Are you a professional in the private sector trying to wrestle your calling in your occupation?
I worked in industry for over fifteen years, fulfilling my calling until I made the jump into full-time ministry. But that just goes to show you that you do not need to be in ministry to do the work of ministry. God calls all of us where we are to be witnesses of his power and love to an unloved world. So today, we’re going to look at an instance in history when Joseph, yes the one of the rainbow colored jacket, was an enslaved house manager, and how he lived into his calling.
Joseph was actually set to inherit a lot of money and property, being the beloved son of a wealthy tycoon. But instead, his brothers sold him into slavery, and then was sold by slavers into the home of an Egyptian captain, where he became a house manager.
‘The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. ‘
Genesis 39:2-4 ESV
Here are two lessons to learn from these verses to find calling in our occupations in any sector.
Trust that God will cause you to succeed
In other words: have confidence in God. Trusting God and being confident in him takes practice. And yes, fear will always be present causing you and me to sometimes falter and pull back. But that is not the mindset we need to foster, even with the stretch assignments or the entrepreneurial assignments that are sitting in front of us where there is a big question mark on the end results.
The key to trusting God with our work and thereby allowing us to succeed is by working in small pieces. Too often our trust fails in God because we’re trying to trust him in the big things without trusting him in the small things. That doesn’t work. You fail in the big things because you never trusted God with the small things. Of course you’re going to miss out on your calling in that case because you were never looking for it in the right places.
We need to rediscover how God works through your work in small pieces of our work and then trust God by asking him for an opportunity to maximize your calling in those small areas. The master in this passage we read saw the small things Joseph was doing, and then saw how they added up. What most of us forget is that when you add these small pieces of work together, we get a big masterpiece.
Find favor with the people you work with
This is the difficult part. Part of living out your calling is to find the people to live out your calling with. That means you have to be comfortable being who God created you to while comfortable enough to share that authentic self with others around you. When you do this, you will be authentic and people will give you their favor because the know what you really mean.
What does this look like: have a point of view and a position you act and speak from that represents not only what you think and feel about yourself, but what you think and feel about the people you are with. If you are truly called by God to people at your workplace, you will, for the most part enjoy their company and even care for them.
Joseph worked hard for his Egyptian master. He was sold into slavery. He could have had a bitter mindset. But rather, he did for the household he was sold into, what he would have done for his own household. Later in this period of Joseph’s life, he is tempted to do wrong against his master, Potipher, and he chooses not to succumb to that temptation because he was comfortable with who he was and wasn’t afraid to show it.
Conclusion
You are a blessed manager because God called you exactly where you are to do what he created you to do. Trust me, there is nobody better equipped or able to do and be you than yourself. You are called to your workplace as an agent of God. Live into that by trusting God with your successes and by finding favor with the people you are with to influence them through your faith.
Prayer: Father, we wrestle sometimes with our calling. Especially on those days that the work seems impossible or tedious. Please help us realize that we are exactly where we need to be so that you can use us as your instruments of grace, mercy, and power. Allow us to be your faithful witnesses at our workplaces and to our work colleagues. Let us love the job and the people like you love me. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
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