Responding to a Calling, or Just Doing a Job?

Responding to a Calling, or Just Doing a Job?
by, Charles W. Christian

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

I didn’t really “hit my stride” as a student until graduate school. That’s pretty rare, I guess, since generally people go to graduate school precisely because they did well in other areas of academics. Oh, I was a good high school student – honor society and all of that. However, I did not really excel in any particular area, and that carried over into college. I didn’t fail anything, but there were only a few courses that saw me do much better than a B or C I was there to get a degree, and so I did what it took to do the task of completing courses and getting a diploma.

Then, graduate school came. Instead of going to law school, a course of study that did interest me a great deal, I ended up responding to a call to Christian ministry and enrolling in seminary. I had started pastoral ministry as a part-time youth/education pastor in my home church at the end of college, and God used this to drive home a calling that I had been running from since high school. Maybe my running is part of the reason that I never really felt a passion for academics. I “got by” and even did better than many in high school and parts of college. However, I only felt like a passionate student when I was able to connect with a course of study that connected me with my life’s calling.

Even after a long course of study in seminary (a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree takes about as long as a law degree), I wanted more. So, I applied and was accepted to a Ph.D. program that allowed me to study with some people whose books I had read in seminary! This course of study was not easy by any means, and I must confess that I was tempted to quit several times. After all, I did not need a Ph.D. to do the work I was assigned to do in ministry. I had already been ordained, even before I finished my master’s degree. But, I had already learned an important lesson about running from a sense of God’s calling, and I was not going to put myself through that kind of misery again. Besides, the subject areas were now a passion of mine. I was no longer going through the motions. I was connecting with what I was reading, formulating arguments, defending positions, and exploring these areas with the wonder of a kid in a candy store.

So, as difficult as the process of writing seminar papers, getting a topic approved, and moving along the journey of writing a 200-plus page dissertation was, it felt “right,” because it really felt like what God was calling me to do. Along the way I heard the story of a colleague who was ahead of me in completing his Ph.D. program at another school. He was an ordained minister but, unlike me, had chosen to become a full-time professor (I taught as an adjunct, but was a full-time pastor). He said that every day he went to the library, had his devotional time, spent two to three hours in research five days per week, and then wrote at least an hour per day. He was asked once what he would do if he knew that the world would end tomorrow. His response: “I would get up, do my devotions, go to the library and do research, and then try and get in an hour of writing.” I was floored. I thought he had lost his mind (there were always rumors among doctoral students that we were more susceptible to this sort of thing!). He added: “Unless, of course, I sensed God calling me to do something else. I just don’t want to do anything to interfere with the calling He has placed upon my life.”

Wow. That got my attention. This was more than an academic exercise. It was a calling that required all kinds of work and discipline in order to fulfill it. It was, like all callings, something that requires sacrifice, focus, and a sense of passion about both the subject matter and about the One who calls. There are many days when my friend’s testimony got me through sleepless nights, financial and time sacrifices, and general malaise about reading one more book or writing one more line while trying to also be faithful in my calling as a husband, father, and a pastor. But that’s how callings work. And that’s why God calls all of us, not just pastor and scholar types. We, like our predecessors in the Kingdom of God, have many days when it is the simple fact that God calls us that keeps us going. Ask Moses, ask Elijah, ask Paul…ask Jesus!

In 2003, after five years of plowing through, I was awarded a Ph.D. in theology. I did not feel that I had “arrived,” though. I still had other callings to fulfill. I was still a husband, dad, part-time professor, and a full-time pastor. To this day, I blush at being referred to as “Dr. Christian,” and I never ask for people to refer to me in this way. My doctoral study was just one part of an even bigger calling, just as the other jobs and responsibilities I have are also parts of a bigger calling. That bigger calling: to be a servant of Jesus Christ and a representative of His Kingdom, wherever I may be. If He were to return tomorrow, I hope that all of the comparatively smaller callings I have had the invitation to follow would amount to Him saying to me “Well done” in regard the big one. His initial calling of grace, His invitation to follow Him, is still what keeps me going. I’m thankful that in this kingdom, we don’t just do tasks or jobs. We fulfill a calling: a calling from God Himself!