REFLECTIONS

Wishful Thinking

“You’re the rookie on this leadership team, so how are you feeling about your job?” I asked this question in casual conversation as we walked together into a meeting with his peers. I expected something positive to my small talk inquiry since we didn’t know each other well. Still his answer took me by surprise.

“It’s good,” he said, “really good. I’ve never had a job like this one. You hear people say when they get up in the morning, ‘I have to go to work today.’ But each day I wake up and say, I get to go to work today.” And the sparkle in his eyes said he meant it. The rookie employee found joy working alongside his peer in service to his employer.

For most people, statistics say, joy from their work is only wishful thinking; but it needn’t be. Start with this question. How are you feeling today about your work? The question is a probing one to discover God’s deep calling. When uncovered, the answer leads to a deep and intentional purpose one is uniquely called to serve.

We all fall into daily, weekly, monthly routines, sometimes dreading Mondays, and impatiently anticipating the weekend. We receive paychecks, pay the bills, and hope there’s enough left to provide for something fun to do before another Monday rolls around to repeat the cycle again.

But are you and I doing what God placed us in this world to do? That is the daily question to ask to get on track and stay there. Jesus dropped a zealous Pharisee to his knees with such a question. “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Jesus’ question sent Saul into a tailspin. It took a few years of quiet thought and prayer to find the answer, but Saul, also called Paul, later wrote to his young pupil, Timothy, “I was appointed a herald and an apostle… and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.” (1 Timothy 2:7)

Most of us won’t be dropped to our knees in such a fashion, but God does have purposes for us to serve. To discover it, Frederick Buechner suggests, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”[1]

That rookie employee finds joy in the work he gets to go do every day. It’s the joy we will feel when we discover why God placed us in this world. It’s joy that brings sparkle to our eyes. It’s joy that won’t be just wishful thinking.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org.

[1] Wishful Thinking: Theological ABC. New York, Harper & Row, 1973. p. 95

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