Remember a time in your life when you made a major commitment, maybe a time when you were announcing your engagement?

Jesus had a similar kind of excitement when he made an announcement going into the temple on the Sabbath. He unrolled the Isaiah scroll and he found the place that read, ``The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.'' Jesus was saying that he was the fulfillment of this scriptural passage. He was announcing to his hometown folks who he was. What a declaration! What a dramatic moment!

When people believe they have a God-appointed mission, they virtually cannot be defeated. No sacrifice, no discouragement, no obstacle can thwart them. Many of the forebearers of our country came with a sense of divine mission. And think of what they went through, all kinds of hardships.

How radically different is this God-confidence from what many people experience today. Secular people want to have, in the buzzword of our time, ``self-esteem.'' And for some, belief in self-esteem is virtual religion. Now let me hasten to add, I am not against self-esteem. Properly understood, self-esteem's important, but it's not the Holy Grail.

Search throughout Scripture, and you will not find the modern concept of self-esteem. You will find something much more profound. You will find God-esteem.

Now, proper God-esteem can give anyone more than enough positive self-regard for a dozen lives. God-esteem means we understand ourselves in relationship to God, not as radically autonomous persons whose primary mission is self-chosen. Sometimes we recoil at the idea of divine mission, and we say, ``Crazed fanatics say that!'' But that's a distortion.

Vocation comes from vocare, to call. We all have divine callings. Some believe that the moral deterioration of our society can be reversed if lay people, dedicated people of God, will see their worth as law clerks, regulation writers, business people and so on, as calls from God. The purpose of the church is to prepare us and sustain us when we're not in church.

I think it's fine for young people to ask career questions such as: What am I good at? What pays well? Where are my talents? What will I enjoy doing? These are all good issues to raise, but they are not the most important matters. The critical questions are: How can I make the world a better place? What does God want me to do?

What if you have a life work that is utterly devoid of any meaning? As we discern, we will see we have four choices. First of all, we may quit our jobs and find another. It's radical but it's not impossible.

The second option to find meaning in our work our ministry when our work day is finished. This is what St. Paul did. He supported himself by making tents. The third option is that we can prepare for our post-retirement ministry, and fourth we could stay in our present jobs and see it in a new way. We can see it as a way to serve God.

Sometimes you'll meet somebody who sees their work as a supermarket checkout person as a ministry. You go to these people, and they say, ``Hi, how are you?'' They give you a genuine smile, they are giving you something of themselves, they thank you when you leave. You know, I feel a lift.

Now we must all first recognize and affirm those who see their work and ministry as primarily through the context of the family. This crucial ministry has unfortunately been denigrated in recent years to the great detriment of our society.

The spirit of God is upon you, because He has anointed you. Jesus was God-oriented, not self-oriented. And we can be also.

Rev. Carl Bickel

© 1995 Carl O. Bickel

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