“Find a job you love doing and you’ll never work a day in your life” ~ Mark Twain
Everyone needs to work. In fact, did you know that in the Bible, it says God created us to work? Yet one of the biggest questions mankind has been faced with since they first rubbed two sticks together and created fire, centers around just this. What exactly am I supposed to dedicate my life to working at? And it is in this decision process that most homosapiens on the planet today find themselves 1) constantly and desperately searching for the right job or 2) spending the bulk of their career in a job they hate. (did you know it’s estimated that 80% of people today are working in a job they don’t like?) So as we talk about something as big as your life’s work, where do we even start?
It starts with two things…passion and purpose.
Passion
Passion is defined as “having an intense desire or enthusiasm for something.”
What are are you passionate about in your life? Music, math, leading people, creating things, managing businesses, dance, engineering, teaching, art, medicine, accounting, teaching about Jesus? The list is endless and it’s endless because we are made by Almighty God as creations with endless possibilities. That is, endless possibilities when we operate in the passions that God built us to follow.
Yet passion is a greatly overused and misused buzz word today. I have a passion for tacos. Misused. I have a passion for collecting Hot Wheels and playing Pokémon Go. Misused. I have a passion for my family. Even here, misused. You see, to really understand passion, not just human passion but Godly passion in our lives, you must understand direction. A different direction. A new direction. You see, your God-given passion rarely takes you where you think it will. To embrace your God given passion is to embrace newness.
On a personal note, I spent many years of my life working outside of my passions, solely for the gain of money. I worked at jobs that paid well yet were unsatisfying to my soul. Meaning at the end of the day, I felt as if my labor and effort were spent in vain, much energy expended but for no real cause. You see, my failure to locate, follow, and operate in my true passion was not allowing my true purpose to be realized. So the question of passion leads us directly into the question of purpose. You see, the two go together like red on a rose…for “if passion is in the heart…then purpose is in the hands”
“Your passion should purpose your hands to do what they were made to do.”
Purpose
Purpose is defined as “the reason for which something exists or was made”
You were made. And no, not just physically from your earthly mother and father, you were created by Almighty God and He made you for a reason. You were not an accident, you were not a mistake, and you were not made without a purpose. God made you to do a specific job and He made you to do it well.
So how exactly do you find that God-given purpose in your life in a way that will find you in job that exercises your passion and finds you loving each and every day you are purposed to do it? Here are 5 helpful ideas to guide you.
Be open. Our society has very strict ideas of what a “good” job and career looks like. Be very careful in believing what the world defines as good work and career. We are told great jobs all pay a lot of money, not true. We are told most secure, great jobs are with big companies, not true. We are told the most important facet of a great job is a great compensation package, not true. Sometimes we are told we need to do exactly what our parents did, not always true. Rule #1 is to be open to what God made you to do and how He chooses to use you in fulfilling His purpose. On a personal note of being open to passion and purpose…8 years ago I never thought I would be living in Mexico as an international missionary speaking spanish, but here I sit with you today, enjoying a purpose-driven job that fulfills my passion. Be open to crazy possibilities.
Embrace your passion. What has God built into you that gives you goosebumps when you think deeply about it? What has God built into you that consumes your thoughts more than any other? What passion consumes your thoughts and dreams and makes you doodle on paper and talk about it with strangers? Passion is not merely the simple recognition of a fact, but a journey of self-discovery and a realization process to set it free. We tend to keep a tight lid on our passions, and it cannot truly serve a purpose while it’s bottled up. Take the lid off your passion. Set it free. Embrace it and let God use it to do what it is meant to do…fulfill you.
Face the Fear. There are two reasons people fail to do something…they either tell themselves they can’t do it, or other people tell them they can’t do it. Concerning the first, we all have a tendency to self-sabotage our passion. Fear of failure, fear of what others will think of us, and an unwillingness to release and let go of past failures is something we all struggle with. We tell ourselves, "if I truly embrace and operate solely based on my passion, I could fail, and then people will think I’m foolish, right?" Or will they? Concerning the latter, others sowing doubt into us, our passion areas can be greatly affected by outsiders causing our fears and doubts to increase. Unsupportive parents, fearful spouses, or discouragement during your formative years from teachers, mentors, and extended family and friends that you value greatly, can all cause you to become distanced from your passion and grow to doubt the idea that you can pursue it. All of these can combine into a deadly concoction that when swallowed regularly can kill passion, kill dreams, and eventually cripple your purpose. Don’t swallow the doubt.
Do it for the right reasons. There is a big difference between helping people and helping people make money. I spent my career in management and leadership doing just the latter, helping companies make a lot of money. And along the way I made a lot for myself. But that was not my passion, I thought it was, but it was not. It was a talent, NOT a passion. Be very careful that your passion and your purpose in life do not get confused with trying to utilize them to make money, get famous, gain prestige, feed your ego, or become better than others. Don’t cheapen your passion by trying to simply use it to get a job and make a bunch of money. This means you don’t open a business in your passion area and try to make it your career so you can simply buy a big house and a corvette. I’ve seen so many people sully their passion because they try to make a profit off of it. Stop it. Your passion and purpose come from God and God has much bigger plans for them than just making money. In fact, another great definition of passion is something you would be willing to do for free. Don’t buy into the lie that your passion should make you rich, in reality it should enrich those it touches not the hands that issue it.
Get good with failure. I’ve got news for you, you are going to fail at something in this life…in fact, at a lot of things, and a lot of times. Get used to it and even beyond that, get good at failing. Don’t fear failure but learn to embrace it. Just because you fail YOU are not a failure. Failure is a natural part of life that builds us, increases our character, teaches us valuable lessons, and it is God’s way of shaping us into what He wants us to be. Become the best at failing and watch yourself grow to become the best at succeeding.
Work and career is about so much more than just tirelessly toiling away to make money to pay bills and buy the latest trendy item or gadget. Work is a God-given task that should find us operating in the strengths He gave us to enjoy an abundant, joyful, satisfying, purpose-filled life all the while serving and contributing to the world around us in a Godly way.
And it all starts with the passion and purpose God built into us...set them free.
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