Job/Career/Calling

2 Thessalonians 3:11, “For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.”

I don’t know about you, but even at 48 years old I still sometimes confuse and congeal job, career, and calling all into a single task or profession for myself. But reality is they are most often three very separate things there to meet three very separate though interrelated needs.

But before I explore this further let’s look at the terms briefly for the purpose of defining them. When I say a job, this means a task accomplished easily within a person’s skill set for compensation but that is not attached to any degree of permanency. Think of a side job, or perhaps a first job, or summer job, or even volunteer job. Whereas a career is a reoccurring task that requires a refined, and perhaps even rare or rarer skill set that is transportable from local to local. A career is that thing that provides some degree of job security. My career is mortgage banking. The Apostle Paul’s career was tent making. Christ career was a carpenter. Calling on the other hand, may include a job or a career, but is the purpose God has for us on this earth. We are all called to minister to God, but some are called to Pastor. Some are called to parent. Sometimes my calling gives me the job of writing this blog. Sometimes my calling finds me in my career of mortgages as I help random strangers who bring their financial troubles to me.

If we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs jobs provide the lowest level of physiological needs. Careers provide only slightly more my giving of the safety of the second level. But I believe it is in responding to our calling that the remainders of these needs are met.

Why am I having this discussion with myself?

Because the understanding of these critical differences and the separations of their roles need to be addressed particularly as much as my mind has distorted these things.

I hate my job.

How many have said that?

I wish I knew what I was supposed to do… or be… or I wish I could do…

How many have said that?

Are you tired of a “dead end” job, or “meaningless” career?

Are you guilty of the mindset that life should be a bed of roses? Have you grown up believing if everything is great spiritually then everything in life is should be great and easy too? Do you think God intends for us to lay around naked in perfect temperatures eating fruit from trees with no responsibilities of effort?

How do you see Christ’s words in Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…”

Do you read this as the birds do not have a job? Do you think the only tasks in life are planting, harvesting, and storing? No, the bird has to get up every day and “find” that food. Yes God does “feed them” in the sense that He has provided enough if they will do their part. But they must make effort. They must look, the must work, and they must avoid be made lunch themselves. In many cases they must fly hundreds or even thousands of miles to the next meal because the seasons have changed. Is that an effortless existence?

Aside from meeting Maslow’s basic of needs jobs are there for us to learn and know Christ. They are there for us to fulfill scripture. Jesus said when telling a parable of work and money in Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much…” Jobs, even the dead end ones are our opportunity to demonstrate the same faithfulness Christ demonstrated to us. Perhaps the “little” is the job, and the much is the “career.”

And what of careers? This application of a skill set to give us a sense of physical safety. Jesus before leaving his career to save the world was a carpenter. (Mark 6:3) Peter and Andrew had a career in fishing. (Matt 4:18) The apostle Paul had a career in tent making. (Acts 18:3) David had a career in as a Shepard before being anointed to be king. I could go on and on, but it sure appears that biblical “careers in ministry” happened more often after careers in the world.

Yes there are spiritual callings none less than those of Ephesians 4, but that does not negate the need to show faithfulness, and to “find” the food that God has provided. Even in the wilderness the Israelites had to go and gather the manna every day. It was not delivered in vacuum sealed packaging a their tent door so that they could sit around all day watching TV and playing video games.

I guess my point is that if you don’t have a job, get one. If you have a job, pray for a direction to have a career. Pray for God to show you where your skills are unique, and how they can lead to the security of being needed by society. Don’t be the object of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that person and do not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”

In this you will discover Christ. He is in the dead end job, when working for Him. He is in the meaningless Career when doing it because He showed you to. Then that calling will emerge out of having relationship with him. For a lucky few the job, career, and calling will intertwine beautifully. For the rest of us… not so much.

God bless, and get to work. Work though not chasing a dream, or lifestyle... work chasing the Lord.

JOB

Back to the salt mine.

James 4:13-15, "Come now you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' ... Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."

After hundreds of job applications and only a few interviews, finally out of the blue comes a workable job in the mortgage business. In fact, I was on my way to an interview for a global bank when a man called me wanting to interview me. He was calling from a company I had not applied for, and had come across my resume only God knows where. In the conversation he asked me not to take the job I was headed to without interviewing with him.

So I go to the interview with the global bank, and nothing feels right. As I am driving to the interview with the mystery caller God speaks to me the thought, "take this job." Pretty bold thought considering I know nothing about the company, nothing about the work environment, and have interviews still scheduled with other companies. Not to mention the fact that they have not offered me a job to begin with.

And so went to the interview last week, and I was asked to interview with the two partners again the next week. One of the questions they asked was, "Why do you want to work here?" I had no answer other than a gut feeling.

They also asked, "What are your objectives in working here?" To that I said if you are looking for someone to climb corporate ladders and chase money I am not your man. I am just looking to do my 40 plus hours a week and earn enough money to eat. After all if you don't work then you can't eat.

You have no idea how far a departure these answers are from my former self. A self hell-bent on rebuilding a lost empire. A disappearance of identity grounded in position, accomplishment, power, and prestige. A lack of need to be the smartest guy in the room, to use an Enron phrase. I didn't say this to them, but I will say it here... I just want to practice the presence of God. And if God says, "take the job" then it must be because that is where He wants to meet with me. Again... not a place He wants me to be. Not a job He wants me to pursue. Not an identity He wants to establish. But It is where He wants me to be with Him.

What a difference, and what a peace comes with the decision. I further wish that it was that simple. But it's not, nor ever is. From every direction job offers are coming. (Where have they been the past five months?) Three other companies are begging me not to take a job until I have talked to them. One is salaried management in the mortgage arena. Another is a salaried position helping a company develop an internet presence and marketing strategy. A third is a hamburger joint, my favorite hamburger joint, where the owner spent nearly an hour today trying to convince me I should take it over. And take it over for nearly nothing, so that him and his family can move back to California.

Self, ego, everything about me that is not God is saying do it all. Do mortgages, consult, and own a burger joint. But we shall have to see what happens. I have given it all over to God, and I will go nowhere without Him. So where He leads I will follow. And when He leaves that place, Lord help me to follow then too. After all, it's easy to move from pain to comfort, but from comfort to pain is a little more challenging.

I will close by saying that with everything good from God the devil present counterfeits by the dozens. I and you have to stay faithful to being obedient to where God tells us to go, and pray that God reveal the counterfeits as they come.

Love the Job

Matthew 11:29-30, ""Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

The blog post normally are prepared a few days in advance. However in time, this is my first post since "Need Cash?" And I must say that God cracks me up, and I love the job He is giving me. Yesterday was the humorous part.

To say there has been a paradigm shift in my life would be the understatement of the decade. But in this leap of faith, I have some very serious thoughts about burning the bridge to mortgages. It is one thing to say in my heart that I am not turning back. It is another thing to quit what I have been doing for 9 years now. Not that what I am doing has done any good in the past 2 months. My income is a fraction of what is "normal" as God forces the change as much as I try to change directions with Him. So yesterday I have a meeting with my boss. He informs me of a whole bunch of changes that are effective immediately. Basically, that I now work for someone else and have to apply again for the position, not to mention changes in comp and pay schedule. So in this application process, I  have to have a valid driver's license. Currently mine is not, and it cannot be made valid until Aug 4, 2011. (Long story - but nothing bad like DWI or something) So I have to ask myself, Is God going to burn the bridge for me? Time will tell, but it still makes me laugh.

In the meantime I stopped by a friends office after the meeting. Told him that I wanted to give him my time, that it was all I have an abundance of and in many ways feel obligated to him. I offered to clean or whatever, and he said, "I want your brain." That led to a brief conversation and me spending about 2 hours with a person working on an internet advertising campaign. I'm a self-proclaimed expert in the area and I really feel like I was able to show some love by asking the right questions, and getting them pointed in the right direction.

Then today was equally awesome and fulfilling. Jim invited me to the Tomball Love Machine group. Unlike Iwo Jima, our men's group, this group is co-ed so a completely different feel. But the people are equally struggling to embrace death of self so that Christ can be resurrected in them. Really a complete honor to be included in with people of such openness, which in my book is integrity. After all, isn't that what life is about. Being who we are, and not pretending? I would share some of the ills, but that is unnecessary for this discussion. As I was driving home I couldn't help but think that about 95% of what is wrong with people has been caused by someone... usually family. I don't want to be a dysfunctional family, or detached, unavailable father. And if it's not family, then it's someone else close inflicting the damage.

I say this not to enable people in their coping mechanisms, but just to acknowledge reality. And just like someone else caused the damage, it is as if God requires the wounded to heal themselves. To turn aside from the hurts, walls, pains, coping mechanisms, and choose to be different. Reality is no one can cure the pain, but we can point the way to the cure, namely Jesus. We can encourage the path to the cure, by acknowledging the pain.

Something else that hit me was that people often say, "I am..." I am an abuse victim. I am an addict. I am... whatever. I really don't agree with that. One woman today said, "I am a dancer." No she not. She danced for a living at some point in the past, but she is not a dancer. No more a dancer than I am a victim of child sex abuse. Yes, I was abused. But I am not a victim. When we hang on to those identities how can we receive or give forgiveness? What I am is a child of God, and that's what she is too. We are not what we do, we are what we are. So it's important to identify with who you really are, who God intended you to be. And never identify with past acts - - good or bad. For example... a CEO is not a CEO. That's a job, not an identity. Some people get their identity by being a "christian." It's a false identity that has them pretending to be righteous. I practice Christianity because I am a child of God, but my identity is not Christian.

Get it? It is a hard thing to grasp, I am a child of God. But when even a piece of this concept is grasped, then the false identities we wrap ourselves in begin to fall. As a child of God I know that He will teach me and train me. As a Christian I will fail trying to adhere to doctrines. As a child, my failure is simply part of the learning process. That's a huge difference and worth repeating. Identifying as a child of God sees failure as part of the learning process and forgiveness is readily accepted. Identifying as a Christian sees failure as an inadequacy and creates a separation from the object of our affection.

After posting this I read something by Charles Spurgeon. In reference to Ecclesiastes 11:1 which said, "Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days." Charles explained it this way. "We must not expect to see an immediate reward for all the good we do; nor must we always confine our efforts to places and persons which seem likely to yield us a recompense for our labors."