Business Success Series: JOB, CAREER OR CALLING?

Perspective Matters

Right after college, at 21 years old, my meager allowance stopped.  Just as my dad warned, there was no grace period because I have 5 younger siblings who have yet to go to college.  I cannot survive without a job.  So, I grabbed the first one that came along.    I enjoyed being able to feed myself and have a few luxuries, every now and then, like eating in a restaurant,  but that is all there is to it.  I cannot see my salary growing as fast as I want to.  Pretty soon, as I get older, I can get stuck.  This brought me to  a new perspective of my job.

I would rather fly than crawl

I had to look at a bigger picture, a career if you will. I did not only plan to eat and live. I planned to keep on bringing up my capability to match the pay I wanted for myself. It is now about what I can do to fulfill my ambition to move up.  Just as I hopped from one bus to another  to reach my office, I decided to do the same with my employment.  Each job I took, gave me the opportunity to develop additional skill while I aim for a promotion or jump ship and get to the next higher paying job that opens up.   I worked for 7 companies in a span of 12 years. That was stressful.

In each of those 7 companies I worked for, I had to work long hours to prove myself since I was always a new hire.   I felt the stress and understood the meaning of burn out.  That was when I decided to move out and test my skill in self-employment.  I then realized it can even get tougher, with even bigger challenges that are new to me.  The saying, “from the frying pan to the fire”, held true for me.

If I am a bird, I would rather be an eagle

A ‘job’ or even a ‘career’ will never satisfy.  What will satisfy is a ‘calling’  whose purpose is bigger than my own.  God’s ‘calling’ requires that I become the best in what I do, no matter what the odds are because ultimately, I can leverage it for God’s purpose.  Challenges did not disappear.  But I noticed that the more challenges there are, the better I become, and the more passion I develop.   To a person who has faith,  God’s  grace become manifest when those trials are overcome.  Instead of drowning, I become a better person after the flood.

Even an eagle has a purpose.

In a ‘calling’, there is a partnership with God who is the source of all grace and power.  How can I not partner with God when clearly, all my ability came from Him and I will eventually have to give an account?  The great thing about this is God’s grace is sufficient and rewards are great.  In my entire involvement in the marketplace, it is when I changed my perspective from ‘job’ or  ‘career’ to ‘calling’ that I had peace and started enjoying abundant blessings.

For some people who are tired of slugging it out in the jungle called marketplace, maybe it is time to change perspective. Have a CALLING, not just a job or a career. If it is a calling, get to know who called you.

2 Thess 1: 11-12   With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.  We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.