Encore Post: Changing the diaper, taking out the garbage, answering the phone call. Some events during our days are grinds. Getting the coffee going, putting breakfast plates together. They don’t sound like much but if you are baptized child of God, you are doing a good work for your closest neighbors for you are united to Christ Jesus by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.
That is a great comfort! And it ought to be because more often than not, the every day grind is tough enough. But God uses the “small things” in our daily lives and provides through them the occasion and opportunity to do good works. And these good works are not something that we chase after, no God has put us into various vocations. I am a father, so I go to work to provide for my wife and children. That is my calling as a father.
In Luther’s day, daily vocations such as being a mother and father or a worker were thought of as to be inferior to the vocation of priest because the mother or father was a secular vocation whereas the priest had a religious calling. Nothing could be further from the truth! Luther in his Treatise on Good Works, makes sure that the reader sees from Scripture again and again that whatever is done in faith, is pleasing in God’s sight.
It is easy to get discouraged though because some people no longer know what their vocation is. The kids have moved out. Some people are in a nursing home wondering when the Lord will call them home. I get the privilege as a pastor to visit them. They ask the question, “Why am I still here?” I usually respond, “God has given you the vocation to receive these wonderful gifts that Jesus has won for you and your salvation. And by you being hear I get to serve you. And that brings me joy. So thank you for living in out this God-pleasing vocation.”
Our daily lives may seem small and perhaps arduous at times, but when we are connected to Christ by faith, whatever we do is pleasing in the sight of our heavenly Father.
Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana
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My children are grown and gone. My ministry as a pastor ended as I retired due to a health issue, now healed. But what to do now? What is my purpose? There is a lonely reoccurring question of “who am I”?
This devotion has touched a deep spot for me, and I am thankful to you!
Thanks for reading Steven. May God be with you and may His call to you as His son by the waters of Holy Baptism for the sake of His Son Jesus bring you joy now and always.