Career and Calling

“Fill the earth and subdue it.” — Genesis 1

Almost everyone must work in our world in order to make a living. This is something God has set up; as the Apostle said, “He who will not work shall not eat.” Thus working and having a job are moral issues; our willingness to work is a part of our character.

But beyond a job there are two other options within a civilized society: career and calling. These are higher moral possibilities for a human being, beyond mere work.

First we should be clear about some basic aspects of career or calling. The goal of a career is not to make a name for oneself or to become well-off financially. Neither is that of a calling. Often times a successful career or calling brings renown and wealth, but this is a lesser thing than the actual career or calling itself, and is relatively incidental. One cannot have an effective career or calling if one's goal is merely to make a name for oneself or to make money; it is a law of the mind and spirit. This is of course more emphatically true of a calling than of a career.

A career is a chosen path of work that requires the development of ones mind over a lengthy period of time. It is an attempt to do something good that requires effort over many years, and the realization of one's intellectual and perhaps physical capacities. Examples of careers are: running one's own business, practicing medicine or law, and training as a professional athlete. The career develops who we are in a way that a mere job cannot.

Accordingly success in a career is a matter of accomplishing the good which one had set out to do, in a manner which is itself good and right. Dishonesty or laziness in one's career brings failure in the sense that it prevents us from the realization of the personal qualities that make a career precious. Another kind of failure is when, because of circumstances or the decisions of others, we are prevented from accomplishing the good which we had intended. This kind of failure is of course not one's own fault.

A calling is something different, something beyond career in the way that career is beyond a job. Calling is a path of self sacrifice merely for the service of others and the full realization of ones moral and intellectual capacities. Some of the main callings are religious ministry, political service, artistic expression, and intellectual discovery, as in a university.

It is not wrong merely to have a job. There is dignity in all work; and there are other important aspects of doing good that are somewhat outside either career or calling: such as raising a family or submitting to the instruction of those who are in authority in some way.

One of the key things about both a career and a calling is that they must be consciously chosen as long term goals, usually when one is rather young, say before the late 30's.

I have written this post mostly for the sake of believers, because the church does not currently give helpful advice on this matter. Often career is taken to mean something that one does for oneself apart from God; whereas calling is simply identified with being a pastor.

Instead, career and calling, because they are long term goals, are an effective way to bring one's soul in contact with God, because to properly execute a successful career often requires God's help, especially in our current world. The same is even truer of a calling: in a calling one is pouring oneself out for others; this is a very basic way of discovering the Life of God.

Often one can only have a career or calling if one has been given certain opportunities. In reality, everyone who wants this should be given the opportunity. In this world that is often not so.

It is with reference to career and calling that one can see more clearly the nature of good and evil. In general, evil things can deflect us from a successful career or paralyze us while executing our calling. Love of pleasure of course withdraws the soul from the goodness of the work to be done; avarice prevents us from honestly and wholeheartedly pursuing it (especially by making us distrust God); desire for fame or respectability traps us in hypocrisy. One can read the works of the great moral philosophers and theologians as means to effect a great career or calling. Perhaps the ancient Stoics were the best at this.

When one understands the nature of career and calling, one can see the place that ambition appropriately holds in human life. We are meant to have our lives count-- as much as we will decide to pursue it. The good of society and the world itself depends upon people pursuing ambitious careers and callings. The destruction of a nation comes in part from a lack of people attempting to take such a high path. The same is true of people pursuing “careers” and “callings” merely for themselves or their desires. Instead, we should plan to realize our capacities in a way that is helpful for others, working it all out with God in the process.