Monday, October 15th, 2007
Today seems to be Blog Action Day. Which is the blogosphere’s attempt to put everyone’s focus on the environment. I will first state that I am a 2 times as crazy as your average geek. I believe in God and I’m a doubter of man-made global warming. From the faulty data, to the reliance on computer models which can’t model tomorrows weather, to the fact that the Earth has gone through climatic cycles without our influence, I just can’t buy into it especially when I look into the agenda of this movement’s proponents and their proposed solutions which force change on everyone else but exempt themselves.
I believe this crisis is another manifestation of the Theology of Glory which places its emphasis on mans’ abilities and reason for salvation. What these people believe is that they can somehow “fix” the Earth and make it a utopia. They want to stomp out poverty, end wars, etc. These are noble goals, but will never come to pass this side of the second coming of Christ. I’m not saying that we should wantonly waste resources, go to war, or ignore poverty. What I’m saying is that we can do our best in all these areas but this corrupt and fallen world will always have its problems and doing the most good for the most people isn’t always the same as doing what makes you feels good.
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Monday, October 15th, 2007
As I mentioned in the previous post, Christian vocation is not just about a career, it’s about God’s will for our entire lives. When we are born, we are automatically put into a vocation. We are children of our parents, and if we have any brothers or sister we are siblings. What does it mean to have the vocation of child or sibling? The vocation of child is put forth by the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” The vocation of sibling has more in common with our other vocations and comes from Christ’s command to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Our neighbor would be our siblings in this instance. As we grow older, we are naturally put into new vocations like student, friend, roommate, worker, citizen, spouse, parent, driver, etc. Pretty much anything we do is a vocation which falls under Christ’s command to love your neighbor as yourself.
Okay, we’ve established that we’re supposed to do everything in our lives with love for our neighbor (yes, even driving in traffic). The caveat is that we all know that we don’t come close to being loving in all aspects of our lives (just ask my wife about my driving). So we rely on the salvation that Christ bought for us on the cross and do our best to love our neighbor in gratitude for that salvation.
So that leaves us as both saints and sinners relying on Christ for our salvation. But that doesn’t tell us what job we should take or how to put food on the table. Since the Bible doesn’t say, “Thou shalt be a fireman” we have freedom in what may become. Still sounds like a bit of a dodge? Without a clear word from God, anything I say is just my opinion, but here goes…
I think that how we show love to our neighbor can expose our interests and talents and lead us to specific job choices. For example, when I was in junior high and practicing my vocation as a student, we had a science fair. My teacher and I decided that based on my talents and interests I would write a simple video game and that was the humble beginnings of my career in software development.
Showing love for your neighbor may not always lead you where you want to go, but often leads you where God wants you to be. My college choice was a classic example of this. I got accepted to RPI under my second choice of majors and told my dad that I’d go there if they let me in under my first choice. I was all set to go to San Jose St. assuming that they wouldn’t bump me into my choice of majors. Needless to say, they did and I felt obligated to honor my father and do what I said I would. I really wanted to just stay near home and hang with people I knew. However, in the course of honoring my commitment to my dad, I had the best experience I could have had in college. I made lots of mistakes there and I learned a lot and I know it had a profound effect on who I am today.
Based on these examples, it might seem like I’m saying that following your vocation is the path to worldly success. That is not my point at all, I’m simply trying to point out how my career developed based on the vocation of student and child. In my next post, I’ll explore how following your vocation can negative worldly impact and how not following your vocation can have both positive and negative impacts.
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