After a year of being pretty much unemployed, save for only
working one day a week, I have started a new job. It’s nothing too fancy, and
it’s not at all what I thought I would be doing with my degree. I help manage
an online store of a very successful e-commerce business that is growing very
fast. I sit at a desk from 8AM till 4PM with only 30 minutes allotted for break
time a day. It is very laid back and yet still very professional. The people
are nice and the way the business is run is very impressive.
After only a week working there, I found myself thinking,
“how in the world am I to do anything meaningful for the Lord while sitting at
a desk for 8 hours a day, only really having contact with the three or four
people in the cubicles around me?” After a year of praying for God to use me
for His glory and ministry, I’m stuck here in a cubicle.
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Don’t get me wrong, I love my cubicle and desk.
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I thought for sure the Lord would lead me to a ministry job
of some sorts that helped to make a difference in the lives of others. During
the majority of my college career I was on the frontlines of war. A culture
war, a spiritual war, a war determined the life or death of millions of
Americans. While attending Summit Ministries, the Lord spoke to me telling me that
He wanted me to go to war. After seeking the advice and counsel of several
mentors, I answered God’s call. At the time, I did not know that I was going to
war, but it wouldn’t take long for me to find out. This war was against death
itself. The Lord called me to be a voice for the voiceless, to stand up for
those who could not stand up for themselves. He called me to sand up against
Abortion. Since 1973, abortion has taken the lives of over 60 million innocent
human beings in America. That is ten times as many than were killed in Hitler’s
Holocaust. My first step in this battle was to restart my college’s Pro-Life
group. I had been involved with it briefly my freshman year but didn’t really
know much about the subject. At Summit God provided me with the resources I
needed to learn in order to lead this group. With the help of the Lord, and my
good friend Robby, we rebuilt the group from the ground up and we accomplished
a lot. We focused of educating people about abortion and helping pregnant and
parenting students on campus. We had baby showers, information booths, fund
raisers for our local pregnancy care center that we helped to open. The Lord
was using us to accomplish great things.
I was also given the opportunity to do a 3-month internship
in the nation’s capitol working with several major pro-life organizations as
well as in the office of a pro-life congressman. I was in the heat of the
cultural, intellectual, and spiritual battle for the equal right to life of all
human beings. I saw the evil one in the faces and slogans of the angry and
militant protestors who wanted the right to kill their children. I saw the
affects of the evil one in the faces and tears of women and men who had been
badly hurt by abortion. I met post-abortive men and women whose regret caused
them to become pro-life activists. I met former abortionists and abortion
clinic workers who are now standing up for the right to life. I met people who
were born due to their mother’s being raped, that were told by society that
because of the circumstances of their their conception, that they did not have
the right to live. I even met a survivor of a failed abortion who now travels
the country telling her story. I heard story after story of the terrible
affects that abortion had on society. I was surrounded by death and pain. I
knew that the Lord was using me to help people, and I knew that it was nothing
that I could have ever done myself, it was only through His leading that I was
able to help these people. I was found that I was most comfortable at war. The
fields were rip for the Lord’s healing. That’s where He led me, and that’s what
I was to do. I even wrote a small book that focused on getting churches and
ministers educated and more involved with helping to end abortion and helping those
that suffer because of it.
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| Students For Life Interns on the steps of the Supreme Court in July of 2014 |
After I graduated from college I spent a year of
unemployment. During that time, I helped lead multiple Bible studies, helped to
mentor and encourage many people, and share the gospel with many people.
Although jobless, I was being used by the Lord to minister to people. Towards
the end of my unemployment and into the beginning of my new job, the evil one
placed thoughts into my mind telling me that I was useless. As I observed my
situation, I realized something that I had never realized before. Many times in
movies and in real life, characters and individuals that have spent time in war
have a hard time adjusting back to normal life. The conflict and excitement
became normal for them, they were serving a great purpose and helping to
protect innocent people. When they returned to normal life, it was too dull,
they felt useless, they had still had the mentality of a soldier but were not
on the frontlines any more. I used to think that was a silly concept, but I
finally understood it. The feeling of knowing you are being used for something
great and protecting innocent people from the evil one is a rewarding feeling
and, despite the horrors they face, everyday they wake up ready to serve. I now
understood that. I was back home from a war that was continuing to wage on. I
realized that even though I was no longer on the frontlines like I was so
accustomed to, I can still contribute to the fight. I can continue to educate
people about the issue of abortion, I can still volunteer at my local pregnancy
care center, I can still write about it and discuss it with people. That isn’t
as glorious and showy as being on the frontlines, but it is equally as
important. Simply a different front to fight on.
I know, you’re probably wondering, “how does this relate to
his new job that he talked about in the beginning?”. I’m glad you asked. As I
previously stated, I recently started thinking, “how in the world am I to do
anything meaningful for the Lord while sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day, only
really having contact with the three or four people in the cubicles around
me?”. I thought that I would have a job in the pro-life movement or in some
type of Christian non-profit that made a difference in people’s lives. I wasn’t
in it for the money, I was in it to help people. As long as I had enough to
make ends meet, I was content. But alas, here I am sitting on my butt 8 hours a
day. Several people I know, and a Bible verse helped me to come to terms with
this quandary. Upon bringing this up to my friend and mentor, Daniel Brown, he made
me realize that you don’t have to work in a ministry to have a ministry. He said
something along the lines of, “Do your ministry after work, invest in people
and meet with people after your work day, that’s what I do.” That made sense. Although I can still minister
to people at my work, if the opportunity presents itself, my after work hours
are where I can do my ministry to others. A week later I was talking to a very
inspiring pro-life advocate by the name of Jason Jones. You can read his story
of how the death of his daughter through abortion changed the course of his
life here.
I was asking Jason for advice on a political matter and he
sent me a link to a video that he filmed a few weeks earlier. While the answer
he gave answered the question I asked, it went deeper and helped me with this
personal issue of ministry that I have been trying to come to terms with. In the
video he sent me he was addressing conservative people who are worried about the
election and don’t feel comfortable voting for Donald Trump. He pointed out
that if we think that the only thing that matters in politics and saving our
country is the presidential election, then we know nothing about politics. He
said that if we really care about our country and our future, we should be
involved in the free institutions of civil society such as our churches, our
families, our neighborhoods, our communities. Jason said, “You know, we all
only have so much time and so much energy. There are a lot of races and cycles,
the presidential election is just one.” Not only did this answer the initial
question I asked him, it made me think about my job and ministry. We all only
have so much time and energy, and yes, there are a lot of opportunities for for
ministry, but our place of work is only one opportunity. So what if you don’t work
in a ministry position, there are tons of other places that you can minister
in. That’s what I took away from what he said. God was able to use Jason’s
advice on one subject to help me in another area of my life.
The last and final thing that helped me figure this thing
out came to me while preparing to lead my Monday night bible study. I was reading
through 1 Corinthians 9. In this letter the apostle Paul is defending his right
as an apostle to get financial support from churches. Although he refuses to
take anything from the church in Corinth, he tells them that he is entitled to
it nonetheless.
“Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus
our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not
be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my
apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me.
Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we
have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles
and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the
right to not work for a living?”
-1 Cor. 9:1-6
As much ministry as Paul and his ever- encouraging companion,
Barnabas, did, they still had a day job that they worked at to receive money to
live on. I’m not sure what Barnabas did, but we know that from Acts 18:3 that
Paul was a tentmaker. Several times throughout his letters Paul references
working (1 Cor. 4:12, 1 Thess. 2:9, and 1 Thess. 4:11). So, even the greatest
missionary that ever lived, a man who dedicated his entire life to the point of
death for Christ, even he had a day job that he did in addition to his amazing
ministry. His day job was not what defined him, a tentmaker is not what he was
most well known for. It was a minor part of his life.
All this to say, I realized that I was looking for a job in
a ministry so that I could identify as this ministry or that ministry. In our
society we place so much on our occupation. When you meet someone new, one of
the first questions you ask them is “where do you work?” or “what do you do for
a living?”. We identify people as “Andy the mechanic”, “John the college
professor” or “Steven the doctor”. As a society we are to blame for identifying
people as their occupations. That’s they way everyone sees it: you are what you
do. Its such a huge deal. But as Christians, should we make such a big deal
over where we work? Should our identities be reduced to our occupation? A
friend and mentor of mine often says, “I’m not a doctor who happens to be a
Christian, I’m a Christian who happens to be a doctor.”. Doctoring is what he
does, but it isn’t who he is. He is a Christian. As Christians we find our
identity in Christ. We are children of God (John 1:12), branches of the true
vine (John 15:1-5), friends of Jesus (John 15:15), justified and redeemed (Romans
3:24), crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6), free of condemnation (Rom. 8:1),
co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17), saints (1 Cor. 1:2), temples of the Holy
Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19), and the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). We are so
much more than simply our occupation. What we do does not define or identify
us.
So, let’s be like Paul, he didn’t identify as a tentmaker,
he identified as many different things, all within the framework of his
identity in Christ.
It’s not to say that you can’t have a ministry at work. That
is totally fine. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all
your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,”. Ephesians 6:7
says, “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people,”. We can also be a light in a dark world at work
just by having a good attitude and being kind to all people. Let everyone see
something different in you. Let Christ shine through you. As my momma always
says, “You might be the only Jesus that some people see.”. There are so manylittle things we can do at work that bring glory to God.
In closing, I want to share with you some wise words by
Keith Krell, his identity is a Christian, but his occupation is senior pastor of Fourth Memorial Church in
Spokane, WA and associate professor of biblical exposition at Moody Bible
Institute–Spokane. He says,
"In 1 Thess. 2:9 Paul writes, “For you recall, brethren, our labor and
hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we
proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” If you read 1
Corinthians 9, Paul makes it clear in that passage that he doesn’t consider it
wrong for a man to live off the preaching of the gospel. And in 1 Timothy
5 he says that an elder who both rules and teaches is worthy of “double
honor,” which presumes that elders would in fact be paid for their work. But he
himself apparently worked in secular jobs wherever he went so that he would be
free of any accusations about his motives. His work ethic was exemplary.
Tragically, many Christians give Christianity a black-eye because of their poor
work performance. This is a crying shame, since work is an expression of
worship and it also serves as a powerful witness. This week, will you go to
your cubicle or your classroom or home and work as unto the Lord? As you work
your daily grind for the glory of God the mundane and monotonous nature of your
work can become extraordinary in its kingdom impact. A little example can
have a big influence.”
