Vocation

“Tim Keller writes, ‘A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself.’ Vocational calling isn’t found within; we receive it from another.” - TGC

“A humble man, his point was that work often seemed like a necessary evil…. But is this how we should think of our jobs, as meaningless?” - Ligonier

“God calls people to be accountants, medical doctors, and farmers too…. why could God not call a man to be a schoolteacher for twenty years and then redirect him into pastoral ministry?” - P&D

“We don’t tend to think of work as good, but rather as difficult, frustrating, and exhausting…. The goodness of work is enshrined in the pattern of creation.” - Ligonier

“’Raise your hand if you’re going into full-time ministry…. You all should be raising your hands.’ He was charging the business majors, biology majors, communications, and education majors, among others, to view their future work—whatever it was to be—as ministry” - IFWE

“Not only did Jesus make good tables, but his toil was not in vain. If Jesus’ work for twenty years was not in vain, then how does that change the way we evaluate our own lives or those of others?” - IFWE

“one’s vocation is not so much the job itself as the end that the job ought to serve. If one does one’s job to that end, then one’s vocation can be found in it.” - Acton

“…it’s also a myth because work is not the opposite of life—it isn’t something separate from life. It’s an integral part of life, or at least it should be.” - TGC

“the intrinsic value of work cannot be reduced to its monetary value. Farmers, factory workers, the people who pick up our garbage, and others who perform services vital to our physical existence are doing far more important tasks than celebrities…and yet they are paid far, far less.” - Veith