Day 308

Ezekiel 4:1-6:14, Hebrews 5:11-6:12, Proverbs 26:23-27:4

Some people get caught up in what Christian work actually is. At one time, if you were called by God, you were called to be a minister or a missionary. Christian work was that work that was paid for by the church. For some people, that was glamorous, especially the missionary stuff. There were the exciting people that were seen as an inspiration, Billy Graham, Donald Soper, Mike Pilavachi, Tim Hughes and so on.

But when God calls, be it by extraordinary means or by ordinary means, he calls us to the exciting and to the mundane. He calls us to be clergy and he calls us to be accountants. Ezekiel’s call was amazing, there was a lot of power in it, and the role of the prophet was quite powerful, speaking to nations and rulers and really putting yourself up there. But he was also called to the ordinary, to lie on his side for 390 days. That is a long time to lie on your side, it is likely to be quite boring, and yet that was his calling from God for that time and space.

Yesterday we looked at how the Lord calls, today it is more about what he calls us to. The mix is as wide as the number of jobs that you can think of, and then some more. Just because it seems ordinary does not mean that it is not ordained. Christian work is any work that God wants us to do that enables us to minister the love and grace of God to the people in that place.

As you prayed after yesterdays readings you may have found God calling you to something “ordinary” and dismissed it. Listen again and seek God’s will.