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Men of Integrity, Jul/Aug 2001
Career or Calling?
Theme for the Week: The Job Market
Thursday, August 16
Key Bible Verses: I said, "Here I am. … I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:7-8).
Bonus Reading: Exodus 35:30-36:2
Following God's call isn't only the way to find the work you're supposed to do. According to Richard Bolles, author of the best-selling What Color Is Your Parachute?, it's also how to find happiness in your work.
"If you see yourself as sent into the world by God to do a work He's given you to do," Bolles said, "then what the marketplace is asking for and salary levels are is irrelevant. It only conditions the form of your service, but not what the task is that you ultimately do.
"It isn't logical that somebody with a true gift of writing should stay out of writing because everyone tells him the market doesn't need writers. What's more logical is to. … press everyone they know for knowledge of where the gift can be used."
Too often, Bolles sees people who go to the other extreme. They figure that any work that brings personal satisfaction must lack the sacrifice that would be required of a calling from God.
"You shouldn't be trying to do a work for God if that means you have to leave all your gifts by the wayside while you do it," he said. "There's something wrong with saying, 'I'm doing this for God, but I hate it.'"
—Stephen Caldwell in Life@Work
Respond:
Am I doing what I like? And how can God use it?
Thought to Apply:
Few men ever drop dead from overwork, but many quietly curl up and die because of undersatisfaction.
—Sydney Harris (newspaper columnist)
Adapted from: Life@Work (Vol. 1, No. 3)
Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
July/August 2001, Vol. 4, No. 3,
Men of Integrity
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