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mary and martha by Green_thumb[1]Question: I want to serve God but I feel a lot of limitations due to the fact that I’m 19 turning 20, still living in my parents house, I’m jobless, and I don’t have a car. I don’t think I can fully serve him this way. Society says one thing and God says another. I don’t want to think of myself as a loser but I sure feel that sometimes.

Answer: Believe me when I say that I can empathize with your plight. When someone is ‘on fire’ for God, there is a sense in which we want to drop everything and serve him with all our hearts.

I think we need to define what it means to ‘serve God.’ The concept of serving God has come to mean in some sense doing full-time ministry. In other words, I am not really serving God unless I’m a pastor, a missionary, or working for some other Christian organization. We often speak in terms of being “called into ministry,” in which ‘ministry’ seems relegated to within the four walls of the church. This is an error that has led to much strife and frustration. People who are probably better served staying in the marketplace are leaving their careers to enter into full-time ministry. One may ask, “how is this an error?” It’s an error because not all have been called into full-time ministry.

The Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of the body of Christ to describe the church (1 Corinthians 12). In that metaphor the church is described as a body and the various parts of the body represent the various people within the church. As each part of the body has its own function, so to does each member in the church have its own function. The context of this metaphor was the confusion in Corinth over the distribution and use of Spiritual Gifts within a local (i.e., visible) church. However, I think this metaphor can be applied more broadly to speak to the universal (i.e., invisible) church.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). The church (universal) has been blessed with gifted individuals (i.e., evangelists, shepherds and teachers) who equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. Some take ‘work of the ministry’ to mean that the saints are equipped in order that they can serve within the church (e.g., ushering, greeting, teaching Sunday School, leading a Bible study, etc.). It certainly can mean that, but it can also mean the broader work of the ministry of the church in the world; namely the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) in making disciples.

Now if everyone went into full-time ministry, who would actually do the work of the ministry? As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, if everyone were an ‘eye,’ where would the sense of hearing be? Simply put, not everyone is called into a life of full-time ministry. We need to recover the classic concept of vocation. Our vocations are more than our careers, they are, in a sense, callings (which is what the word ‘vocation’ means). God doesn’t want all of us to go into full-time ministry, but he does want us all to minister in our vocations.

With that said, in your specific situation, you shouldn’t lament the fact that you’re 20 years old with no job living with your parents. Paul says in his first letter to the Thessalonians, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Sometimes we can get so caught up trying to do God’s will that we actually end up failing to do God’s will. God’s will for us is that we be a certain kind of person, not that we do a certain kind of activity. My advice to you would be to focus on cultivating your relationship with God through prayer and studying his word. Get connected with a church where you can be a part of a worshipping community. Let your relationship with God flow into your life as it changes the way you act toward your family and others. Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit works in us and through us conforming us to the character of Christ. As you do these things, your vocation and calling will become clearer.

I conclude with another illustration from Scripture. In Luke’s gospel, the story is told about two sisters, Mary and Martha, who were very close friends of Jesus:

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10:38-42).

Far too often we want to be like Martha, consumed with serving the Lord. We don’t take the time to be like Mary, who took the time to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his teaching. Don’t despair of your situation. Take the time to grow in your love for God and your love for others; learn at Jesus’ feet. The Lord will call you into a vocation in his good timing.

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