On
a retreat that I led I met two men who impressed
me greatly. Each had taken a courageous step in
finding his career niche. And each had increased
the benefits in his professional life by, well,
reducing them.
Alfred founded a printing
business in his late teens, and it prospered. By
age thirty-two he was financially secure and en
route to becoming wealthy. Yet he felt that his
most significant gifts were not being invested
for Christ.
He carefully examined the options
and concluded that his strongest talents and
aspirations lay in health care. Yet he did not
have the stamina for a vocation in general
medicine or surgery. Nursing proved to be the
viable alternative. Now, at age thirty-six, he
had just graduated from nursing college and had
begun serving in his first hospital position.
I was profoundly impressed with
Alfred's enthusiasm for his work and the
heartfelt dedication to his patients which he
displayed. But what I admired most was his
willingness to leave a high-paying profession and
take four years off from life to prepare to take
a new job at half his former salary. I must say I
was impressed, too, with his willingness to enter
a career which hasn't traditionally been
considered a male one. He had taken bold steps to
realize his potential for Christ.
The other man was Ray, a retiree
who had spent most of his life working for the
same large corporation. Yet at age forty he
decided to leave a high salaried, glamorous job
for a less prestigious and far lower-paying
position in the same company. He made the move
for a simple reason: the new job better fit the
skills and creative interests which he felt that
God had given him. It was now nearly thirty years
later, and he had no regrets, but was certain the
move was one of the most important of his life.
The Courage to Be Who We Are
These men stand out in my mind as
inspiring exceptions to a pattern which plagues
Americans today. Far too frequently our
vocational choices are not really choices at all.
We fall into vocations--more often from social
convention than from an honest appraisal of our
gifts and areas of motivation. And typically
inertia or the desire for "upward
mobility" keeps us locked into them.
When we look at the lives of
great men and women of faith in Scripture, we see
an almost consistent pattern of movement. Most of
them came into the important adventures which God
had for them only after they took certain bold
strokes to break the inertia in their lives. For
some the moves were geographical. Abraham left
his homeland of Haran; Joseph, after being
deported to Egypt, stayed there and did not
attempt to return to Canaan; Naomi, when bereft
of her husband and sons, left Moab for Bethlehem.
In other cases the moves were
occupational. Moses, Saul, David, and others left
the shepherding profession for positions of
political and spiritual leadership. Some of
Jesus' disciples left fishing vocations; at least
one left a lucrative career in tax collecting;
Joanna left a prestigious position in Herod's
palace.
If these examples have anything
to suggest to us today, they say that living the
life of faith will at times some decisive moves
to break out of stagnant patterns which have
socked us in.
Types of Inertia That We Face
The most insidious inertia factor
we have to contend with today is the lure of a
fat paycheck. The problem is termed "golden
handcuffs" in modern corporate life. This
term refers to the squelching effect that
promotions and salary raises can have on our
personal potential. A man or woman is pulled out
of a position for which they are qualified and
motivated, and "upgraded" to a
higher-paying, more prestigious position which
doesn't tap their talents or interests nearly as
well. With the benefit of a larger salary,
though, they grow accustomed to a more
extravagant lifestyle, and it becomes difficult
to think of moving backward. They remain stuck in
a job with good perks but minimal creative
satisfaction.
I'm certainly not suggesting that
we should have no concern with the financial
rewards of our work. Scripture commands us to be
involved in employment which provides our basic
economic needs (2 Thess 3:6-10). Yet if we allow
financial motives to be primary in
choosing a profession, we're likely to doom
ourselves to a life of wealthy mediocrity. The
abundant life which Christ offers can never be
fully realized until we're willing to adjust our
lifestyle for the sake of better utilizing the
gifts he's given us.
Geographical inertia is also a
factor that hinders us today, in spite of the
ease of transportation available to us. Nancy, a
woman who came to me for vocational counseling,
is a typical example. As a recent college
graduate with a drama major, she was eager to
find an opportunity to employ her acting skills
in a Christian context. She asked if I knew of
any professional drama ministries to which she
might apply.
At the time, the only one I knew
about was in Berkeley, California. I suggested
that she fly there and audition. She quickly
protested that she knew that God didn't want her
going to Berkeley. It would be too far from
family and friends. Finally she admitted that
even if God clearly commanded her to move there,
she wouldn't go. She was open to his will--as
long as it was within a half-hour radius of
Washington, D.C.!
Many of us will find the best
opportunities for employing our gifts only when
we're willing to forge beyond our geographical
comfort zone. I might add that doing so may also
be a necessary step toward finding a life mate.
If making such a move sounds like forcing the
hand of God, I can only say that I think God
expects us to take the same level of
responsibility in seeking marriage as we do in
looking for the best career opportunities. Ruth
is a biblical example of someone who took such
initiative.
Taking Inventory of Our
Life
Of course, we can be too quick to
change situations, or to jump from opportunity to
opportunity. There are times when God wants us to
settle in for the long haul to one geographical
area, career or job. His purpose differs for us
at different times. The critical matter is that
we be open to his will, and to his best
for us, and be certain that we're not holding
back from making a change simply because of fear.
The good news is that we usually
find his best by understanding the unique way he
has made us individually. From time to time we
should take inventory of our life. If we find
that a situation is working strongly against our
making use of the gifts and interests God has put
within us, it may be time to take a bold step of
faith to change this situation.
The bottom line is that living
the life of faith requires some movement. You and
I need to be willing to break the inertia
patterns that rob us of Christ's abundant life.
The life of faith is meant to be a moving
experience.
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