August 31, 2018
What was your first job? Do you remember it? I do! I was 14 years old and I was hired at an ice cream shop in a mall in South Florida. You know what it was called? Dipper Dans! This week I searched for it to see if the chain was still in business. Turns out they have one on Main Street in Dahlonega. One day when I have some time, I think Carol and I might drive up there to get a double scoop in a sugar cone.
Over the next few years, I worked several other jobs. I was a bus boy in an upscale restaurant. I washed dishes at a pizza place in LaGrange. During college I did some construction work one summer and mowed grass another summer. Over the Christmas holidays one year I even worked in the china department of Neiman Marcus at Lenox Square. Given my inclination for dropping things, boy, the manager sure took a chance on that hire.
I worked a lot of different jobs, but I never felt like they were my calling. A person’s calling is that job where God is able to use the gifts and graces which God has bestowed upon the person to fulfill God’s work in our world. It involves passion. It involves a sense of meaning and fulfillment. It involves using our work to worship God. In time I would discover my calling was to be a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Almost anything can be a calling. I have known people who worked in the construction industry and landscaping business who would tell you it was their calling. The other day, I bumped into a man who has owned a sandwich shop for about 40 years. He loves what he does. It is his calling. I suppose even owning an ice cream shop can be a person’s calling. Here’s the real question, “Is the work you do a form of your worship of Christ and do you use it to serve others?”
Today, we begin the Labor Day Weekend. Many of us will have a little extra time off this weekend. I hope you have a chance to enjoy some rest and relaxation. But I also hope you will use this time to reflect on how Christ can better use you this next year through the work you do.
Have a great Labor Day Weekend,
Dan