Are You Dressed for Success?

A baseball player who donned the New York Yankees' pinstripes for the first time felt a challenge to new levels of excellence—as if his job description were rewritten and his performance standards elevated. No longer was he just a major league ballplayer; he played for the Yankees, the world champions. This Yankee identity was more, far more, than any other team could offer.

Included in a display on the office of the President of the United States at the new National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is this statement: “The only position higher than that of 'president' is 'citizen.'” Each American is called to the highest definition of citizenship. This brings us to the highest possible position title: People of God. Or, laity (the Greek work laos means people). Or, Christian. The Christian layperson's position and title confer a job description: “to live like God's people, like people belonging to Christ.” Which is, as Elton Trueblood put it, “Your Other Vocation.”

Jesus sums up the job description that goes with our title in two statements. First: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.” Second: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Nothing is more important; no responsibility is higher than love. Love is our vocation, our calling. Love is a high, high calling to be exercised and fulfilled in each and every aspect of our lives, 24/7. We receive this position completely by God's grace with instructions to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called” (Eph. 4:1).

Writing to the Colossians, Paul lists the high standards of the Christian calling with a “dress- for-success” image. Because of Christ's resurrection and our baptism, Paul says, we have a new wardrobe that requires us to live consistently with who and whose we are—like a new Yankee who must now play like a Yankee. In our work, our families, our leisure, or as responsible citizens in our communities, our new uniform calls us to exemplify:

• compassion (Buechner says this is a “sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside someone else's skin")
• kindness (reflecting the epitome of kindness, Jesus)
• genuine and strong humility, gentleness (nothing is stronger)
• patience (persistence in the refusal to be hasty)
• tolerance (loving someone whom you don't like)
• forgiveness (This is a tough one, but it is not optional—“forgive as freely as Christ has forgiven you.”)

And above everything else:

• love

As citizens of the Kingdom of God and members of Christ's team, we continually ask, How do I exercise compassion, kindness, and humility in my work? In what way can I be gentle and patient at home? How do I put form and substance to tolerance and forgiveness in my neighborhood and city?” These are the job requirements of the laos, the People of God. These are the high standards of our position, our high, high calling in every aspect of our everyday lives.

Big job, high standards: What a uniform. What a team.