Have you ever questioned why you work in academia? I have.
In a particularly challenging part of the 2023-2024 academic year, I questioned my place in academia. I confided in a sister in Christ and shared that ‘endless emails and zoom calls’ certainly couldn’t be my calling. Her simple response gave me pause. She said, “But what if it is?”
Over the next several months, I wrestled with understanding my calling. I would read my Bible and see all these examples of great callings put on people’s lives. I read in awe stories of Moses, Gideon, Abraham, and many more.
No Neon Sign
Then I would come to work, answer emails, sit in on Zoom meetings, and look for my flashing neon sign pointing to “my calling.” To my disappointment, I never saw a neon sign.
Reading in Acts one day, it all finally started to make sense. Paul was a tentmaker. But tent-making wasn’t his calling.
Paul referenced his tent-making in Acts 20:34-35 when he said “You yourselves know that these hands have provided for my needs and for those who were with me. In every way I’ve shown you that by laboring like this, it is necessary to help the weak and to keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, for He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
My Job Supports My Calling
My job, much like Paul’s, is to provide for my needs and the needs of my family, giving us the means to support God’s calling.
In both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the Great Commission is recorded where Jesus commands all those who believe in Him to go and tell others about Jesus, to share the gospel.
This, I believe, is my calling. To share about Jesus.
My primary calling is not to be a professor, teacher, or researcher, or to do any other job. My primary calling is to spread the gospel.
A Weight Is Lifted
Now it’s true God has made each of us uniquely skilled to do certain jobs, and it is also true that our job and our calling may intersect from time to time just as Paul’s did when he shared the gospel with fellow tentmakers Aquila and Priscilla in Acts 18.
But when I see my job as a means to support my calling rather than being my calling, a weight is lifted and the worldly pride and identity that can come with my position or title melt away.
There may be days in academia where I’m doing more tent-making than gospel-sharing. But even on those days, I know that I’m working mightily for the Lord.
A healthy view of my job and my calling creates space for the Holy Spirit to work in new ways – giving me new eyes to see and new ears to hear opportunities to share the gospel.
