldview perspective,” Dr. Bradley states in his interview. Dr. Ray Kloepper is a good example of an Apostolic who has found a way for his professional work to “directly interface with a Christian worldview.” Dr. Kloepper, an anesthesiologist, preaches a sermon entitled “Calvary through the Eyes of a Physician” (available for download at here). In this sermon, Dr. Kloepper details the physical reaction that Jesus had during his last hours. The message is powerful and amazing, and it could have only been written by a medical professional. People have been forever changed because of this message, and if Dr. Kloepper had never been a doctor, he never would have written that message, and those lives would have not been touched in that way.
Therefore I Dream… My dream has always been to be able to use my profession in a way to minister to others, such as being involved in a Christian legal aid organization (like those endorsed by the Christian Legal Society), or with a non-profit who represents churches and ministries (like the Christian Law Association where I interned during college), or perhaps to minister to other attorneys on how to maintain and share their faith in their profession. In other words, I’d like to use my profession in a directly ministerial way at some point, such as Dr. Bradley or Dr. Kloepper. For now God has not opened that door for me. He has quite clearly ushered me through the door that led me to my current job, where I am constrained by ethics and procedure to not minister to most of the people I come in contact with. So for now, my priority is to just be identified as a Christian and see where that leads me. My hope is that, just like Dr. Bradley, my identification as a Christian will give me opportunities to minister to my co-workers and colleagues. I believe that I was called to be an attorney. It’s likely that you were called to do what you do, or at the very least to be working where you work and with whom you work. And now it is our job to find ways where our jobs “interface with a Christian worldview” and to minister to others at every opportunity.
ninetyandnine.com ---------- Leeann Guzman is ninetyandnine.com’s “Family / Work Issues” columnist. If you have suggestions on topics to explore, email her at Family@ninetyandnine.com. Leeann is wife to Jonathan and mother to Olivia, and she lives and goes to church in North Texas. She is a licensed attorney who works as a municipal court prosecutor. Although fluent in English and Legalese, the meaning of the term “spare time” escapes her. |
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