“Calling”
SCRIPTURE
I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. —Ephesians 4:1-3
DEVOTIONAL
Born in 1833, a man by the name of Alfred Nobel rose up to become one of the most successful businessmen in the 19th century. He was very bright. He took to learning at a young age, spoke five languages fluently by age 17. He wrote and published poetry, even produced a play. Later, he was educated and trained as a chemist and engineer and eventually became a global leader in the iron and steel industry. He was also an inventor. He not only held 335 patents to his name, but he is also best known for the invention of dynamite.
Dynamite was used for mining and clearing land for construction. But most profitably, dynamite was used in an emerging new age of weapons that would change war forever. So Nobel took this explosive and turned his steel and iron business toward producing weapons and military equipment. As the war industry grew, he built over 90 factories all over the world and a $500 million dollar business. That’s the equivalent of about $20 billion today. As you can imagine, because of this success, he was very well-known.
When Alfred Nobel was 55 years old, his brother, Ludvig, died. The next day, as he opened the paper to read his brother’s obituary, he noticed a mistake. The paper, mistaken that it was Alfred who had died (rather than his brother,) wrote and printed his obituary. So there, (on what was probably the last day of that newspaper editor’s career) Alfred Nobel had the strange opportunity to read his own obituary as if his life was laid to rest and now summed up in black and white.
The title of the article was, “The Merchant of Death is Dead.” The obituary opened by saying that, “Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.”1 It went on to talk about his work with explosives and production of military weapons and how he had built a very successful business, focused on advancing the industry of war.
What would it be like to read your own obituary – your entire life, there, summed up in an article for the rest of the world to read over their morning coffee?
We don’t know what Alfred Noble thought when he read his obituary that morning, but we can assume that he realized at least two things. First, if he were to die that day, this is how he would be remembered. Second, if he were to die that day, this is not how he wanted to be remembered.
That experience – of reading his life and legacy summed up before him – was is credited as somewhat of an epiphany and the reason that Alfred Nobel decided to turn over 94% of his estate to establish what are known as the Nobel Prizes – awards given (without distinction of nationality) in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and, the most well-known, “The Nobel Peace Prize.”2 After a very successful career built through an industry that benefited from destruction and war, Nobel gave almost all he had to bring the international community together as one, most notably through the bond of peace. According to the letter to the Ephesians, this unity “in the bond of peace” is the goal not of a successful life but of a faithful life.
According to the letter to the Ephesians, a “calling” is not what you do but rather how you do whatever it is that you do – a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
- In this Lenten season, write your own obituary. If you died today, how would you be remembered?
- How does your life reflect what you confess to believe about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
- What needs to change so that you might “walk in a manner worthy of your calling?”
PRAYER
Gracious One, we give you thanks that you are a calling God, calling each one of us into dangerous new places of abundance and hope. When we find ourselves in those dry and barren places that resist your calling, haunt us by what we have seen and heard, so that we might find the courage to live in response to what you have done. Amen.
1 https://www.history.com/news/did-a-premature-obituary-inspire-the-nobel-prize, as well as: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/unheardshepherd/merchant-of-death-the-story-behind-the-nobel-prize/
2 https://www.history.com/news/did-a-premature-obituary-inspire-the-nobel-prize, as well as: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/unheardshepherd/merchant-of-death-the-story-behind-the-nobel-prize/
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.