In Gordon Wong’s Faithful to the End, he encourages us to be faithful Christians wherever we are, whenever we are. Just as Daniel did not wait till he was out of the Babylonian court and back in Israel to be a good witness of God’s faithfulness and power, we do not need to wait to be retired or work in a church to start serving God faithfully.

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With regard to this, Ajith Fernando brings up 3 interesting points in his book Spiritual Living in a Secular World:

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1. Many Biblical heroes were NOT full-time Christian workers, so why do we only think of pastors, missionaries and ministry staff as models to emulate?

• Joseph was a government official

• Joshua was an army commander

• Ruth was a housewife, widow and daughter-in-law

• David was a shepherd turned warrior king

• Nehemiah was a cup-bearer/waiter

• Esther was the wife of a Head of State

 

God calls all of us regardless of what we do. We may not be full-time workers, but we are full-time Christians.

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2. There are many things in society that we may not like, but they are actually not against our principles.

• Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had very meaningful and God-honouring names which they would not have liked giving up for foreign names that signified a new authority, a new ownership, and new destiny dictated by foreign gods. But they did.

• It was probably difficult for them to learn a new language, study a new culture, fit into a new household, and ‘start from the bottom’—remember that they had been of noble blood and/or members of the royal family of Israel. But they did.

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3. To guide us in treading that narrow path between being too heavenly or too earthly, Fernando suggests we think Biblically about our profession. For example:

• Truth is a key feature of Journalism—in today’s world of sensationalism and fake news, how can we adhere to the Biblical view of Truth and practise it in this profession?

• In Sales and Marketing, sales are driven by profit, and the necessity of the product in the life of the consumer or the environmental effect of its consumption is often disregarded. How can God’s mandate to be responsible stewards of the earth’s resources direct us in our marketing strategies?