When your job stinks...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 9:26AM What do you do when your job doesn't reflect what you really love?
It’s helpful to think of a particular job (the thing that brings home the bacon) as a divine appointment or commission. It may be for a few months or longer; but for that time and place, and to those people, God is asking us to bring our unique presence. They need you there -- even if they don't know it.
The problem is, most of us don’t know whether or not that particular job is God's divine assignment for us: It might be. It might not be. What if God's not asking you to stay there? It’s always helpful to ask God the question: "Is this where you want me for this time?"
When the job gets particularly tough or the people you interact with become particularly frustrating, it will strengthen you to know that God has sent you there [if he, in fact, has], for at least a time. It’s a lot harder to put up with those things if you don’t know you’re supposed to be there.
He's also training you for what is to come. Not punishing you ... training you. Your going to need what you'll gain in this time of development and cultivation. You don't want to rush the field without the proper training: Many have and many have lost heart because of it.
Ask God whether or not he's assigned you there... then trust.
Reader Comments (6)
Hey Jim,
This is just great. It's a good point that when one finds her/himself in a bad work situation that it is a matter of training, not punishment. It is a hard thing to keep in mind.
Oh by the way, I like your new lion at the top! One of my favorite scriptures is Proberb 28:1 " The wicked man flees though no one pursues,
but the righteous are as bold as a lion."
I really think God gave me that scripture when I was being persecuted. Means a whole lot!
Meredith
Hey Meredith -- Glad you like the new lion symbol -- I wanted to capture an image of goodness and nobility.
I love the Scripture you mention - very powerful.
I have always wondered whether I am where I am just due to my own choices, rather than considering my current job an assignment. It'd be a lot easier for me to see it as an assignment, but theres always that nagging feeling that I'm to blame for not being more intentional, that I'm where I am because I made my own mess. I guess I need to delve more into how I really feel about the Father and His leading of my life.
Hey Drew. Great question -- one that many of us have struggled with. The only way I know to find out how a particular 'job' we're in is, in fact, God's will for us [his assignment for us] is to ask him. Stay with the question, if you don't get an answer right away.
I think there are many who are NOT in God's assignment for them -- and will too casually think: "I'll just stay in this position and assume God put me here." Maybe he did; maybe he didn't.
These aren't easy things to sort out, but our heart and calling really matter to God. Hope this helps.
Thats the catch for me-staying with it. I have a really hard time with silence, with sitting, and listening. But that might be the very posture He has been asking me to take for a very long time now and I've just shunned it.
Glad I found your site Jim-via Kevin Miles. Kevin is a great heart, as are many of his contemporaries in the Grand Rapids area.
Thanks for your writing!
Hey Drew -- I know, the listening process can be a royal pain -- but it is The Counselor's delight to come alongside us. Kevin's a great guy with great vision.