There are times when I am only too aware that doing a job you love is not that straightforward. Sometimes I detect an urge to get the better paying job on the thinking that as it pays better it will be better, when the reality doesn’t always match up. I realised a fair while ago that I wasn’t all that interested in pursuing the best paying job. I know that if that was my motivation, I would not be where I am today and I definitely would not be married to the beautiful woman that chose to be my lawful, wedded wife or have the beautiful daughters as a result. Indeed I would have missed out on a significant amount of excellence if my pursuit was for money.
What I do look for in working though is a great deal of what is referred to as ‘job satisfaction’. I want to contribute to a job well done and not with an outcome that is purely physical. I want to leave an impact on the lives of those I work alongside and those I serve that sinks to the level of the heart. I want to know that in my service someone has appreciated life that bit more and made another good step in their life’s journey.
Looking back, I realise I have been tremendously blessed to have a work history where at the very least I’ve been in the environment to witness lives being changed for the better through the sort of work I’m involved in. That is not to say I always experienced that sense of ‘job satisfaction’. There are some regrettable moments in my working history around wasting and spoiling wonderful opportunities through neglect and misuse. Thankfully I’m at the stage in the maturing process where I realise that work is not detached from my spiritual life. I realise more and more that being a Christian and being a tutor or not different hats to be worn at different times. As I understand and engage with Jesus in how he impacts my working life some elements arise that I would never have known before.
In that process there are truly beautiful and sensational moments where it looks as if all the pieces have come in place and I’ve played my part in seeing something memorable produced out of what others might consider mundane. For example there was a day this week when I was delivering an introductory module and a follow-up workshop to some new customers. As it is their first time here, they are not fully aware of what is available to them and the processes they need to follow. Sometimes they can be shy and retiring and reluctant to engage. Sometimes they can be distracted and ornery. Other times they can be nervous and need a bit of time to settle.
On this one occasion not many people had turned up and the opening exchanges did not promise much. Over the course of the hours spent together though it was literally as though the ice melted and out came an overflow of good banter, excellent suggestions and inputs, thought-provoking statements and a level of cameraderie that was warm and endearing from this group of strangers. From not wishing to stay around for much longer than they had to, by the end of the session they wanted to stick around for more. All because they for themselves found something worth developing and something of value to them that would help them progress with their lives.
It’s moments like that when I love the job I do. It is not going to make the front pages of newspapers and other than this blog I hardly think it will merit widespread news coverage. But in that space with those few people, the smile of Jesus said to me again, I am where I need to be, doing the things I need to be doing, making the contributions I need to be making, in the lives of those He sends my way for His glory and His name didn’t even need to be mentioned verbally.
Was I in church? No. Preaching take place? I did go on for a bit, but hardly worthy of even a sermonette and it wasn’t a ‘religious gathering’. Yet in seving man even in the footsteps of the Son of Man who saw many lives healed, delivered and restored through His works, the hope is I too get to see Jesus heal, deliver and restore lives through the work He gives me to do.
Good times.
As I look forward to resting from another week’s work, my desire is that others would also discover how fulfilling it is to find Jesus endorsing their job. Not only that but to see Him motivating them to partake in it as ministry and thus find not just ‘job satisfaction’ but abundant life even in what others may consider to be mundane.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 