What does one do when they find their job unfulfilling? One answer? Try looking at their job in a different light.
I
was searching through my documents (looking for something else) when I found
this "thought" which I saved over a year ago. It was
written by Gene Twilley, who works for CCO (Coalition for
Christian Outreach) and oversees CCO staff who work on college campuses doing
outreach in the Philadelphia area. I felt his insights could help those
caught is a similar predicament, so I thought I would pass it along as we begin
2019. It is entitled "Attitude Adjustment."
Most all of us could use that on one occasion of another! Enjoy.
Attitude Adjustment
"Eight
months after finishing my undergraduate studies, I started working as an auto
liability claims adjuster for a very large insurance company. There were ample
benefits with the job—from day one, I was vested in a matched 401k; I had a
pension, nearly a month of vacation per year, and great health benefits.
I loved the people I worked with An older African-American woman called me her
newly adopted son. We worked in collaborative cubicles—four to a large cube—and
laughed a lot.
But
I hated the work. In a claims environment, every call is a complaint The
workload is heavy. I was threatened with physical violence over the phone,
bullied with potential lawsuits, and accused of all sorts of character
flaws. There were and are far worse places to be employed. But in the
moment of any sort of seemingly bad circumstance, we don’t usually think about
what could be worse. We long for something better.
Then
my wife and I attended a wedding for one of her co-workers, and I was making
small talk with a woman I didn’t know, and who I probably wouldn’t recognize if
I saw her today. In the midst of conveying to her what I did, before I
had the opportunity to complain about my job, she exclaimed, “How exciting! You
have the opportunity to help put people’s lives back together every day.”
Sobering.
Clarifying.
Convicting.
Clarifying.
Convicting.
I
was willing to approach my work as a Christian who had hope in Jesus, but not
as a Christian who had hope that my work actually mattered. I don’t know
where this woman was in terms of faith, but she pointed out something that I
was completely missing.
Isaiah
61 is a messianic prophetic utterance. Jesus took up this section, read it in a
synagogue in Nazareth, and explained, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
He
was anointed to preach good news to the poor.
He
was sent to proclaim liberty to captives.
He
was sent to give sight to the blind
He
came to release the oppressed.
In
all of that, Jesus was announcing the “year of the Lord’s favor.” In the
broader context of Isaiah 61, we see other really good things too! There is
comfort for those who mourn. Those who sit in shame and in repentance are made
beautiful. They are planted deeply into God’s grace, that they might praise
rather than mourn. The people of God are called by the Servant of God to be
re-creators of things that are broken… All that hope, that expectation, that
rebuilding of the things that have been broken—it’s in Isaiah 61. It all finds
its beginning, current, and end in Jesus.
And
this is the kind of hope that can lift me out of myself and all my meandering
thoughts about greener pastures. I start to ask different questions.
After all, aren’t we called to care about the situations that God has placed us
in, the broken places already in our midst? How can we make the most of our
God-given opportunities today? How might we redeem the time that he’s given
into our possession?
As
a claims adjuster, I was occupied with my work—getting through the day, looking
for the next best thing. It was a job, not a calling. Or was it?
What if every opportunity to serve others is a calling from the Lord? Tim
Keller explains, “our work can be a calling only if it is re-imagined as a mission
of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of work
mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a
person.”
Calling
is found at the sweet spot where my vertical and horizontal relationships
meet—where I love the Lord and where I love my neighbor. Too often, maybe we’re
disappointed with where we are because we simply don’t see the potential of the
work ahead of us. But what if some of us are so concerned with our own
emptiness that we don’t see the joy set before us? Isaiah 61 tells a
bigger story, and in this story, work becomes service, pain becomes joy, and
despair becomes hope. Come, Lord Jesus. Give us eyes to see."
Where
might an "attitude adjustment" (or simply looking at something from a
different perspective) help you in your struggle to find fulfillment in
something which is not at present? Only you can know. But it is worth
pondering!
Living
in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff
