Career fulfillment does not come by gaining recognition or attaining a desired income. It comes by aligning and engaging with our true vocation. Our job (occupation) is not necessarily equal to our calling (vocation). Our job may be a means towards which we fulfill our calling. A person might have the God-given vocation of raising a family. Their present job may be just a means of providing the necessary income for the fulfillment of that calling.

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Russia's genius writer, once had a disturbing dream. In his autobiographical essay titled, "My Confession", he describes it:

"What happened to me was something like this: I was put into a boat (I do not remember when) and pushed off from an unknown shore, shown the direction of the opposite shore, had oars put into my unpracticed hands, and was left alone. I rowed as best I could and moved forward; but the further I advanced towards the middle of the stream the more rapid grew the current bearing me away from my goal and the more frequently did I encounter others, like myself, borne away by the stream. There were a few rowers who continued to row, there were others who had abandoned their oars; there were large boats and immense vessels full of people. Some struggled against the current, others yielded to it. And the further I went the more, seeing the progress down the current of all those who were adrift, I forgot the direction given me."

So often unpredicted streams and currents move us away from our original destination. The popular method of keeping our eyes on other boats will do us no good, for they too may have been moved off course, or have been assigned different destinations.

In Tolstoy's essay the shore represents his God given vocation. As a boy Tolstoy wanted nothing more than to be good, to know God and walk with him in an elevated moral plain. In his late teens he entertained the advice of persuasive atheists. He sought to fulfill himself in the pursuit of a fine education and by making a name for himself in a writing career. In mid-life, after achieving fame, status, wealth, a happy marriage and family, he felt empty and despairing.. He was drowning in a sea of meaninglessness.

"My question -- that which at the age of fifty brought me to the verge of suicide -- was the simplest of questions, lying in the soul of every man from the foolish child to the wisest elder: it was a question without an answer to which one cannot live, as I had found by experience. It was: 'What will come of what I am doing today or shall do tomorrow? What will come of my whole life?'"

Honest exploration caused him to conclude that there are only four possible escapes from the human dilemma:

1. Ignorance (Choose not to think about the great questions of life; Amuse yourself. (The word amusement means 'not to think').
2. Epicureanism- avoid pain, pursue pleasure in the face of meaninglessness- eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die
3. Admit Despair and Self destruct- suicide
4. Faith- which Tolstoy initially called the way of weakness, was found by him to be the way of hope.

He finally embraced it as the only answer- to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no greater joy than to do the will of the Father. In turning to God, Tolstoy returned to his true self and discovered his personhood. His childhood desire for goodness was met in a personal encounter with the source of goodness, God, through Jesus Christ. What brought him fulfillment was not simply to use his God given gifts in his 'occupation' of writing, but to become a child of God through faith in Christ and fulfill his 'vocation' of knowing and walking with Him.

"But you are a chosen race, A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, THAT YOU MAY PROCLAIM THE EXCELLENCIES (THE VIRTUES) OF HIM WHO HAS CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT;" (1Peter 2:9).

This is our virtuous vocation.

P.A. (PRACTICAL APPLICATION):
How are you proclaiming His virtues? You can hallow God's Name as Father by the way you parent your children. You can proclaim His virtues as the God of all comfort, by the way you offer encouragement and comfort to others. You can proclaim His excellencies as Creator, by the way you creatively express yourself, handle problems, develop your crafts and interact with others. He has called us as priests to stand between the human dilemma and the holy resolve in Christ with a ministry of reconciliation. We proclaim His virtues when we become lighthouses to those whose boats have veered off course, when we dare to act as ambassadors for Christ, using our time, talents treasures and relationships to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.