Worship

Scripture

The semester after I retired from my full-time career in public higher education, I accepted a job teaching at the Catholic high school in our home town.  Right before school started in mid-August, I attended a faculty inservice at the Diocese.  At the end of the program, the Superintendent of Schools rose before the assembly and delivered an impassioned pep talk that was more thrilling than anything I ever heard in a teacher in-service meeting.  She spoke of how we must regard our teaching not merely as a job but as a holy calling.  I’ll never forget the way she ended.  With force and passion in her tone, she admonished us: “If you don’t believe this job is your calling, then you go straight home to your principal and tell him or her to find somebody else, because you’re not coming back!”

Her challenge and her conviction fell fresh on receptive ears, as I lifted and waved a holy hand right there in the teachers meeting and uttered a couple of audible amens—not normal conduct in most Catholic meetings!  But I had worked in public education for almost 30 years, where any public reference to teaching as a calling unto Christ was forbidden.   I felt a worship moment right there in the faculty meeting as I realized that what she was telling me about my profession and career was true!  Unmistakably, God gifted and purposed my life to teach. I always knew that, but now for the first time in all those years in toiling for the state, I had the freedom to openly acknowledge and celebrate that calling in my workplace.  

I thought of this experience lately in reading the Old Testament prophets, who like Joel were men who responded to a holy calling.  We may not all be called to our vocations in the same sense as the prophets, but hopefully we do find a calling in the work for which God gifts us, secular or otherwise.  Although the state or the supervisor or the peer environment in our respective workplaces may limit our freedom to profess and proclaim our faith, we can still commit our work to the glory of God. He will bless that work to his purpose!

Prayer

HONOR GOD

There is nothing too big for our God. Honor His greatness!

ASK GOD

SUBMIT TO GOD