Balancing Commitments

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph. 4:1–3 NIV)

We would expect an office with a "vocational counseling" sign on its door to offer us advice about finding work. But it is important to remember that work and vocation are not the same thing. Work may be a part of my vocation, but it is not the whole of my vocation; work may be one thing that I am called to do, but it is not the only thing I am called to do. As a husband I am called to love, honor, and encourage my wife; as a parent, to care and provide for my children; as a citizen, to be an informed participant in the political process; as a parishioner, to identify and make use of my spiritual gifts, edifying the community of faith; as a teacher, to instruct and advise my students. My vocation has many facets. If I am gainfully employed, my employment will count as only one of those facets.

This broad, rich, and variegated sense of vocation, encompassing all of life, goes back to Martin Luther's initial formulation of the concept of vocation in the sixteenth century. In spite of its auspicious beginnings, however, the concept of vocation soon fell upon hard times. By the late seventeenth century the meaning of the word "vocation" had, in the vocabulary of the Puritans, been whittled down to the point where it meant little more than paid employment.

This is an unfortunate development. But it leads directly to our present-day notion that a vocation is nothing more than a job. "Vocational training" means "job training." If we are asked what our vocation is, we are expected to say what we do for a living. It follows that finding one's "calling in life" is a matter of finding an occupation; that a person without a job is also without a vocation; and that the aspects of a person's life outside work do not have the dignity of being vocations—they are merely the insignificant details of personal life.

To gain a full-orbed, properly nuanced, and balanced view of the place of work in human life, it is imperative to recover the broad sense of vocation. For an occupation is only one element in the total configuration of my vocation. After I've done my job as an employee, I still have other things to do as a spouse, a parent, a parishioner, a neighbor, and a citizen. If I pour myself into my work, with nothing left over to give my spouse, my children, church, community, or country, I have neither heard nor heeded the full scope of God's call in my life. For as Karl Barth once pointed out, human life "is not exhausted in the process of labor." Work, family, church, education, politics, and leisure must each of them find their place, shoulder to shoulder, under the concept of vocation.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col. 3:17 NIV)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30 NIV)

Questions for discussion

• Why, in our society, do so many of us privilege working above all other activities?

• What would an ideally balanced life look like to you?