The cart before the horse

The challenge with being here is figuring out what it is exactly that God wants to show us and how He wants to use us. The natural question everyone asks us, Christian and non alike, is how the job search is going. It’s...well...going. I mean, we’re still working at it. And we want to work at it professionally, putting a good effort in, because it’s a reflection of the gifts God has given us.

But we also don’t want to get caught up in it either. It’s very easy for our jobs to become idols in our lives. It’s not that we worship them overtly, but we do place a lot of importance on them. When we meet new people, we almost always ask them what they do at some point, as a basis for forming their identity. And our jobs take up a lot of our time. Even though it’s not exactly intentional devotion, we are fairly devoted nonetheless.

We often mention that beloved Scripture from Colossians, to work as if for the Lord, not for men. And so we pour ourselves into our work, because it’s for God, right? But it can get very tricky to differentiate sometimes. Sometimes, we just...work. And that’s it. We work for nobody in mind. Not for ourselves, not for our families, not for God. We just work. Because that’s what’s been grilled into our heads. If you're human, then you work. It even says so in Genesis and Ecclesiastes, right?

People mean well enough when they ask how our job search is going. They’re genuinely concerned for our well being. And we’d be lying if we said we weren’t concerned as well. There’s a sense of anxiety and urgency that creeps into our thoughts every now and then.

“It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity, because worrying means that we do not think that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything else that worries us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the little worries always.” + Oswald Chambers

The big challenge for us is to stay the course while we’re here and keep our priorities straight. As much as we want to find a job soon, and as anxious as we get, it's important for us to remember that we're measuring the success of our adventure on a different stick. Our experience may very well involve working here, particularly with the gifts and abilities with which we've been blessed. But ultimately, success will be defined by the deepening of our relationships with God more than any job we get to do here. Did we get to know God better? Did we get to see Him work around us and through us?

“God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the right and proper thing to consider if you were not living a life of faith; but if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and leave God to choose for you. This is the discipline by means of which the natural is transformed into the spiritual by obedience to the voice of God.” + Oswald Chambers