Parking the Jeep between a set of faded white lines in the Penick lot outside of Fred DeLay Gymnasium and voicing the words “Reporting for Duty” may not bear the same weight as it would coming from a military member or first responder; however, that is exactly what I’m being challenged to do by pastor Levi Lusko in a recent message entitled “ It Had to Be Done.” My Southern drawl might pale in comparison to the mystique of Daniel Craig’s posh accent as he utters the words, “007 reporting for duty” in the 2012 Bond film Skyfall; and yet, this is what God is asking me to do. Arriving with great expectations for learning about sport finance, the students in Bowld 247 are assuming that a professor will be Reporting for Duty to offer them instruction on how to keep those sport programs operating. There is a presumption that others, too, will Show Up and fulfill their purpose in carrying on the University’s mission, for we are all dependent on each other.

Typically, the phrase Reporting for Duty is associated with a military or paramilitary scenario where someone is assigned a designated post and is expected to relieve the current person on duty; however, Lusko offers listeners an alternative circumstance where someone Reporting for Duty models the ideal for how we should live out our calling and purpose in our vocational life. Sharing the story of Jesus’ final night before his crucifixion, Lusko explains how Christ accepted His duty, how He was willing to take up His cross, fulfilling His purpose so we could fulfill ours. By Reporting for Duty and completing the tasks of a servant, like washing His disciples’ feet and ultimately suffering an agonizing death, Jesus models how we are to Show Up to work.

“We don’t show up to work to say, ‘Here I am.’ We show up to say, ‘There you are! I want to serve.’ I’m not clinging to my life and I believe God has a mission for me. When you roll into that parking lot at work, you say, ‘Reporting for Duty.’ When you pull into the driveway at home, you say, ‘Here I am to serve my spouse. Here I am to serve my kids.’ When you show up at church and start being the church, you say, ‘We’ve got work to do!’” Lusko encourages us to fight for an Emerging Generation that is searching for purpose and not finding it. When they listen to culture and fail to find the answers, we Report for Duty and guide them away from a culture that is as lost as they are, and to a God that loves them unconditionally. “When you start saying, ‘God, you have a purpose for me, an assignment for me,’ then you are modeling what it means to find purpose and fulfillment in serving others.

As I share with students in a Life Calling presentation, many of the tasks we will be asked to complete in life, whether personal or vocational, will often require a servant’s heart, and will be completed in the dark with little recognition or notice, but imagine how vital it is that we Show Up, Report for Duty, and fulfill God’s calling on our life. What if you contemplate pastor Andy Neely’s illustration of Poetry in Motion when shockingly witnessing an Atlanta highway roadworker attached to the outside of a truck, riding in a low basket, hanging barely a foot off the road, placing reflective safety strips down by hand to protect future motorists on that road. As a part of a message series entitled Rescuing Mondays about God’s intentions for our vocations, Neely offers this illustration to paint a picture of how important a task can be even if considered mundane and routine by some. What if a person driving that Georgia highway at night in a pouring summer rainstorm is dependent on seeing reflections from those strips to keep them alive? What if that roadworker failed to Report for Duty?

Challenged with new purpose in serving others, I will park in that lot tomorrow morning and offer my service to God by stating, “Reporting for Duty. There you are, Lord, in the form of my students, colleagues, and community. How might I serve You today?” How might our culture be transformed if we all, on a daily basis, bent our will to His and Reported for Duty with a grateful and obedient heart?

References:

Lusko, L. (2022, April 15). “It had to be done.” [Audio podcast]. Fresh Life Church. Retrieved from https://www.freshlife.church/messages/the-way-of-suffering/142

Mendes, S. [Director]. (2012). Skyfall. [Film]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Columbia Pictures, Forum Film Poland, and Sony Pictures. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8s3vBRIT3o