There is a specific passage in the Bible that regards a man’s calling in life and what the outcome of our work and our calling might look like.
1 Cor 1:26-31 says “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ “
This passage has taken on new meaning in my life as my work has looked differently over the past few months. I look at this passage not as physical weakness like we would think about someone being muscular but that God chooses to humble us through using our gifts differently than we might expect. As part of our calling, God uses us to be comfortable in weakness in that we do not have control over the outcome of our efforts, we cannot produce the harvest. As Galatians 6:9 tells us we should continue doing good and to not give up. The outcome will be a harvest when we persist.
So, our weakness comes in that the outcome is not in our control. The outcome will often come about very different than we expect it. When we can embrace this weakness and die to our own expectations we can live in peace in the midst of our lack of control. In this very weakness, God gives us a plan for our life through provision.
We are to do good – we are to not give up in our efforts to receive training and pursue knowledge and serve others through doing work. Yet we are to boast in the Lord, we are not to strive to create our own outcome as the road will not be as we had anticipated. We should not give up though! In this way, our doing good is respective to our specific talents and gifts that are unique to us. But we reflect on how God brought us through different circumstances to get us to where we are. In this weakness in our lack of control of the outcome we will say as in V. 29 “Look at what God has done” rather than “Look at what I have done.” The outcome of our work is the Lord’s while our responsibility is to use the situation we are in to do activities with meaning and purpose meanwhile positioning ourselves to boast in the Lord.