There are some dreadful and appalling jobs that some people have to perform in this life. Roadkill Collector. Pretty self-explanatory. Roadkill collectors not only have the job of peeling the remains of dead creatures in various states of decay off the road, they also get to do it while braving oncoming traffic. Manure Inspector. Animal manure is an important natural fertilizer, but first it has to be checked for contaminants like E.coli and salmonella. That’s where manure inspectors come in: not only do they have to search for bacteria that causes bloody diarrhea if ingested, but they also get to have to sift through animal waste, quite a 1-2 punch.

Portable Toilet Cleaner. You had to know this one was coming. First of all, I have serious reservations about using portable toilets, much less cleaning one. Portable toilet cleaners pick up leftover toilet paper, spray on a de-greasing solution, hose the entire unit down with scalding water, scrub, squeegee, dry, and then finish it off with a deodorizing spray. And yet, even after knowing the manner in which they are sanitized, I would still rather take my chances in the woods…

Hot-Zone Superintendent. Hot-zone superintendents perform maintenance work for bio-safety labs that study lethal airborne pathogens for which there is no known cure. These pathogens include disease-causing organisms such as anthrax. It’s a sterilized lab, the work is not dirty, but what it lacks in dirt, it makes up for in risk and fear of contamination. Logging. Logging ranks as the second worst job in America according to a USA Today study, in large part because it also ranks as the second most dangerous job. There were 55 fatal injuries and 350 nonfatal injuries among loggers in 2017.

Dentist! That’s right, a dentist! Dentists spend their days probing around one of the dirtiest cavities in the world—the human mouth—which combines some of the more nauseating features of all the aforementioned jobs – blood, dirt, bacteria, and disease. What’s more, unlike other bad jobs, which require little, if any, formal training, dentists are forced to endure years of schooling and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to even practice their dirty job. It’s no wonder that dentistry boasts the highest rate of suicide of any profession!

But if you’re a Christian—even if you have one of these jobs or another terribly depressing, dangerously risky, or disgustingly dirty job—you still have the best job in the world…I’m talking about your main job…besides that earthly side hustle you call your day job…I’m talking about the job you were given when you received eternal life. I’m talking about the heavenly calling of your life. I’m talking about the highest purpose of your life.

…The job that if you’re a Christian, must now be your chief aim and goal and purpose in life, and in which you find your highest satisfaction and purest joy. And we find this job description on the pages of Matthew as he records some of the final words of Jesus our Lord and Savior before his ascension as the final command to his disciples and to all Christians including us today famously known as, The Great Commission.

Go, make disciples, baptize, and teach! Go, make disciples who seek to follow after me and continuously learn more about me, baptize them in water to mark them out as my followers, and keep teaching them everything I have taught you and the whole body of Christian teaching on the pages of the NT about what following me and being a Christian looks like.

And the reason this is the greatest, most joy-producing, life-giving, and intrinsically-fulfilling job, is because Jesus has granted us the privilege of being the people who get to bring the good news about the salvation and eternal life that he’s made available in himself to anyone who comes to him by faith and by faith alone.

And then we get to take them by the hand and show them the way, with our words, with our actions, and with our lives—life on life—as we live our lives together with them as his new covenant community people, the church, his body—an extension of himself—on earth. It’s the greatest job in the world because it’s so much more—it’s your calling—as a Christian it’s your life—it’s everything—and the best part is, he has given you everything you need to succeed in accomplishing it! So, Let’s Go, Let’s disciple, Let’s dunk, and Let’s teach!