Perspective: Soul-Nourishing Work

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Soul-Nourishing Work

In the meantime the disciples spoke to Jesus, saying, "Rabbi, eat."

Jesus said to them, "I have food to eat that you don't know about."

John 4:31-32 (CEB)

I wanna feed the hungry children
And reach across the farthest land
And tell the broken there is healing
And mercy in the Father's hands

From "Set the World on Fire" by Britt Nicole

In the Gospel of John, we read that one day, while Jesus and the Disciples were traveling through the region of Samaria, they stopped in the city of Sychar.  Tired from the journey, Jesus sat down by a well to rest, while the Disciples went to the market to buy food.¹  Later, when they met Him at the well, they found Him having a conversation with a woman who had come to draw water.  After the woman left, they urged Him to eat some of the food they bought at the market.  Jesus replied, "I have food to eat that you don't know about."²

Naturally the Disciples started to wonder if someone brought Jesus food while they were at the market, but Jesus wasn't speaking literally.  He said to them, "I am fed by doing the will of the one who sent me and by completing his work."³

In a conversation with a religious leader, Jesus said, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won't perish but will have eternal life."⁴  On another occasion, He said, "I came so that [people] could have life - indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest."⁵  The One who sent Jesus was God, and the work God sent Him to do was to give people abundant life.⁶

While the Disciples were at the market, Jesus said to the woman who had come to the well to draw water, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again.  The water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles up into eternal life."⁷  The woman was so affected by her conversation with Jesus, that, even though she had been an outcast in her community, she forgot all about her shame and told everyone who listen to her about Him.⁸

People commonly speak about working in order to "put food on the table," meaning that they work jobs they may or may not actually enjoy so that they may make the money they need to buy food and other basic necessities.  Jesus, by contrast, spoke as if He was fed directly by doing the work He did.

Jesus found His work deeply fulfilling, but is there fulfilling work for each of us?  Is it possible that each of us could find work that is not soul-sucking but rather soul-nourishing?  Does each of us have a purpose - work that one was specifically designed to do?

The word vocation originated within the Christian faith.  Nowadays, the term is used to describe a "an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or for which they are suited, trained, or qualified."  The term is derived from the Latin word vocatio,⁹ which was used to describe a "calling," a "summons," or an "invitation."¹⁰  One's vocation was originally understood to be a calling from God.¹¹

Writer Frederick Buechner seems to believe that each of us does indeed have a purpose in this life.  On the subject of vocation, he writes, "The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work that you need most to do and that the world most needs to have done."  A person who enjoys his life but makes no positive impact the world around him has not found his calling, but neither has a person who does a lot of good in the world but hates her life.  Buechner writes, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."¹²  Apparently there is work one can do to feed others, literally or figuratively, while also feeding one's own soul.

If you have been following this blog for a while, then you know that I have struggled to figure out what I am called to do in this life.  Reading that Jesus was fed by the work He did makes me envious of Him, but it also gives me hope that such work just might exist for me.  May we all find fulfilling ways of making this world a better place.


Notes:

1. John 4:4-8
2. John 4:27-32 (CEB)
3. John 4:33-34 (CEB)
4. John 3:16 (CEB)
5. John 10:10 (CEB)
6. Joel B. Green, William H. Willimon, et al.  The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV).  2009, Abingdon Press.  p. 1292
7. John 4:13-14 (CEB)
8. John 4:28-30
9. Wikipedia: "Vocation"
10. Wiktionary: "vocatio"
11. Frederick Buechner.  Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC.  1993, HarperOne.  p. 118
12. Buechner, pp. 118-119

The painting of Jesus and the Woman at the Well was painted by Carl Heinrich Bloch in the late 1800s.