Am I Wasting My Life in a Secular Job?

00:00:00.000 | (Music)

00:00:04.000 | Today's question comes to us from a listener named Joshua.

00:00:08.000 | "Pastor John, hello. As a Christian at the end of my life,

00:00:12.000 | have I really done all that I could have for Christ

00:00:16.000 | if I don't become a martyr for Him? I'm currently working

00:00:20.000 | in a skilled trade and by all accounts I'm climbing the ladder of success, so to speak.

00:00:24.000 | But a few years ago I began to feel that God was calling me into a path that might

00:00:28.000 | be deeper and more directly impactful for the Kingdom. I began to feel

00:00:32.000 | as though a life spent in the workforce or in corporate America was a waste

00:00:36.000 | of time and energy. I have spent several years trying to figure out

00:00:40.000 | God's calling on my life so far to no avail.

00:00:44.000 | My question is this. If I spend my life in a career that does not

00:00:48.000 | have the direct mission of spreading the gospel, isn't

00:00:52.000 | that wasteful? Why would God place me in a job that isn't

00:00:56.000 | involved in expanding His Kingdom, but rather consumes my energy and material

00:01:00.000 | production? And more directly, have I truly done

00:01:04.000 | everything, used every ounce of strength, given every fiber of my being

00:01:08.000 | to the Kingdom of God, if I don't become a

00:01:12.000 | martyr for Christ?" Pastor John, what would you say to

00:01:16.000 | Joshua? I have three

00:01:20.000 | cautions for Joshua, and then a couple

00:01:24.000 | of interpretations. The first caution is,

00:01:28.000 | I think it is invalid to persuade

00:01:32.000 | yourself to leave a job and enter

00:01:36.000 | a new ministry if the argument

00:01:40.000 | that you use to persuade yourself necessarily

00:01:44.000 | puts other obedient people in the category

00:01:48.000 | of disobedient. Let me try to explain. Joshua says,

00:01:52.000 | "I began to feel as though a life spent in the workforce

00:01:56.000 | or corporate America was a waste of time and energy."

00:02:00.000 | And then he says, "If I spend my life in a career that

00:02:04.000 | does not have the direct mission of spreading the gospel, isn't that

00:02:08.000 | wasteful?" So my counter question is,

00:02:12.000 | does Joshua believe that all

00:02:16.000 | other Christians who spend their life

00:02:20.000 | in the workforce or corporate America, or who spend their career

00:02:24.000 | in tasks that are not the direct

00:02:28.000 | mission of spreading the gospel, are those people

00:02:32.000 | living in disobedience? Is that the implication

00:02:36.000 | of the argument that Joshua is using

00:02:40.000 | to persuade himself that he doesn't belong there?

00:02:44.000 | Now, if it is, then there are two possibilities.

00:02:48.000 | One, no Christian should work in the ordinary marketplace,

00:02:52.000 | or two, the argument that Joshua is using

00:02:56.000 | to leave is invalid. As I read the New Testament,

00:03:00.000 | it is clear that the apostles do not intend

00:03:04.000 | that all Christians should leave their ordinary employment. The principle

00:03:08.000 | that Paul follows in 1 Corinthians 7.20 is

00:03:12.000 | each one should remain in the condition in which he was called, that he's called

00:03:16.000 | to be a Christian. Or, verse 24, "So, brothers, in whatever

00:03:20.000 | condition each of you was called, let him remain with God."

00:03:24.000 | Now, "with God" changes everything. It's not as though the

00:03:28.000 | apostles don't want there to be radical change in your life and in the way you

00:03:32.000 | relate to people and your job, but you don't have to leave your job in order to be a faithful

00:03:36.000 | Christian according to those principles. So that's my first caution.

00:03:40.000 | If, Joshua, you are going to leave your job

00:03:44.000 | to be sure that the reason

00:03:48.000 | you are leaving it does not put other people who

00:03:52.000 | don't leave in the position of being disobedient, because that would be

00:03:56.000 | an invalid reason, since God does not intend for everybody

00:04:00.000 | to leave. Second caution. Joshua is clearly concerned

00:04:04.000 | that he not come to the end of his life and have to

00:04:08.000 | admit, "I didn't truly do everything, use every

00:04:12.000 | ounce of strength, give every fiber of my being to the

00:04:16.000 | kingdom of God." Well, that's a worthy aspiration.

00:04:20.000 | And here's the caution. It is possible

00:04:24.000 | to be a missionary, living in an extremely risky

00:04:28.000 | place, and be killed by Christian haters

00:04:32.000 | even though you, in fact, were not

00:04:36.000 | doing everything you could, were not using every ounce

00:04:40.000 | of your strength that you had, and were not using every fiber

00:04:44.000 | of your being in devotion to Jesus, but were, in fact, wasting a lot

00:04:48.000 | of time acting in a worldly way with great timidity

00:04:52.000 | and caring very little about the people around you. That's possible.

00:04:56.000 | That happens. Missionaries can become like that. And

00:05:00.000 | conversely, it is possible to be working in corporate

00:05:04.000 | America and be using more of your strength, more fibers

00:05:08.000 | of your being, more ounces of your strength for the sake

00:05:12.000 | of the kingdom than if you were a missionary. In other words, there

00:05:16.000 | is no necessary correlation between

00:05:20.000 | where you work and what your assigned task is

00:05:24.000 | on the one hand, and your wholehearted devotion to Christ or the fruitfulness

00:05:28.000 | of his kingdom on the other hand. So be careful

00:05:32.000 | that you don't assume that a change

00:05:36.000 | of location or a change of vocation

00:05:40.000 | will mean that you are more devoted to Christ

00:05:44.000 | or more effective in winning lost people

00:05:48.000 | and more fruitful in glorifying the king. That's caution

00:05:52.000 | number two. Here's a third caution. Keep in mind

00:05:56.000 | that aiming to be a martyr is turning

00:06:00.000 | a God-decided result of faithfulness

00:06:04.000 | into a self-decided definition of faithfulness.

00:06:08.000 | You shouldn't do that. It may be that the path of obedience

00:06:12.000 | that God assigns to you will end in martyrdom.

00:06:16.000 | That's not your call. God's calling on our

00:06:20.000 | life is obedience and faithfulness and love and zeal.

00:06:24.000 | How it ends is his business, not ours.

00:06:28.000 | And remember, many have been martyred

00:06:32.000 | who were weak and worldly Christians, who happened

00:06:36.000 | to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And many

00:06:40.000 | have died natural deaths who were

00:06:44.000 | vastly more fruitful and effective Christians

00:06:48.000 | than some martyrs. There is no

00:06:52.000 | necessary correlation between the fruitfulness of your life

00:06:56.000 | and whether someone kills you or not.

00:07:00.000 | Now, those are my three cautions. Here are my two

00:07:04.000 | exhortations. It is certainly true

00:07:08.000 | that God has mysteriously,

00:07:12.000 | wonderfully led thousands of people to leave ordinary

00:07:16.000 | jobs in their homeland in order to move them

00:07:20.000 | onto frontline missionary work.

00:07:24.000 | And in most cases, part of God's strategy

00:07:28.000 | is to give people a sense of restlessness

00:07:32.000 | and a desire for something closer to

00:07:36.000 | an unreached place or an unreached people or a

00:07:40.000 | hands-on gospel ministry in the church.

00:07:44.000 | That restlessness is not the only means God uses

00:07:48.000 | to lead people, but it is often part of it.

00:07:52.000 | It certainly was part of it for me when I left one calling

00:07:56.000 | for another. And this restlessness is not

00:08:00.000 | an indictment of the other people who don't feel it.

00:08:04.000 | So I'm not telling Joshua to be quiet and stay

00:08:08.000 | where he is. Maybe not. This may indeed

00:08:12.000 | be God's moving in his life, which leads

00:08:16.000 | then to the last exhortation. Joshua says, "I have

00:08:20.000 | spent several years trying to figure out what that path looks like

00:08:24.000 | that God is calling me to so far to no avail."

00:08:28.000 | Now, I don't know Joshua. I don't know his situation,

00:08:32.000 | his relationships, his church affiliation, his maturity,

00:08:36.000 | his gifts. I'm in no position to tell him what to

00:08:40.000 | do specifically with his life. But if he

00:08:44.000 | means when he says, "I have spent several years trying to

00:08:48.000 | figure this out," if he means that he's been trying to figure it out

00:08:52.000 | alone in himself, between him and God, then

00:08:56.000 | probably what is needed is that he be more

00:09:00.000 | fully embedded in a fellowship of believers

00:09:04.000 | where other people can discern his gifts and his

00:09:08.000 | passions and his maturity, and in that way

00:09:12.000 | confirm for him God's call on his life.

00:09:16.000 | That's the way it ought to happen ordinarily. Not an

00:09:20.000 | isolated person trying to figure out the emotional state of their own

00:09:24.000 | soul or God's call on their life, but a member of a

00:09:28.000 | body of Christ using his gifts in

00:09:32.000 | relationship to other people and then discovering from

00:09:36.000 | the fruitfulness of his labors what he's

00:09:40.000 | effective at and what he loves to do and what others

00:09:44.000 | give him affirmation in doing. So my answer to Joshua's

00:09:48.000 | question is, whether you become a martyr or not

00:09:52.000 | will not be the evidence of whether you have spent your

00:09:56.000 | life fully devoted to Jesus or wasted it. That's

00:10:00.000 | not the test. And whether you should leave your present

00:10:04.000 | job and go into vocational gospel

00:10:08.000 | ministry is something you will most wisely discern

00:10:12.000 | in a Bible-saturated body of believers.

00:10:16.000 | Thank you, Pastor John, and thanks for the question, Joshua, and thanks for joining

00:10:20.000 | us today on the podcast. For our feed, our archive, or to send

00:10:24.000 | us a question of your own, go online to DesiringGod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:10:30.000 | Well, speaking of optimizing our lives for good,

00:10:34.000 | on the other side of the weekend, we are going to ask, "How do I glorify

00:10:38.000 | God in the little day-by-day things that fill my life

00:10:42.000 | up?" It's a really important question we all must resolve.

00:10:46.000 | How do I glorify God in the little day-by-day things?

00:10:50.000 | I'm Tony Reinke, and we'll see you back here on Monday.

00:10:54.000 | [music]

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Am I Wasting My Life in a Secular Job?

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