No Higher Calling

Week 1

"Truth is nowhere to be found and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, and he was appalled that there was no one to intercede." -- Isaiah 59:15-16

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One." -- I John 2:1

No Higher Calling

When my mother found out that I was seriously considering law school she asked whether a Christian could really be a lawyer. Likewise, when my future mother-in-law discovered that her younger daughter, Bobby, planned to marry a lawyer she was concerned. Why couldn’t Bobby marry someone from a more respected vocation like a teacher or a farmer?

After 30 years in the legal profession, I have concluded that there is no higher calling than the calling to law. No other profession provides daily opportunities to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God in the way that a calling to the law provides. Justice is something that God holds dear, along with her sister righteousness. They are two sides of the same coin.

It is appalling to think that God could ever be appalled. How could Someone who knows the end from the beginning ever be shocked or appalled? Yet the one time Scripture declares that God was appalled was when there was no one to intercede on behalf of those suffering injustice!

In addressing young lawyers --- and non-lawyers --- I point to the life of Jesus as one reason for choosing law as one’s vocation. Jesus spent about 15 years working as a carpenter and three years as a teacher. The trades and teaching professions are honorable vocations. But according to I John 2:1, Jesus has been our Advocate since ascending to the Father nearly 2,000 years ago. If time invested in a vocation tells us something about its priority, it is easy to see what vocation Jesus deems to be important.

Consider a few of the options of service open to those called to the law:

• We can serve as counselors to the powerful and the powerless.
• We can serve as counselors to elected officials who write and enforce the laws.
• We can serve as judges called to do justice and resolve disputes.
• We can serve those on the bench as clerks or as advisors as "friends of the court."
• We can serve as facilitators for peacemaking and reconciliation.
• We can serve those wrestling with the consequences of tragedy or the blessings of plenty.
• We can serve as a voice in "The System" for "the least of these," be they widows, orphans, homeless, infirm, unborn, prisoner or alien.
• We can serve as teachers training the next generation to do justice.
• We can serve as counselors to clergy and church leaders in their ministry.

There is no higher calling than to be a servant-in-law with our Advocate as our Chief Client.

I am grateful that God called me to serve in this profession. And I know that my mother and mother-in-law came around to that view as well.

Sam Ericsson