Is your job beneath you?
Consider this before you throw it all away

What is God’s will for me? How can I more fully and selflessly serve God?

Too often we mistakenly believe that what we are currently doing in our life is too common and not grand enough to really be serving God. After all, if we really loved God, we would leave all we have and go into the wilderness – away from our community and family – and live among strangers! Not only is this poor theology, it is also thinking that will usually lead us farther away from God, not closer.

When we get into that kind of thinking, aren’t we, in effect, saying that this life God has given to us is not up to our standards? That we are too important for such humdrum common everyday tasks? We certainly know better than God what would be pleasing to him, don’t we?

We have two prominent stories that teach us otherwise. The first is about two people who have the perfect job tending a garden in the daily presence of God and they still thought they would be better off if they only possessed the fruit. And then there is the example of Jesus who taught us by his life to humbly serve others and to forgive our enemies. His job was to do the will of the Father, wherever that led him.

The courageous life – the fully human life – is to be true to the work and the life we have been given and to use God’s special gifts to bring a light to the darkness of the world. Rather than looking for what we can get out of a situation, wouldn’t it be better to look for what we might give? Mother Teresa said, “God does not call me to be successful, he calls me to be faithful.” God does not ask us to accomplish great results, he asks us to have a humble loving heart so he can accomplish great things through us.

By our baptism we are called to acknowledge God’s presence among us now and to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Our most important work is to be a disciple of Christ and a good steward of our personal vocations in this life. Each of us must discern, accept and live out joyfully and generously the commitments, responsibilities and roles to which God calls us. In the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, we are instructed that “Christ’s redemptive work ... includes also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the mission of the church is not only to bring the message and grace of Christ to (the world) but also to penetrate the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel.”

Each of us has a responsibility to engage and renew – not withdraw from – the world and society. We are called to develop and use our special gifts and talents which have been given by God to transform the world and serve others in and through our work.

Where in the darkness of this world has God already sent you to be a light?

– Michael Sullivan, SFO, is president of Sullivan & Sullivan, Inc., specializing in helping family businesses resolve conflicts and develop faith-filled organizations.

Originally Published: February 2002