I recently argued that although vocation is important, there is a certain something that goes before and beyond it. As Lester DeKoster puts it, “The meaning we seek has to be in work itself.”
Over at Think Christian, John Van Sloten puts forth something similar, focusing on our efforts to work for the common good— something not altogether separate from vocation:
There’s a lot of talk in faith/work circles about the idea of working for the common good – for the good of your neighbor, city, company, classmate, family member, environment and world.
It’s a good idea and an integral part of a balanced vocational worldview. But I think it falls short. And it’s not all that work is meant to be. In fact, sometimes it gets in the way.
Sometimes working for the common good is an impediment to what is work’s primary purpose: a real-time knowing and experience of God. Sometimes working for the common good becomes a works-based means of vocational salvation. And life with God becomes something that’s based on what we do for God as opposed to who we are before Him…
…Work must first be a gratitude-based response to a grace-filled encounter with our co-working God. It must be a place where we experience the presence of, are swept away by the creativity of, are enthralled by the beauty of, are humbled by the service of and are blown away by the mind of … God.
Pointing to the greatest commandment, Van Sloten summarizes his point through a slight re-phrasing: “Love God first, with all you’ve got, and then work for the common good”:
Love of God shapes and informs love of neighbor. You can’t fully love your neighbor (or yourself) unless you’re in a loving relationship with God. You won’t know why and when and how to work for the common good unless you’re doing it out of a real-time experience of the love of God – out of an understanding of His just-in-time, moral, thoughtful and creative presence (at work; not just before or after work).
Read the rest here.
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