Steve Massey: Christians share a common calling in life

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n the spirit of the season, here’s one last pop quiz for our graduates:

What’s the difference between your vocation and your calling?

This is no trick. Take time with your answer, though; it will have great bearing on the way you live your life.

Let me explain. When a need can be met by your talents and abilities, you’ve found a vocation.

Back in high school, my hometown’s need for pizza coincided with my ability to work with the public and run a giant dough mixer. For a short time, my vocation was making pizza.

But it was not my calling. Nor was working in a feed mill, nor flipping burgers, nor, ultimately, reporting and editing for newspapers.

All were worthy vocations in their season.

None was a calling.

Some people go 20 or 30 years without knowing the difference between vocation and calling. Their lives are defined – and consumed – by what they do for a living.

My vocation has changed many times, but my calling has not changed one bit since I accepted Christ as my savior. Sure, my commitment to the calling comes and goes like a tide; just ask the people who’ve worked with me. Yet the calling remains steady.

The Bible says Christians – true followers of Jesus Christ – have been divinely enabled, and charged, to show the love and light of Jesus wherever God places us, whether it’s a pizza parlor or behind a pulpit.

This is our calling.

The Scriptures explain this calling in the simplest of terms so that all may understand. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world – like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16 – NLT)

This calling energizes any vocation we put our hands and minds to. This calling makes life a journey far more satisfying, challenging and purposeful than climbing a corporate ladder or building a better pizza – or church. This calling means that no matter what we do for a living, our primary mission is to convey the likeness of Christ in all that we do.

Although vocation and calling are different, they have one thing in common. Both require devotion.

I have to confess, I never really was devoted to making pizza. In fact, my co-workers and I – all of us still in high school – delighted in pouring jalapeno pepper juice onto pizzas ordered by folks who really bugged us at school. We’d duck behind the counter and stifle laughter as those pizzas were eaten.

Like I said, this calling ebbs and flows, right?

Seriously though, success at work eludes us without devotion. Talk to anyone who truly excels at a vocation and you’ll sense a measure of devotion – commitment and passion for the task at hand.

And so it is with our calling.

Jesus compares his followers to light; we’re to shine the love, grace, mercy and holiness of God wherever he sends us.

He also compares us to salt; like salt preserves and enhances food, so Christians ought to influence the world for the better: “… But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?” (Matthew 5:13 – NLT)

Unfortunately, some Christians leave their faith at home, or at church, choosing to live a fragmented lifestyle. For them, faith is merely a private thing.

And because of the resulting duplicity, the world has a distorted view of Christianity.

That approach doesn’t at all reflect the life of Christ.

Jesus was holy, wherever he went. Jesus loved, no matter who he was with. Jesus forgave, even as his enemies pounded nails into his hands and feet.

Jesus stood for truth, no matter who was in his audience.

And this same Jesus empowers his followers to do likewise, asking just one thing in return: devotion to him.

The Bible calls it obeying, following, abiding… even resting. All are words of devotion to Jesus Christ:

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5 – NKJV)

Christian friend, devotion to Christ is the key to real success, whether you’re a banker or a baker.

Why settle for a vocation when you’ve been blessed with a calling?