"Pastor, is physical therapy a spiritual job?" It was a seemingly simple question. I gave an uncomplicated answer suited to the questioner's pastoral need, but I realized that there was a minefield to traverse to provide a more comprehensive answer.

To reframe the question: Can occupational labor be regarded as a spiritual endeavor—whether physical therapy, nursing, medicine, ministry, or any other occupation? To address this question from the perspective of universal spirituality ultimately reduces it to the meaningfulness of work, or even simply to job satisfaction. Neither is sufficient to address any adversity encountered in one's chosen work. So, any fruitful discussion of occupational labor as a spiritual endeavor must be hooked to a framework, which will depend upon the respondent's spirituality of reference—in my case, Christian, Protestant, Reformed.

Work and Toil
The starting point is determining whether labor itself is a value or a disvalue. The customary Protestant response to such a question is to turn to Scripture, or in this case the first narrative that deals with work. Genesis relates how God created the heavens, the earth, and all that is therein in six days. In Genesis 2:2–3, where God rests on the seventh day from the work of creation, the word used in the Hebrew is melakah, meaning work, occupation, or business. Thus God's own self works; and in the larger biblical context, God continues to work. God planted a garden in Eden and put Adam in the garden to cultivate it. So, like God, Adam works. Humankind received additional tasks in Eden: being fruitful and multiplying; filling the earth and subduing it; and exercising dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth. But when humankind disobeyed God, work, once pleasant and perhaps joyful, became toil all the days of our lives.

In Genesis, then, we discover, first, that God, who is holy, works—signifying that work itself is good. Second, human work is divinely given, again signifying work is good. Third, because of human sin, work became toil. Fourth, despite this, work did not thereby become a disvalue. Fifth, God rests from work and in the fourth commandment directs humankind to rest from work. Sixth, the work given humans is not specifically religious—it is earthy, earthly work. And seventh, work is a lifelong endeavor.

So work is good-even when the soil or coworkers are uncooperative, that is even in situations of adversity when work becomes toil. All this, however, does not establish that work is a spiritual endeavor. To move in that direction we must consider the work of the individual.

Profane or Sacred
Within the larger commission of humankind to work, each is called to a specific vocation or occupation in accord with God-given gifts and skills. In the book of Exodus, chapters 31 and 35 through 37, Bezalel and Oholiab and all who were skillful were called upon, by God, to build God's tabernacle: "The Lord spoke to Moses: See, I have called by name Bezalel . . . and I have filled him with divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver and bronze . . . Moreover, I have appointed with him Oholiab . . . and I have given skill to all the skillful, so that they may make all that I have commanded you."

Within my tradition, John Calvin writes: "We know that [people] were created for the express purpose of being employed in labor of various kinds, and that no sacrifice is more pleasing to God than when every [person] applies diligently to his [or her] own calling and endeavors to live in such a manner as to contribute to the general advantage." We learn from Exodus and Calvin that individuals are called to a diversity of work which together serves the community and God. When these workers are called they are divinely given skills for a work that has sacred ends but is itself profane or secular. No one work, no one calling, is more or less pleasing to God. Again, to quote Calvin: "No task will be so sordid and base, provided you obey your calling in it, that it will not shine and be reckoned very precious in God's sight." Every calling, whether tabernacle craftsmanship, medicine, nursing, physical therapy, or priesthood, is coequally pleasing to God, insofar as it is exercised as a calling, that is, by those who are called to it in service and glory to God. There is no division between profane and sacred work, as it is all done by God's calling and is, thus, all sacred. But still: Is work spiritual?

Spiritual or Mundane
When one is misplaced in a profession, labor is toil that may lead to frustration and burnout—no matter how capably one performs. In such instances one may practice nursing or ministry without being a nurse or minister, and may do so successfully in the eyes of others. Such labor is not a spiritual endeavor but rather tears at the spirit, for it is not who the person truly is. However, occupational labor to which one is specifically called and for which one is given the gifts and skills, contributes to the joy of the individual, the good of neighbor, and the glory of God. It is both congruent and harmonious with the individual's identity. The determination of whether occupational labor is a spiritual endeavor per se rests not in any intrinsic worthiness of the labor itself, but rather in the congruence of the work with the person's spirit.

As I understand it, spirituality is the unifying and integrative aspect of a person's life that, when lived intentionally, is experienced as increasingly pervasive and integrative, that is, as a process of growth and maturity. Spirituality thus integrates, unifies, and vivifies the whole of a person's life, embeds the core identity, establishes the fundamental basis for the individual's relationship with others and with society, includes a sense of the transcendent, and is the interpretive lens through which the person sees the world. This is the person who is a nurse, or physical therapist, or priest, or physician, or artisan, and finds joy therein. The spiritual exercise of one's occupational labor then is a basis for community, for it is in spirituality that we participate in the shared human condition—including labor and toil all the days of our lives.

Works Cited
John Calvin, Harmony of the Evangelists Wm. Pringle, trans. 2:143.

John Calvin, Calvin's Commentaries: Harmony of the Gospels, Luke 10:38-42. (Albany, Ore.: Ages Software, 1998).