{"id":229,"date":"2014-04-10T18:03:45","date_gmt":"2014-04-10T18:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/missionwork\/\/?p=229"},"modified":"2014-04-10T18:03:45","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T18:03:45","slug":"talented-but-unemployed-god-may-be-calling-you-to-grubby-unglamorous-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/missionwork\/2014\/04\/talented-but-unemployed-god-may-be-calling-you-to-grubby-unglamorous-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Talented but unemployed? God may be calling you to grubby, unglamorous work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By\u00a0 Jonathan Witt<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen People Give Up Looking for Work, What Do They Do?\u201d<\/a>\u00a0This Wall Street Journal story looks at the \u201cmillions of working-age men\u201d sidelined by the economic slump, and warns that \u201cthe longer they\u2019re out of work, the more their skills deteriorate and the harder it is to land the next job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who can\u2019t find work often turn to safety net programs, such as food stamps, unemployment benefits and disability \u2014 programs that have ballooned since the recession began,\u201d\u00a0the article continues. \u201cOnce people start receiving disability benefits, they rarely leave the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The take-home: take any ethical job. Consider self-employing yourself, or offering to do work others find unpleasant. Some potential employers in your preferred career may look down on you for having done grubby work, but others will admire your willingness to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty while you\u2019re waiting for a job in your chosen field.<\/p>\n

The Bible condemns willful idleness and enjoins us to labor so that we can have the means to help those truly in need. If after pursuing any ethical job available, you\u2019re still underemployed, cut your living expenses to the bone, minimize your use of the government dole, and use your idle week days to volunteer long hours doing something beneficial for society, including time on your knees in intercessory prayer.<\/p>\n

The Christian community talks so much about pursuing vocational passion and calling that we often neglect a gritty reality that sometimes God uses circumstances to call us into work that doesn\u2019t use all of our talents, but instead exercises our fortitude, selflessness, and humility.<\/p>\n

I remember when I was 22.\u00a0I was graduating from college with honors and with a paid summer internship under my belt, but I couldn\u2019t find work in my chosen field right away. Instead of waiting around, I cobbled together three part-time jobs\u2013night watchman, pizza delivery man, and painting a house. My dad had drilled into me the importance of hard work, whether glamorous or not\u2013beginning with my summers as a teenager scraping up acres of tile in schools all across the Texas Panhandle for Witt Flooring. None of those jobs paid well. None of them used my higher ed skills. All of them were \u201cgood jobs\u201d because they served others in beneficial ways.<\/p>\n

So go find a \u201cgood job,\u201d any good job. If part of your week days are still empty, use resources on the internet or at the town library to begin developing a self-employment skill (though steer clear of the \u201cget rich quick\u201d schemes that scammers love to peddle). In sum, avoid an idle lifestyle. If you don\u2019t think this is a biblical mandate, re-read the book of Proverbs or the apostle Paul\u2019s two letters to the Thessalonians.<\/p>\n

If necessary, \u201cgo West, young man<\/a> (or woman)\u201d to one of the business-friendly states where so many of the new jobs are being created nowadays. The move doesn\u2019t have to be permanent.<\/p>\n

The Creator made us in his image to be creative, and any kind of creative labor\u2013even creating clean bathrooms out of dirty ones\u2013is honorable work in the eyes of God. And God\u2019s eyes see clearer and further than anyone\u2019s.<\/p>\n

From Acton PowerBlog<\/a>. Image: \u201cPulling Log With Horseteam,\u201d William Lommen.\u00a0\u00a0Courtesy of the\u00a0Grohmann Museum<\/a>\u00a0at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Creator made us in his image to be creative, and any kind of creative labor\u2013even creating clean bathrooms out of dirty ones\u2013is honorable work in the eyes of God. And God\u2019s eyes see clearer and further than anyone\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1787,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[14,159,29,30,10,178,33,12],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith-and-the-marketplace","tag-acton-institute","tag-christian-businesspeople","tag-i-thessalonians","tag-ii-thessalonians","tag-missionwork","tag-proverbs","tag-unemployment","tag-vocation"],"yoast_head":"\nTalented but unemployed? 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