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The Best Worst Career Advice

The Bible doesn’t say whether or not you should be a plumber. But it does say what kind of plumber you ought to be.

It was the least helpful piece of career advice I had ever gotten.  But it was absolutely right.

Like every other eighteen year-old facing graduation, I knew that the decisions I would make in the coming days would guide the trajectory of the rest of my life. Pick the right major and get into the right school. Then at the end of it all, get the right job that would not only be financially sustaining but personally fulfilling as well.

Make the wrong decisions however, and I would miss out on whatever purpose God had for my life. I would miss the boat. No do-overs. Talk about pressure.

I scoured scriptures hoping to find some nuggets about what field I should go into or what career path I should seek out. And guess what? The Bible doesn’t have much to say about which jobs to seek out, a listing of scripturally-endorsed majors, or any catalog of reputable schools. Considering this was the biggest decision of my life so far, I was startled at how little it seemed that God had to say about it.

As sometimes happens when I go to scripture, I completely missed God’s big idea.

Jesus essentially gave the entire reason for human existence when he said that the two most important things for us to do are to love God with your whole being – heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as well as you love yourself. So take a deep breath and take some of the pressure off. Because the truth is – and it has taken me more than a decade to come to this – it doesn’t really matter. God has given us work as a vehicle to love Him and serve others, so find work that suits you and do it.  Don’t overthink it and don’t worry about it too much.  Love Jesus and love others as you go on your way and trust God to take you wherever He needs you to go.

 

Image Courtesy of Bernat Casero – bernatcasero.com – sourced via flickr