Why do you do the things you do? What motivates you, or what defines the goals of your various pursuits, thoughts, words, and moments?
In the previous post, the first half of this conversation on “vocation,” we said that “who you are” overflows into “what you do.” If the emphasis of that post was on the first half of that statement – “who you are” – this one necessarily follows up by considering the second half – “what you do.”
Whatever is your true priority (and we said last time, you can only have one!), that priority shapes your view of every task, relationship, job, school, and moment of normal life. In other words, our first vocation informs our second vocation. Our first calling (our identity) overflows into our second callings, which we’ll define as “our stations in life.” If that’s a new term, your station in life is the situation you find yourself in: it’s your job or school; your family, friends, and neighbors; the things that fill your days. That’s your station in life.
And if “station” connotes “assignment” imagery for you, all the better: we don’t fall into our stations of life by random happenstance. Instead, every moment, relationship, and role is an intentional act of God. Because God invites us to live out our primary identity, calling and vocation in every facet of the everyday lives he gave us. In other words, if our primary identity is in our sonship/”daughter-ship” of our good Father and King, he invites us to live out that identity in our second callings: our everyday moments, our stations of life. We are called to God, and we are called for God.
The previous post considered that in Genesis 1-2, God created mankind for perfect relationships – with him, within ourselves, with each other, and with God’s creation. Sin ruined those, but we can see glimpses of them when we remember our first calling and believe that we are God’s sons and daughters, created in his image to display his glory across the earth.
But Genesis 1-2 also helps us understand the venues in which we live out our first calling. Among other things, we see that God calls humans into community. God created us to fill the earth with his image-bearers. God designed humans to steward his authority over the earth – in Hebrew, “dominion” is aligned with helping things thrive: we display God’s image by calling creation to its best and helping it flourish for God’s glory!
In summary, the Bible’s opening chapters give a glimpse of real-life activity and community. You and I were designed for work and rest; we are designed with roles to carry out; we were designed for relationship; we were created with responsibility and purpose. God designed us with specific gifts; he put us in specific relationships; he sends us to learn, work, play, eat, and live in a specific place, for his purposes! We are called to God, and we are called for God – assigned by our good King to our station in life. Our primary vocation (our identity in Him), shines forth in our secondary vocation (our station in life)…unless it doesn’t.
Sin marred our view of God, and brokenness ruined the perfect relationships God created us for. Similarly, many of God’s people have lost sight of our second vocation. We forget our true identity, calling, and primary purpose: it’s easy to live as if our relationship with God (our first vocation) exists far away from our everyday roles and relationships (our second vocation). Or, we reverse the two, and live as if our everyday roles and relationships (our second vocation) are our first/top/#1 priority, and our relationship with God (our first vocation) is instead second…or third…or 80th…or doesn’t matter at all, in real life.
In the previous post, I asked you to pause for 90 seconds and consider two questions; let’s do the same again:
What people/places/roles/relationships/etc. make up your “station of life” – or, where and with whom do you learn, work, play, eat, and live?
Be honest: how often do you consider God, your true identity, and primary calling, at work or school, in your neighborhood, or with friends and family, whether they believe the same as you or not?
If I may be bold, if you call yourself a follower of Jesus but there is anywhere, or anyone, with whom you do not pursue your first vocation (your identity in Christ, and the ministry and mission he gave you), that’s a moment or relationship in which your priorities are off.
We said last time, “before you are a spouse, boss, sibling, parent, widow, employee, child, classmate, single, or any other label – and frankly, whether you believe it or not – you are first and foremost a child of God!” But because you are a child of God, that truth is the very foundation of your roles and relationships as a spouse, boss, sibling, parent, widow, employee, child, classmate, single, or any other label – again, whether you believe it or not!
No area of life, no relationship, and no role exists without an invitation from God, to live out your primary calling, to display the image of God, and to pursue the mission and ministry he created you for.
This is not just some theoretical shift of mind! It matters, in the everyday stuff of life! Here are a few examples for you to ponder: what would it look like to remember and live out your first vocation (your identity in Christ), in a few common areas of life, like …your response to your own sin? …your marriage/singleness/parenting? …your interactions at school/work? …the truths (or lies!) you tell yourself? …your pursuit of not-yet-believers?
Our primary calling changes everything about our secondary callings. Our identity – whether it’s in Christ or in something lesser – overflows into the everyday stuff that make up our stations in life.
To close, it’s worth noting that there are many ways this can look. The goal of these two posts was twofold:
To invite followers of Jesus to start 2023 remembering your first priority, and to invite those who aren’t to consider what shapes your identity. Because whatever is your top priority, it overflows into your roles and relationships. From there, we get to be creative and see all of life through the lens of God’s calling.
To invite you to be content with your station in life, and to see it as God’s assignment for you: you are exactly where you are, and you know exactly who you know, for his purposes. (As an aside, God can and does change our assignments; there’s no science to knowing yours; it’s often a mystery that takes dependence, prayer, and community to discern.)
But the heart of these posts is not guilt/empty duty/pressure to do more. It’s simply an invitation to live more fully into who God designed you to be. God’s primary invitation through you, to the people you meet every day is the same invitation he first extended to you: “Come home. You are mine; you are loved; you have purpose. You have a better story and a greater identity. And no matter who or where you are, or what your view of your your identity and calling has been, I offer something better.” That’s the invitation from your Father, through the life, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus.
Who you are matters. What you do matters. God called you to God, and God called you for God. We get to take his ministry and message of reconciliation with us, into every role and relationship God assigns us to. Because God first extended that reconciliation to us, in the same way that he’s reconciling the whole world to himself (see 2. Cor 5:17-21): through the life, death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus.
Appreciate this and you, Ben!