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by Michael Berg (Author), Raleigh Sadler (Author)
How shall we live? What is the good life? What is the value of a person? What is my place in this world? Is God active in this world? These are questions that have been asked in every culture and in every era. From the Hebrew concept of Shalom (wholeness/well-being) to the Greek concept of Eudaimonia (happiness) and even to the American notion that all people have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, great thinkers have pondered what it means for humans to flourish.
The doctrine of vocation uniquely answers these questions. A certain level of security, prosperity, and freedom are essential components of human flourishing. God provides these components by working through humans in their stations in life such as parents and police (security), farmers and bankers (prosperity), and soldiers and governments (freedom).
And yet there is more for which we strive. We are the type of beings whose wonderment drives us to the pursuit of knowledge, justice, and achievement. In short, we desire to be justified. We want to be valued. We want to be right or just. We strive for epic-ness. But no mere human adulation will satisfy. Nor can we justify ourselves before God with our broken lives.
God justifies Christians through Christ and then uses them. God adds another component to human flourishing: purpose. He uses Christians in his economy of love to take care of the world. He lifts us from the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary, even as we pursue ordinary tasks. For the Christian, these stations become callings or vocations.
This can only be fully appreciated if the Christian knows that he or she is free from pleasing God through works. Once the Christian is freed from this burden the whole of the Christian life is reoriented to the free exercise of love towards neighbor. It is the highest calling, the truly good, flourishing, and happy life.
Author Biography
Rev. Dr. Michael Berg is a professor of theology at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee, WI, where he teaches courses on Worship, Apologetics, Martin Luther, World Religions, and Christ and Culture. He is married to Amanda and together they have three daughters. He is the author of Vocation: the Setting for Human Flourishing (1517) and The Baptismal Life (Northwestern Publishing House). He is also co-host of the podcast "Let the Bird Fly".
Raleigh Sadler speaks and writes on the topics of vulnerability and human trafficking. He has been published at The Gospel Coalition, The Huffington Post, and The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, among others. In 2013, he began a movement called Let My People Go, which grew into a nonprofit organization that comes alongside and empowers local churches to address the injustice of human trafficking in a holistic manner. His book, Vulnerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking (B&H, 2019), is available where all books are sold.
