Is Unemployment a Calling (Vocation)?

Has God Called You to be Unemployed?

Unemployment hurts. Unemployment brings stress, suffering, and...  a new call?

The pain of unemployment,

• You're facing the upcoming mortgage payment
• Stressing over which bill to pay this month, or at least partially pay



Suffering Christ

• The dollar menu at McDonald's is the infrequent big night out
• Screening your phone calls... because of collectors
• Depressingly watch credit card bills grow at high interest
• Praying fervently the car doesn't break down
• Thank God for Aldi's, the inexpensive and "basic groceries only" grocery store
• etc. etc. etc.

How can this be a vocation, a call from God?

Practicing what you preach is a real pain.

Youth Ministry & Fun; Either/Or or Both/And

Here's another clip from the show Wretched.

Corpoarte Worship

Lutherans have a Two Kingdom theology that permits us to know the difference between corporate worship and daily worship  The former is the body of Christ gathered around Word and Sacraments, Sunday Services. The latter is the love and service our neighbor in our daily lives.

Daily Worship

In that daily service (calling/vocation), certainly fun, entertainment, and my interests are very much a part of the the daily worship of God. So it is with our youth.

There isn't anything wrong with having fun and teaching the youth what it means to be Lutheran. However, when youth work is only about having fun, or even thinking that the fun is goal of the youth work, then, we are better off investing in an amusement park. However, the substance of youth ministry must be the Lutheran substance, i.e. God's Word and the sacramental life.

The key is let fun be fun; let study be study. There is an important distinction in this method.

Unfortunately, the daily worship, which includes fun and puts people at the center (loving your neighbor) has taken over corporate worship, which centers in Christ's calling  His Bride, the church to repent and receive forgiveness - to become one with Him in the sacramental life.

"Take a dollop of sarcasm, mix it in with conservative theology and voila, you have Wretched TV. Think of it this way. Take John Stewart, remove the potty language and change all of the worldly topics to Christian. That is Wretched."

This guy is hoot. I record his shows and watch them at night. He is a conservative evangelical, meaning, he isn't Lutheran. So I don't want anyone to think that everything he says is what Lutherans believe. But, boy, often he get the Law right when it comes to living rightly. As Lutherans, we always see living rightly as the fruit of faith, yet, it still drives us to repentance to receive our daily baptismal forgiveness. His show is on weeknights at 10:00 pm eastern time.