This weekend we will be ministering in Malacca at the kind invitation of our friends, the City Community Church. Friday night I will be sharing on the “Heavenly Meaning of our Daily Work”. Saturday morning I will share about “Spiritual Friendship”, how we need to follow Christ in the company of friends. (Sunday morning, I will have the privilege of speaking at the church’s Sunday service.) As I thought more about these two talks, I realised that they answered two fundamental questions — “What am I called to do?” and “Who will I walk with?” In other words, the talks seek to answer the questions of Vocation and Community.
We see these two dimensions of human life rooted in the creation account. Human beings were give important work to do — they were to manage creation on God’s behalf (Genesis 1:26–28). And they were meant to live in community — it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Yet Christian and non-Christian alike struggle with these two issues. Work is often reduced to a means to make a living, nothing more. And while we appreciate employment in these uncertain times, it is just not satisfactory when work has no intrinsic meaning and is seen as merely a means to an end. And the fast-paced world we live in is increasingly lonely.
“What am I called to do? ” “Who will I walk with?” These are questions we need to answer at every chapter of life. They are key questions for young adults as they enter a chapter of life where they take more responsibility for their own lives. These questions are key in mid-life when the awareness that we do not have all the time in the world makes it imperative to know what is our personal life mission. Knowing that we can’t do everything, what then should we do? And middle age is a time we need to take seriously the question of who will I grow old with? The timing of the talks as we enter December and head to another new year is also opportune. This is a good time to do an audit of our lives and revisit the key questions of life.
In John 17:4, as He faced the Cross, Jesus said that He had finished the work that the Father had assigned to Him. Our work will not have the same scope but we too need to grow in our awareness of what we have been called to do, and do it. And in John 15:12 we are commanded to love one another as Christ has loved us. Vocation and Community — it doesn’t get more basic than that
We live in chaotic and rapidly changing times. We need some constants to anchor our lives. God, what He has called us to do, and our friends, are three key ones.