Day Eight | March 2 The Rock of My Career

Every Sunday after church, we would go home, change out of our “good clothes,” and eat lunch (typically, a roast that mom had put in the crock pot before we left that morning). Then, with bellies full and eyes heavy, dad would lay on the couch as mom would take up her favorite place in the sun by the sliding back door. But it was never done in silence.

Always.

Always after lunch, the television would be turned on, and dad’s race would be tuned in. Sunday was always the Lord’s day first … and Richard Petty’s day second. Mom would nap, and dad would snore. I’m not exactly sure what my brother got into, but I always watched.

Always. I watched. For hours on end, I watched racers go in circles – making an almost endless left-hand turn. But I didn’t watch from the couch. I watched from my homemade flag-stand.

Always.

On Sundays after lunch, I’d pull two dining room chairs together, and I’d grab the set of racing flags that my grandma had sewn me, and I’d go to work. Green flag to yellow flag to white flag to checkered. It was my dream back then to grow up to be a NASCAR flagman. Maybe it was the lure of being in control. Maybe it was the seduction of power (inasmuch as an eight-year-old thinks of such things). But maybe it was just fun. It was always fun.

But things change. We change. We grow up, and so do our dreams. We get bigger, and so do our ambitions. Somewhere in the course of time, I put my flags away to follow a more “sensible” course (little did I know then what God had in store for me).

Always, though, I knew that God was calling – that God calls all of us. And if our homes and families are our primary mission fields, then our jobs are our second ones. Whether that takes us to a boardroom, living room, classroom, or locker room, it’s who we are (and Whose we are) in those places where we spend our time that makes the di erence.

We aren’t just accountants who happen to be Christians. No, we’re Christians who just happen to be accountants. We’re not just students who happen to be Christians. No, we’re Christians who just happen to be students. We’re not just (insert your profession here). No, we are Christians who just happen to be (do it again here, too)!

As followers of Jesus, our careers are not merely means to an end. They are sacred entrustments that must be built on the Rock. They are opportunities to proclaim God’s goodness and redemption and grace and love. As followers of Christ, we are called to be professionals –professing His faithfulness … always.