John N. N. Ng'ang'a

Christian Professionals - Leading the Marketplace

God’s purpose for all Christian professionals is that they use their life to demonstrate God’s love to all they serve and serve with. To achieve this purpose – being a missionary via your career in all corners of the world – you need clear principles. You are God’s representative everywhere. However, it is important to understand that God’s calling for mission does not necessarily mean becoming an evangelist or a pastor. Your mission is to serve God in whichever area He calls you to work. Therefore, the first step to success is knowing your calling, your purpose in life. You won’t become successful if you don’t know your life’s purpose. For example, if you don’t know the way to get to a particular destination, you could easily walk out and start going in the wrong direction. If success is reaching your destination efficiently, are you going to be a success? No. Success for somebody set to go to a particular destination is reaching the place without wasting time and effort.
You are not a success if you haven’t discovered the call of God on your life, because you are likely to go in the wrong direction, or travel at the wrong speed, or with the wrong company.

God knows what you are capable of. The call He places on you is not beyond the capacity He has built in you.
“The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put his three servants in charge of all he owned. The man knew what each servant could do. So he handed five thousand coins to the first servant, two thousand to the second, and one thousand to the third. Then he left the country.”
Luke 19:11-27

To be a good missionary via your profession, it is important to keep growing towards your maximum potential. In other words, don’t try to drive at a speed limit that nobody has forced on you. Your car might have the capacity to move at a speed of two hundred and ten, but because of your fear of driving, you are driving at eighty. If that is the case, the car is not the problem; the driver is. Now, a lot of us are like that. We have put speed limits on our lives. You argue, “The village I come from cannot produce a lawyer, so I cannot become one.” Who told you that you cannot become one? That’s a self imposed speed limit on your life. You need to understand God has given you the capacity to become a lawyer – even if you’ll be the first one from your village! What’s wrong with being the first one? It is also important to understand that you are not like other people from your village. You are an original. Don’t live and wait to die a copy. Purpose to grow to your full potential.

A missionary using his career knows the importance of sowing seeds that benefit others. In other words, success is not about you. Success is living your life for others. There are people whose life’s mission is to be the richest in their continent. That’s a meaningless pursuit. Nobody might benefit from your riches. Being rich is a means, not an end. Success should be geared towards alleviating poverty.
Think about it this way: coconut trees grow in Mombasa. But do you know that there is no coconut tree that has ever tasted a coconut? It only grows them. If you don’t harvest them, they drop on their own. No coconut tree has ever eaten a coconut, because coconut trees grow coconuts for the Mijikenda people to benefit. You do not grow ‘coconuts’ for yourself. In the same way, God has not gifted you in mathematics for your sole benefit. You have received the gift in mathematics so you can assist those who don’t know how to add, although it may be at a fee. They will pay you for doing their additions, since they cannot add for themselves.

When you get to write your vision and mission, you should write it in a way to show how your life will benefit other people. It is very important to understand that success is a journey, not a destination. You can feel successful all the way along the journey, not just at the destination.