Vocation

By Amanda Markel

Christians, especially Lutheran Christians, understand the concept of vocation…that God has called each of us to unique tasks in life. This can be seen in the form of our careers, a task for which we are often paid, as well as other callings in life, such as relationships like wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, or volunteer positions like Sunday School teacher or after-school tutor. We can hold many different vocations at the same time, and our vocations can change throughout our lives.

One thing should remain the same, however. Whatever our vocation is, we should do it joyfully, as though we are serving God Himself when we carry it out, because when we fulfill our vocations, whatever they may be, that is exactly what we are doing—serving God as well as our neighbor.

We all know that joyfully fulfilling our vocations on a day-to-day basis can seem like a Herculean task. There are some vocations that at times can seem thankless, and even monotonous. Motherhood in particular can seem like this at times. The endless line of diapers to be changed, the towering mountain of laundry to be conquered, the eternal line of meals to be prepared, the seemingly never-ending homework assignments that need supervision. It can seem like our task will never end, and worse, that no one really cares what we’re doing. But even if we feel this way at times, every vocation that we have, even those that seem at times dreary, are important, God-given tasks that deserve our best effort and should give us joy as we carry them out.

Every time you, as a mother, wipe a runny nose, you are serving God, and your neighbor. Every time you change a diaper, you are serving God, and your littlest neighbor. Every load of laundry washed, every meal prepared, every story read, serves God, and also the neighbors that are closet to your hands and your heart…your children. And every single thing you do to help them, will in turn help them grow in their own faith, and if we have joy in nothing else in life, we should have great joy at seeing our children walking and growing in the truth.

God does not promise that our vocations will always be exciting, or recognized by the masses. We do not serve God and our neighbor through our vocations for what we will get in return. We serve because we are called to do by the Holy Spirit Himself. We should, as the hymn “Hark, the Voice of Jesus Crying” so eloquently states, “Take the task He gives you gladly, Let His work your pleasure be.” And while we may not receive a physical reward on earth, Matthew 10:42 tells us that “whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

Martin Luther King Jr. had a wonderful understanding of vocation in this quote: “If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”

We can apply this logic to our lives as mothers, as well. We should change diapers and cook meals and clean clothes and house and help with homework as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry…so well that the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great mother who did her job well.

Photo credit to Vision Vocation Guide. Licensed under Creative Commons.