work

“The voice we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice that we might think we should listen to least, and that is voice of our own gladness.”

Frederick Buechner

Are you doing something you enjoy for your vocation? Or do you dread going to work everyday? Believe me, I’ve had my share of those kinds of jobs. I would wake up with knots in my stomach because I dreaded going to work. For a while I worked in a position where I tried to help reunite families who had their children taken from them because of abuse or neglect. My primary client was the child and in almost all of the cases, the parents saw me, not as their advocate, but as their adversary. It was the best paying job I ever had when I was in social work but I was only there one year because there was so little joy in the work.

Then I worked for 4 ½ years as a therapist for adult survivors of sexual abuse and sexual assault. The work was very hard but I knew I was doing what God wanted me to do and in the midst of the pain, I saw healing and redemption.

All those positions gave me life experience that has culminated in doing, now, something that I truly love. I spend my days steeped in spiritual formation. I read, write, and develop curriculum, I sit with people and help them notice God’s work in their lives and I have the incredible privilege of leading retreats for women. I couldn’t have a more perfect job if I wrote the script myself. There are days when I ask myself why I get to do this work. In the past, I have thought that if I love what I am doing then I might be out of God’s will. But now, the contrary seems more likely to me.

I can find places in my journal about two years ago, where my prayer to God consisted of something like this…”God …you know me more intimately than anyone else. You know the gifts and abilities you have given me. You know my personality, my likes, my dislikes, my strengths, my weaknesses. Please show me the vocation or ministry where I can bloom…where I can fully live into who you made me to be.” And he did.

What unique gifts has He given you?

What strengths do you have?

Are you doing something you love?

Do you feel purpose in your work?

Do you ever have the sense that ‘this is what I was meant to do’?

Consider asking God to lead you to where you can thrive and others can benefit from the gifts He has given you. Consider what it would be like to be involving yourself in something you truly love, something you were meant to do. Journal about what it might be like to get up every morning and look forward to your work for the day….
Grace and peace,
Deb