{"id":25611,"date":"2020-01-28T16:06:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T00:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=25611"},"modified":"2020-01-28T16:06:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-29T00:06:03","slug":"vocational-assurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/vocational-assurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Vocational Assurance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading through Weber\u2019s The Protestant Ethic<\/em> raised a lot of questions and contained a lot of thought provoking ideas.\u00a0 I can honestly say that the notion that Calvinism serves as one of the roots of Capitalism has never crossed my mind, so this was a deep dive into new territory.<\/p>\n

As I was reading, one of the themes that popped out was the question of our motivation when it comes to work.\u00a0 Why do we work?\u00a0 What is it that drives us?<\/p>\n

I find it interesting that Weber attributes Calvinism as a driving force to the rise of Capitalism.\u00a0 To summarize the argument, Weber points out that it is the doctrine of predestination that serves as the catalyst for this.\u00a0 Weber writes, \u201cThis doctrine, with all the pathos of its inhumanity, had one principal consequence for the mood of a generation which yielded to its magnificent logic: it engendered, for each individual, a feeling of tremendous inner loneliness.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 What this led to was a need to have an assurance of salvation that they could not get.\u00a0 Weber writes that \u201ctireless labor in a calling was urged as the best possible means of attaining this self-assurance.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 After all, if only God truly knows who the Elect are, how can one know they fall into that category?<\/p>\n

What I find ironic in this line of reasoning is that the doctrine of predestination led to a mentality and lifestyle that is contrary to the fundamental tenets of the Protestant Reformation: That humankind is saved by grace alone and not by works.\u00a0 In order to have a sense that they were following the will of God, Calvinists would reinvest any surplus they made back into their community, thus adding fuel to capitalism.\u00a0 This is a fascinating thought to me because it shows the ramifications that theology has outside the immediate sphere of influence of the church.\u00a0 At the same time, it also shows the extent that Christians will go to in order to have assurance of salvation.<\/p>\n

Practically, this begs the question of how our theology affects the way we live our day to day lives.\u00a0 I ask the question, \u201cWhy do we work?\u201d as a means of identifying our motivation for why<\/em> we do certain actions.\u00a0 Are we motivated by fear (i.e., in the case of the early Calvinists)?\u00a0 Are we motivated by love?\u00a0 Are we motivated by greed?\u00a0 Pride?\u00a0 Lust?\u00a0 The betterment of humanity? \u00a0Filling our wallets?<\/p>\n

This leads into the next major point: Calling and vocation.\u00a0 At some point in our lives, we have asked the question, \u201cWhat is my purpose?\u201d or \u201cWhy am I here?\u201d\u00a0 The notion of calling is something that we yearn for.\u00a0 We want<\/em> to know what God\u2019s plan for our lives are so that we don\u2019t waste our time doing other things.\u00a0 While there are many interpretations of what it means to have a calling or to \u201cseek God\u2019s will for our lives,\u201d there\u2019s something special about going to your job and putting your best effort into it.<\/p>\n

When I first moved to Hong Kong, I took my current position as an English teacher because I felt I was called to serve in this capacity.\u00a0 There was no divine \u201cAh ha!\u201d moment, but rather it was the gradual desire to work with teenagers in Hong Kong after my time volunteering in the summers.\u00a0 During the vision trip portion of my first summer volunteering, we were given the following quote by Hudson Taylor:<\/p>\n

Finding one\u2019s purpose with God can be a strange and mysterious journey.\u00a0 Or it can be as plain as asking God for a task and then watching your desire for that task grow within you.\u00a0 Problem is, most of us forget to ask God to fill us with a fervent spirit to serve Him.\u00a0 Then, years later, we wake up and realize we had our life.\u00a0 We made our small choices\u2026our safe choices.\u00a0 But somehow, we missed the richness of following our God down an uncharted path.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While some people may have a \u201cburning bush\u201d moment where God explicitly reveals some grand scheme for our lives, for most of us it isn\u2019t so extravagant.\u00a0 It\u2019s seeing a need and wanting to work in that capacity because of our love for God and our love for people.<\/p>\n

The problem is we don\u2019t honor this notion of calling.\u00a0 I was talking with a friend recently who was saying that there were times that she felt she was looked down upon for working as an engineer because it wasn\u2019t the kind of \u201ccalling\u201d she should have.\u00a0 My heart broke over that statement and my frustration rose.\u00a0 I told her that if working as an engineer is the capacity in which God has called you into, be the best engineer you can.\u00a0 Work at it as if you were working for God (Colossians 3:23).<\/p>\n

Not everyone is going to be a pastor or work in full time ministry.\u00a0 We have commissioning ceremonies for missionaries, ordination services for pastors, deacons, elders, etc., but when was the last time that we commissioned our church members for the jobs that they work?<\/p>\n

When I first started working for my school, I noticed that there was a major difference in the way that I viewed our students versus the way my colleagues did.\u00a0 At first I thought it was simply a cultural difference, but the longer I\u2019ve been here the more I\u2019ve realized it comes from my faith.\u00a0 For many of my colleagues, this job is simply for the paycheck.\u00a0 For me, it\u2019s something much deeper.<\/p>\n

Why do we work?\u00a0 What is it that drives us in our various ministries and jobs?\u00a0 My prayer is that it wouldn\u2019t be out of fear, but that our work is a natural outpouring of our love for Go<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism <\/em>(New York: Penguin Group), 73.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 77.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading through Weber\u2019s The Protestant Ethic raised a lot of questions and contained a lot of thought provoking ideas.\u00a0 I can honestly say that the notion that Calvinism serves as one of the roots of Capitalism has never crossed my mind, so this was a deep dive into new territory. As I was reading, one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-25611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-weber","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25611"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25613,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25611\/revisions\/25613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}