The radio interview on my car was pretty standard. Did the host of a Christian program interview a very popular Christian music star?Something I wasn’t really interested in while driving down the road, but then the discussion addressed the theme of the Lord’s service in the ministry. The musician told all listeners how his brother had been a truck driver, but he gave up his job to serve the Lord as an assistant pastor, prompting a warm statement from the presenter, who was in fact mocking the relative insignificance of being a truck driver. he congratulated his brother: “I always knew there was more for you than being a truck driver. “
There are 3. 2 million truck drivers in the United States.
- I hung and drove silently down the road and wondered: Which truckers have heard this feeling now?A Christian superstar has just suggested that 3.
- 2 million truckers are less important than assistant pastors.
A big question now floats in the air, a question with profound implications about the meaning of their life and their vocation: truckers, the same truckers who carry our food, clothing, building materials and church sound systems, the least important to God. ?
Decidedly, the only true measure of meaning is how much something or someone is appreciated by God, but many people mistakenly believe that God only appreciates ministerial work, because he cares for eternal souls. In their minds, ministry is the only job that counts. For eternity. They assume that God attaches little value to the work that deals with temporal things in day-to-day life, if he does. The implicit position of our vocations is evident. Moreover, when someone in this position does not pay attention to words, it seems that he applies that same position to the individual value of each person to God. Our superstar probably didn’t want to suggest that truckers are less important to God, but that’s what many of us hear.
I have heard hundreds of similar testimonies in seminaries, conferences, and churches across the continent. You’ve probably heard that too. Missionaries, pastors and members of aid teams stand up and tell us about jumping into almost every profession imaginable. Did they answer there? Superior full-time call. – Department. Are you giving up your jobs in the market to do something meaningful?for the Lord. ? Meanwhile, the rest of the world, the remaining workforce, looks up from a church bench and hears the stories?Stories often adorned with contempt for ancient works?Speaker.
Will the public sometimes affirm the speaker’s decision to move from success to meaning?Offering one? Yes?Hallelujah!? They can even applaud the speaker. But what about the trucker, the one who sits silently nine benches back, the third on the left, do you feel at the time?And what about the pious accountant, engineer, retailer, bank manager and everyone else who will get up early the next morning?How should everyone feel at that time?
They told me. I heard your frustration, your unrecognized stories, and sometimes your desperation. You know, was I the speaker before? The one on stage getting the applause. I am a former CFO who became a missionary and ended up giving public lectures such as Every Time I Speak, I stay a little later and talk to the public about their specific problems and concerns. As a result, I have had countless conversations with people seeking an answer to the question of meaning. Sit on these benches and ask: Have I lost my call in life?Doesn’t the work of my life make sense to God?Is ministry the only way to have an impact on eternity?Do you sometimes look with resignation and guilt? Vocational guilt. But this guilt is a lie.
The truth is beautiful. The truth is that the common, daily and earthly work of Christian life has a overwhelming meaning given by the contact of God’s magnificent glory. God takes eternity ardently cast from the forge of his sovereignty. Then, as a teacher of his apprentice, he entrusts the hammer to us (Ecclesiastes 9:10; Colossses 3:17, 23; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Thessaloniki 3: 6-12). He said, “Hit! Hit here. That’s where you belong. That’s where I want you to influence eternity. Live the life I gave you to live. ” And then, in a babbling of reverence, we took the hammer. Do we live our lives? Our common, daily and painful life. The hammer falls. Chispas. La is doubled and the Master is satisfied (Matthew 25:21).
Does God, the creator of the universe, conceive our daily lives to make a difference?Are fuel filters, tax returns, dirty laundry and gaucho roasting important to him?Here (especially the Gaucho roast). Can a life as an engineer, florist, or gospel-guided real estate agent be as important to God as the life of a pastor, missionary, or humanitarian rescuer?
Is something huge going on here?and we’re right in the middle. Know your name and mine. Did you give each of us a life to live, a common and everyday life?a special place for us to model eternity (Philippians 1:27; Colossses 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 4:11; 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-12).
You and I looked at our ordinary lives and thought, “Really?Should it be epic? But the Master is satisfied. He forges his masterpiece with him. And when we see what he did to her, he will surprise us (1 Corinthians 2: 9) He will touch the souls of men, dazzle the angels, please the heart of God, and glorify his name.
This excerpt was adapted from Paul Rude’s new book Significant Work: Discover the Extraordinary Worth of What You Do Every Day (Everyday Significance, 2013).