God Calls Your Work Holy

Sometimes God’s best surprises for us come in packages we don’t expect.

I sit on my porch on a sticky summer day, halfway through my first year as a flower farmer.

I felt well prepared for this initial year. Over ten years of growing vegetables gave me the knowledge and experience needed to grow things well. The kindness of strangers on the internet helped me decide what annual varieties to grow for maximum yield and profitability, and which perennials to invest in for my frost hardiness zone. I have pages of notebooks filled with information on flower pricing, succession planting, and weed control techniques. The cold winter months spent carefully tending seedlings in my basement have turned into to evenings cutting buckets of flowers with sweat running down my back and mosquitoes feasting on my blood.

I anticipated many of the challenges my first year as a flower farmer would bring. We prepared for late frost by making low tunnels over our tender baby plants as Michigan winter kept a firm grip on the weather patterns. I developed a strategy for pricing and a plan to explore multiple income streams for the farm. I have adapted, finding the plants that work best for our specific needs and counting the crop failures as lessons along the way.

But even with all my planning and forethought, I didn’t anticipate the biggest blessing that has come with this inaugural farm year: the gift of presence.

Flowers traditionally accompany some of our most joyful and most sorrowful moments. In a single day, I may arrange a bouquet for a birthday gift and another to comfort a friend who has received a devastating diagnosis. I have delivered flowers to a family friend in hospice care and to a new mother. I never anticipated the gravity of being present with people in these moments of extremes. Each day I am allowed to live out Romans 12:15, rejoicing with those who rejoice, mourning with those who mourn.

I often ponder the fact that God created us for community. How amazing that we are made to walk hand-in-hand on the rocky path of life! Galatians 6:2 reminds us that when we carry each other’s burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ. I can’t think of a better way to satisfy the requirement of loving others as Christ loves us than by merely being present with them to share both happiness and sorrow.

In a world where we can have groceries and take-out meals delivered to our doors, stream sermons from the comfort of our couches, and the majority of our communication happens via a screen, looking someone in the eye with tears of sadness or joy is a holy thing.

Making bouquets to mark the gamut of life’s circumstances has become both a meditation and a ministry for me. I can pray for each recipient as I intentionally work to balance color, texture, and shape in arrangements. I have never been more proud or humbled by the work I am doing.

I thought flower farming was going to be a fun new business venture. It turns out God has revealed my vocation to me through flowers. Vocation is defined as “a type of work that you feel you are suited to doing and to which you give much of your time and energy” by the Religious tradition often refers to a vocation as the work you were created to do.

God revealed my vocation through a path woven over three decades of work. The road took me through teaching and the academic world of university work to staying home with my babies and homeschooling (the least expected stop on my journey). In hindsight, I can see the common thread of being with others through life’s transitions tying together the work that has made up my days.

Vocations come in all shapes and sizes, just like the people they were created for. Mama rocking your baby at two a.m., God sees you and calls your work holy. This is your vocation. Working mom providing income along with an example of strength and determination, God sees you and calls your work holy. Live into your mission. Single woman fighting to be heard and valued at work, God sees you and calls your work holy. You were created for this. Grandmother spending her retirement caring for your grandchildren and passing on a legacy, God sees you and calls your work holy.

You were created for good works. Wherever your work finds you today, ask God to reveal how he is working through you in your vocation. Remember the call from Colossians to work for the Lord, not for the approval of men. He will lead you to the exact spot he laid out for you from the beginning.

Lindsay Hufford is a small-scale farmer, home educator, chicken chaser, kitchen dancer, and mediocre knitter. Her favorite things include spending time with her family, exploring the natural world, reading, eating spicy food, and singing loudly in the car (to the embarrassment of her children). Lindsay believes sharing our stories will change the world. She writes about farming, homeschooling, faith, mental health, sobriety, and living an unconventional life. You can follow her adventures at peckandpetalfarm.com.

Photograph © Alisa Anton, used with permission