As I was listening to a sermon of John Piper from the series of Romans: By His Grace, for His Name, Through the Obedience of Faith, struggling with glorifying God in my current multimedia job, I started to see Romans 1:5 differently: Receiving grace AND my occupation, which is multimedia/computers, to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of Christ.
It means that as I received God's grace for free through Jesus Christ and not from my works/deeds, I also received my job without working for it. I mean I did work for it like job searching and talking to the boss asking for vacancy. What I mean there "without working for it" is: God gave me this job because of his grace and not my own doing. By grace, God gave me this job with a higher than minimum wage, a job position with a supervisory power in it, a job that most days I did nothing because I had no work to do yet I was still paid. All this I didn't and still don't deserve yet God gave it to me. I have this job to grow in obedience to God, to grow in Christ-like character, to learn holiness, to learn a very lot of things. I have this job for the sake of Christ's name.
And I am guilty for complaining, for being discontented, for having less joy in this blessing God gave me, and for dishonoring God. Thence, I am humbled and I confess....and very sorry.
However, Romans 1:5 didn't end "for the sake of his name", rather "for the sake of his name among all nations." Now I wonder, how can my multimedia job be for among all nations?
"Ministry is usually towards other[s]." -spiritual mom/mentor/discipler
I still wonder what my ministry is. If my job is my ministry, how do people benefit from it?
- First, I obey and submit to my superiors who would instruct me of a task to do.
- Second, when I submit a design to the printers to print, they earn from us, and when they earn, the workers get their salary and are able to feed their families.
- Third, when we advertise using my streamer or facebook, people would be informed of our exhibits/promos/discounts/new products/location, and they would be satisfied for serving them.
- Fourth, when the store sells, we get our earnings as well or put up new branches.
So that's my ministry, I guess: (1) to submit to my authority, (2) others earned a salary, (3) satisfied people, and (4) our employees earn.
I guess that's my ministry.
Going back..... I got this job for Christ's sake and for among all nations. How can this job be for all nations? Nonetheless, my office mates are part of a nation, and this nation is part of all nations.
