CAREER COUNSELING
“Congratulations! You’re an adult. Now get to work.”
Besides freedom, work is the other big thing that makes adulthood different from childhood. Sure, you might work some as a child, but your main role is to be a student. In fact, you’re legally required to go to school as a child, while the law restricts how much a child can work. A kid’s “job” is to learn and be trained so that they’ll be capable of taking on a real job someday.
And now that day is here. You’re responsible for yourself; your parents are no longer required or expected to take care of you. You have to pay for your own food, housing, transportation, insurance, and bills. Yay.
Many of you are actually excited by this fact, because now it means you can get your “dream job.” You can do the thing you’re so passionate about that you’ve spent years studying it and have invested many thousands of dollars (which you likely now owe as debt) to get a degree that will allow you at least a chance at getting the job. Now your life will finally be fun and fulfilling because you’ll be spending your time doing what you’ve always wanted to do.
Yeah. I hate to burst your bubble, but it rarely ever works like that. If it did, you wouldn’t see people constantly hopping from job to job to job. Today’s young adults are famous for this, with Millennials changing jobs, on average, every two years.1 That works out to something like two dozen different jobs over the course of a career. Baby Boomers, in comparison, stay at a job for an average of seven years. That means they’ll have about six jobs in a lifetime. Go back one or two generations before that, and it seems most people had only one job in their entire lifetime. Clearly, something’s changed, and it doesn’t seem to be a change for the better.
Follow Your Passion
I’ve experienced this in my own life. In fact, I didn’t make it two years in most of my early jobs.
When I was eighteen, my mom came to me and sat me down for a serious talk about my future. She’s a school counselor, so she does this for a living. She asked me, “Where do you want to go to college?”
Now, you may have known the answer to this question since you were in the third grade, but what’s crazy is that I hadn’t thought about it much. So my answer was “I don’t know.”
She said, “Well, what do you want to study?”
“Nothing,” I said, with complete honesty. I didn’t like studying.
So then she asked this question: “What are you passionate about?”
I didn’t have any kind of profound answer. Remember, I was just a confused high school kid at this point. What was I passionate about? I didn’t know. Being liked? Dawson’s Creek? Spring break? Beer? Skateboarding? Art?
“What did you just say?” my mom asked.
“Art?”
“We can work with that.”
I asked what she had in mind, and she said there’s this little school in Waco, Texas, where people can go and study art. That’s cool, I said. Sounds great. I’ll go and do that.
So I did. I moved to Waco and I went to this little technical school. I studied art. I was there for two years and graduated with a two-year degree. I got a diploma. I was ready to go to work.
But here’s what I learned in college: I’m passionate about art when I can do it on my own terms and create whatever I want. I’m not passionate about art as an assignment. I don’t like someone telling me what to create or having a say over what it should look like—which describes almost any art job I would be able to get. I had this diploma saying that I could do art for a living, but it was pretty much worthless, because I didn’t want to do it for a living.
So I came back to the question: What am I passionate about? But I still didn’t know. I was just a slightly older version of the eighteen-year-old me. I was passionate about a lot of the same things, except now instead of Dawson’s Creek it was One Tree Hill. I was passionate about eating and not starving to death. So I needed to make money, which meant I needed a job.
I remember waking up early one morning in Waco and praying, “God, I need a job.” I didn’t even know where to look for a job, so I ended up going to the mall. It wasn’t open yet. So I sat in the parking lot and prayed some more. “Lord, give me a job.” When the mall opened, I went walking through it.
This girl came up to me in the mall and asked, “Hey, what do you do?” I told her that I was looking for a job.
She said, “You want to manage an Abercrombie & Fitch?”
“Yes, I do. So much.”
She asked, “Where?”
I said, “How about Dallas?”
“Done.”
I was like, This is how this prayer thing works? This is amazing.
You know those guys who stand in front of Abercrombie stores with their shirts off? I was not one of those guys. Instead, my job involved things like folding clothes. At midnight. I learned that I wasn’t very passionate about that particular job. So, I thought, I needed to find a new job that I would be passionate about.
So I changed jobs and went to work at a gym. I figured I could get paid to work out. Now I was selling gym memberships, and I learned I wasn’t passionate about that either.
So I changed jobs again and went to work for this design company, doing graphic design. I thought, Great, now I can put my art degree to use! But then I remembered that I wasn’t passionate about doing other people’s art.
So I changed jobs again and went to work for a telecommunications company, doing sales. I worked for more than one telecommunications company, actually, changing jobs a few more times. But I learned that I wasn’t passionate about any of them.
So I changed jobs again. I went to work for an IT consulting firm, and I learned I wasn’t passionate about that.
At about this time in my life, I realized that I was passionate about making money, and I was passionate about myself and my own happiness, but I wasn’t passionate about or happy with any job I’d ever had. And I kind of found myself despairing a little bit. I had what some people call a “quarter-life crisis,” and I wasn’t even twenty-five yet.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but you can get really philosophical in these times. I’d have thoughts like, What if I’m supposed to be a race car driver? What if I’m the fastest race car driver in the world, and I just don’t know it, because I’ve never driven one? I need to find this out. I’d have these kinds of discussions with my friends, usually while sitting on a tailgate with a beer in my hand. I would usually end up with something like, “I just want to live in a shack on the beach and surf.” My buddies would point out the obvious: “Have you ever surfed?” “No, but I bet I could.” Have you ever had one of these conversations? They are adulting at its best.
This was before I was following Christ, but there’s a Christian version of this too. It’s called “I think I need to move to Africa.” You know: dig wells, feed the children, become a missionary. I don’t know why, but for some reason, when Christians hit that wall, they all end up in Africa.
You would think, with all this introspection and thinking about what we truly want to do, we’d be really good at picking the right job or career field. But we’re not. We’re awful at it. We’re the worst there’s ever been, going through dozens of jobs to find the “right” one.
It’s not your fault. You’ve been fed a lot of bad advice on this topic. There’s this phrase we’ve all been taught: “Follow your passion.” You might think that’s always been the advice given to young people starting out in the world, but that’s not actually the case. In fact, when looking at the trends of word usage in literature, the phrase “follow your passion” was virtually nonexistent in books before 1980. By 1990, though, it was showing up 1.5 million times. In the 2000s, the phrase skyrocketed; by 2008, it was being used over 21 million times in English literature. This isn’t because of the rise of the internet; we’re only talking about print books here. And it’s not because there are suddenly more books; the percentage of books using the phrase has skyrocketed. If you look at other terms, like “career,” or “job,” or “love,” the percentage of books using those words has remained relatively flat. It’s the exact phrase “follow your passion” that has become popular in our lifetimes. “Follow your passion” is what you’ve been sold for the past twenty years.
The problem is, that’s really, really bad advice.
It’s bad advice because, well, we’re talking about passions here. Passions are not logical. If everybody really followed their passions, society would quickly collapse. Nobody I know is passionate about picking up trash or cleaning clogged toilets or fixing roads or driving delivery trucks. None of those jobs would ever get done. Everyone would be too busy trying to launch their singing/modeling/acting/sports careers, with nobody left to form an audience.
Taken to its logical end, having everyone follow all their passions would lead to all kinds of sin and even to violent crime (“crimes of passion”). I know that’s an extreme example, but it shows how following your passions is a really bad principle at its core.
It’s also pretty much the opposite of what God’s Word teaches. We’re not supposed to follow our passions; we’re supposed to bring our passions under control (Gal. 5:24). Instead of following our hearts (Jer. 17:9), we’re called to follow God and become passionate about what he’s passionate about.
Does that mean you should work at a job you’re not passionate about? Maybe. It depends on the situation. If you have a job that you are passionate about, that’s great. Work hard at it. Be a great employee. But if you can’t find such a job, or you have a job you’re not passionate about—well, you’re still called to work (Prov. 14:23; 2 Thess. 3:10). So find a job you’re not passionate about and work hard at that job. Be a great employee.
Let’s face reality: you don’t have to love your job. It’s not a requirement. It’s not necessary for success. You don’t get paid for enjoying it. In fact, the very reason you get paid for working is because you’re doing something that somebody else doesn’t want to do, or simply can’t do, and they’re willing to pay money for someone else to do it. If it were enjoyable, you probably wouldn’t get paid for it. It would be a hobby, not a job.
Plus, we’re talking about your first real job (or one of your first). By definition, you’re going to start out at the bottom of the ladder. Few people have a dream job that would be considered entry-level. I’ve heard employers complain that young adults today come into the workforce with unrealistic expectations; they think that they’ll immediately be put to work doing something interesting and important. They think they’ll be granted power, authority, and respect within the company. That’s not how the world works. You have to earn your employer’s trust, which takes time and experience faithfully doing what they ask you to do—even if they ask you to just make coffee or collate papers at first. You also have to learn. School may teach you a lot of things, but it typically doesn’t teach you the specifics of how to do a particular job for a particular company. After some time and some on-the-job training, then you might reach a place where you start getting to do more of what you really want to do.
Proverbs 22:29 says, “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.” In other words, if you’re really good at what you do, you’ll be recognized for it and be given a more important position. What that proverb doesn’t say, but definitely implies, is that it will take time before you’re able to “serve before kings.” It takes time, and a lot of faithful work and repetition, before you become truly skilled at anything. And it takes more time after that to be noticed for your work. If you want a surefire way to derail that, try hopping from job to job (like I did) trying to find one that will finally make you happy.
When it comes to work, my friend Jennie Allen put it brilliantly on her Facebook page:
A lot of my job is outside of my gifting and outside of my happy place. I’m a creative who created and now I have to do a lot of uncreative work to keep everything healthy and growing. I can hire and delegate and hand off and I have and I do and I will. HOWEVER, as a generation, we are desperate to find jobs we adore and are perfectly in our sweet spots. But it’s not a realistic view of work. So whether it’s mothering, medicine, CEO, sales, teaching, ministry, writing or so on . . . it is important to remember toil in work was a part of the curse and it is difficult and you do the things you don’t like because it’s RIGHT and OBEDIENT and HOLY. And on the days work is fun, smile and celebrate, and on the days work isn’t fun, don’t rethink your whole life. Do the work. And through it we are becoming more humble and holy.
Why We Work
If we want to be happy with our jobs, we need to change our perspective on why we work.
We don’t work because it provides fulfillment or gives meaning to our lives or because we’re passionate about it.
We work so that we’ll have something to eat and something to wear and somewhere to live. We work to provide, both for ourselves and for others.
That’s a lot different from how we usually look at work. We tend to treat our jobs as a core part—or even the core—of who we are. Think about when you meet someone for the first time. About 99 percent of the time, one of the first questions asked is “What do you do?” And 99 percent of the time, the answer is “I’m a (insert job title).” As if that’s your identity, or the most important thing you do. It’s like saying: “I’m not a dad or a husband or a great friend or a child of God on a mission to change the eternity of every person I meet. No, I’m a salesperson. My purpose in life is to sell things.” There are many things about you that are, or should be, more important than your job title.
We work to provide. It’s because, frankly, we need the money. If your job suddenly stopped paying you, I doubt you’d keep working there for long; you’d start looking for another job that pays money.
If that seems to make work sound a lot less romantic, well, good. Your job’s not supposed to be your idol. It was never meant to fulfill you. It’s a necessary thing, and a good thing, but it’s not the ultimate thing. It’s a means to provide.
Who, or what, are we supposed to provide for?
First Timothy 5:8 says that we are to provide for our families. In fact, it says that “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” That may sound pretty harsh, but it’s harsh for a reason: because it’s really, really important. If you are able to work and capable of providing, then God commands you to do so.
Providing for your “household” might sound kind of funny as a single adult, when you’re the head of a household of one. But remember that it also means you’ll have to provide for your future family. Want to be married and have kids someday? That means you’ll have these things the IRS calls “dependents,” and they’ll be fully dependent on you to provide for them. Work hard now and be wise with the money you earn, and you’ll build good habits and a good foundation for your future family.
We’re also called to provide for those in need who are unable to provide for themselves. First John 3:17 says that “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” And Matthew 25:31–46 says that helping the needy counts as helping God himself.
And then there’s probably the most important part, from an eternal perspective: we’re to work so we can provide for the mission of advancing the gospel. The apostle Paul gave an example of that. Though you probably think of him as a missionary and a full-time evangelist, Paul actually worked as a tentmaker (Acts 18:2–4). He made tents to support himself and his traveling companions so that they could afford to spread the gospel (Acts 20:33–35; 2 Thess. 3:7–9). His job supported his mission.
Was Paul passionate about building tents? I don’t know. I doubt it, though, because he didn’t talk about it much in all his writings. My guess is that he made tents because he needed to provide, and being a tentmaker was a good way to do that. It’s a job he could do anywhere, as he traveled from city to city sharing the gospel. And it would have flexible hours; he could work at any time of the day or night, which allowed him to preach and minister to people whenever the opportunity presented itself. He was passionate about spreading the gospel, and making tents was a means to that end.
Work as Worship
Even though Paul might not have been passionate about making tents, I’d bet that he did an excellent job. His tents were probably the best you could buy. This is the guy who wrote, in Colossians 3:23–24, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” He saw his job as working for the Lord, the One he was so passionate about serving and spreading the good news about.
You don’t have to love your job to be good at it or to work hard at it. We’re commanded to work hard, regardless of whether we like the job or feel passionate about it. When we do so, especially if it’s for a job or a boss we don’t like, we earn more than just a paycheck. We’ll receive an eternal reward for serving Christ through the way we work.
How you work will also have an impact on those you work with. Philippians 2:14–16 says that we are to “Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” How we work, and the way we honor our employers by doing our best for them, is supposed to stand out as different from the rest of the world. It’s supposed to make people notice and make them more willing to listen to us when we explain why we work that way. We’re to be “the light of the world” and “let [our] light shine before others” (Matt. 5:14–16), and that includes shining at work.
I’ve been on a number of what some people call “mission trips.” I’ve traveled to Haiti to share the gospel there. I’ve traveled to the heart of Africa, to places so far away and so remote that it takes several planes and two full days of flying to get there. I’ve traveled to villages in the Amazon rain forest that can only be reached by boat. Each time, it took a lot of planning, a lot of time away from family, and quite a bit of money to make the trip. And it was totally worth it, because sharing the gospel is that important. It allowed me to be a light to the world.
However, even having been to all those places, the darkest mission field I’ve ever seen is corporate America. It’s the place where your light can shine the brightest. Our workplaces need the gospel just as much as any village in the jungle. And here’s the deal: you can pay thousands of dollars to go on a “mission trip” overseas for a week, or you can get paid to go to work every day and be on mission there. They literally pay you to be there! And you don’t need a translator; you speak the language. You don’t need to study and learn about a new culture; it’s your culture. From a mission perspective, it almost seems too good to be true.
I’m reminded of the story of Mark Whitacre. You probably haven’t heard of him, but you probably have heard of Matt Damon, who played Mark Whitacre in a movie based on his life, The Informant! Mark worked for Archer Daniels Midland, or ADM, a food processing company. Probably doesn’t sound like the most exciting career field, right? However, Mark knew about some shady dealings going on at ADM, involving the largest price-fixing scandal in American history. He contacted the FBI, and the FBI asked him to serve as an undercover agent, secretly recording conversations and gathering evidence to build a criminal case against ADM executives.
So imagine yourself in Mark’s shoes: one day he’s working his desk job in the exciting world of food processing, and the next day he’s an undercover spy for the FBI. That probably made his workdays a bit more exciting, don’t you think? His job didn’t change; he still did the same work as before. But now he was on a mission for a higher authority. He was on mission, at his job. And that’s what you can be: on mission—for God, not the FBI—at your job. You can do your work while working for a higher purpose.
It’s true that work can be a pain at times. That’s a result of the fall; because of sin, nothing in this world is perfect. It’s because of our fallen world that Genesis 3:17 talks about “painful toil”:
Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
However, though the pain of work is a consequence of the fall, work itself is not a punishment. In a perfect world, we would still work. How do I know this? Because before the fall, in the Garden of Eden when it was a perfect world, humankind was still commanded to work. Genesis 2:15 says that “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” This was before sin entered the picture, and before the curse of Genesis 3:17.
And in heaven, where everything will again be perfect, we’ll still have work to do. In the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22:3 says, “No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.” We’ll work serving God, but work will no longer be cursed.
In other words, we’re created to work. It’s something we’re made to do, and it’s not punishment in and of itself. Paradise is not eternally sitting on a beach, couch, or cloud with nothing to do. That gets boring really fast. Paradise is working the way God intended and joyfully serving him through that work. When we joyfully serve him through our work today we are showing the world a preview of paradise by being a reflection of God and his coming kingdom.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Col. 3:23–24)
“Whatever you do”—which covers everything you do and every possible job—work hard at it. Serve God through it. And you might find that you start to actually like it.
Reflection