Loving What I Do

Last night Kelly and I watched "Memoirs of a Geisha." Watching it made me think about a couple things:

First, I'm glad I'm not a geisha--I don't think I look good in face paint.

Secondly, I really do love my job! Let me count the reasons why I've got one of the greatest jobs on the planet:

1. I get to drink lots of over-priced coffee beverages.

2. I get to care for people at a crucial time in their lives when they're asking all of life's biggest questions: who am I? what should I do with my life? does God matter in any of this? should I marry this person? And of course: what do I do with my pot-smoking roommate?

3. It's really hard. I'm part theologian, part pastoral-counselor, part public speaker, part visionary and builder, part evangelist, part R.A, part event-planner, part administrator, part p.r. guy and part fundraiser. I like hard work. Work is good, and work that makes you think and grow and develop is even better. This is good, hard work.

4. I like the seasons of my work: the sprint of the next four weeks will settle in as we head into October and will undulate and moderate and wax and wane throughout the year.

5. Like all jobs, I have annoying paperwork. My boss makes sure I do my annoying paperwork, but she also does more: she encourages me to grow personally, professionally and spiritually. I know that my boss is always entirely for me--how cool is that? How many people can say that?

6. I get to take the mundane stuff of life (roommate conflicts, family squabbles, to date or not to date, school work) and help people see how the good news of Jesus Christ affects all of it. Every little bit. This not only helps them, it reminds me of what is true as well.

This last point makes me remember something bigger. Not everyone is called into full-time ministry. Some people can remember the gospel clearly and engage with it deeply while working at IBM, teaching in a public school, or staying at home with kids.

But for me, I'm gospel-remembering deficient. If I'm not reminding people of the gospel with great regularity, I find that I forget it myself. So God, in his wisdom and mercy, has given me work to do where I am privileged to remind others so that I might remember it myself.

Ministers, missionaries, full-time religious folks are not superheroes. This is simply the place that God has us to shape and to form us into his image. It is simply the place where we are learning to live in and out of the gospel--which is the same call to everyone, no matter where we work. It is no better, no worse a place than the place where God has you right now.

And so I'll stay here, in this great job, until God calls me somewhere else to change and to shape me. But hopefully, that won't be for a while...I'm still working on getting good at that annoying paperwork.