What does a person do if they have no profession? Or, more candidly, what does it mean to be human when someone has no profession?
While studying theology and Christian ministry at Princeton Seminary it dawned on me that I had to make a living. Yet it irritated me to think that preaching the gospel could be considered a profession. I thought that preaching was a calling not a profession. I had consciously chosen to pursue Christ not a career. To put it in Pauline terms, I died to the idea of career and even profession. Admittedly, my knowledge of worldly success was inconsequential and making a living took second fiddle to a deep desire to know Christ and the power of His resurrection (Philippians 3.10). Trusting that God would supply all my need in Christ Jesus was merely a characteristic of my conversion to the gospel.
I believed then, as I do now, that I am called in the Word of God to glorify and enjoy God. That’s my purpose and my vocation. Within the scope of my calling to be fully dependent on Jesus Christ, any work, including that of any profession, can be seen as working out that calling (vocation) with fear and trembling. In other words, no profession, discipline or employment, as such, defines me. What I do is important only in light of who I am. But who I am is my calling or vocation.
Enjoy, ron
