More work

Hee... this article is sooo comforting esp on the financial part. No wonder pp call Christians crazy pp?

Does Jonah live in America?
Finding that specific call that God has placed on your life
May 16, 2006 - by Ed Klodt

(Adapted from the introduction of his new book, The Jonah Factor®: 13 Spiritual Steps to Finding the Job of a Lifetime, Augsburg Books, 2006)

"I looked at the wall clock: 25 minutes until lunch, 30 minutes for lunch, then five more hours plus two hours overtime, an hour to drive home, 10 minutes to bathe, 30 minutes to eat, 20 minutes to read the paper and in another hour you'd be asleep, only to wake up in the morning, dress, get a quick coffee, then an hour to drive back in plus half-a-day on Saturday and then back on Monday."

Charles Bukowski, Slouching Toward Nirvana

Most of us don't want to be at work.

While on the job, we daydream about weekends, vacations, and even retirement. We imagine ourselves in different careers with different responsibilities working with different people at other companies. An occupation that once was interesting - or at least bearable - is now burdensome. And, with many of us working an increasing number of hours each week, we're spending more time engaged in what feels like dead-end activities.

Even when we're not on the job, we dread the start of another work week. Our anxiety starts with malaise on Sunday afternoon as we think about the week ahead, swells into mild depression that evening, and then reaches its peak on Monday morning. The cycle is repeated each week as we gird ourselves to work at jobs we tolerate, at best, or hate, at worst. Perhaps that's why more heart attacks and strokes occur on Monday mornings than at any other time.

Workplace misery is destructive. It fuels the purchase of lottery tickets, strains marriages, and contributes to alcoholism.

A 2005 report from The Conference Board, a global business leadership and research group, shows that "only half of all Americans today say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from nearly 60 percent in 1995." And even among the 50 percent surveyed who said they were content with their jobs, only 14 percent said they were "very satisfied." One in four of the respondents said they were just showing up to collect a paycheck. We see them in our workplaces, schools, government offices, and churches. Perhaps we even stare at them in the mirror getting ready for work each weekday morning.

This dissatisfaction extends into the ranks of the retiree, the stay-at-home parent, the student, the community volunteer, and even those involved in full-time ministry as they engage in activities, studies, and tasks that they no longer enjoy.

How did it come to this? In the U.S., this fabled land of limitless opportunity, why does one out of every four working American stay on the job merely to earn a paycheck? What happened to the joy and fulfillment that's supposed to be part of our life's work? In all likelihood, we suffer from the same misery that befell Jonah the prophet: We're not doing what God has called us to do, and we pay a very heavy price for it.

I was a Jonah for much of my adult life, trying to dodge God and his plans for me. I thought I could outrun - or at least outlast - God.

I had known for a long time that God was prompting me to do something different with my life. However, like Jonah, I resisted God's prodding to change course. Eventually, he captured my attention and set me on the remarkable path I'm now on as an author and speaker. Doing so required my obedience and a willingness to take a big risk, not easy for this hardheaded, painfully practical son of German immigrants.

My dream job became a burden

For almost 30 years I had been a manager of sales, marketing, and internal communications departments at several Fortune 500 companies, advancing to a fairly senior position at an international investment management firm. It was a dream job in many ways, the culmination of decades of hard work and sacrifice. I enjoyed financial success I had never imagined, was rewarded with growing responsibilities, and basked in the ego gratification that comes from frequent promotions and corporate officer titles.

Yet I grew progressively unhappy. Increasingly, my generous salary, corporate perks, and upper-middle-class lifestyle weren't sufficient to drown out the growing sense that I was lost. Rising before 5 o'clock each workday morning became more and more burdensome. My two-and-a-half hour daily commute, on top of 10- to 12-hour workdays, went from stimulating to bearable to excruciating. As time progressed, I resented my wife and children because, as sole income earner for the family, I was running this gauntlet every weekday to pay the mortgage, buy the groceries, and maintain our very comfortable living standard.

I should have loved my job. In the waning days of my corporate career, I worked for an outstanding organization whose scrupulously ethical practices and principled people were a pleasure to work with. I had a talented staff (truly the best in the business), bosses who appreciated and rewarded me, and a job that, in spite of my responsibilities to run our national sales campaigns, didn't require me to travel much. My plan was to retire from this firm, taking an early retirement, if possible.

However, my discontent grew as I felt a growing urgency to move on, to do something very different with my life. That strong sense came from a variety of sources, some human and others spiritual. I increasingly heard God's voice telling me, "It's over. This is not what I created you to do. Listen; I have other plans." At one point, almost every Scripture verse I read, sermon I heard, and prayer time encounter I had with God seemed to prod me to leave my job, trusting that God would take care of me. Over time this message grew in urgency and in volume. As if to validate that sense, volunteer work I was doing to serve God through my church and elsewhere gave me great joy and fulfillment.

I faced a variety of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, most of them financial since I was the sole income earner for our family, with a big mortgage, a son in college, and a daughter quickly approaching her college years. So, for years I ignored God's call, in the process becoming a Jonah stuck "in the belly of the big fish."

Discerning God's call

My book grew out of my struggle with God regarding the future. The 13 steps of discernment I developed during this intense period are what guided me and allowed me to hear the Lord's voice more clearly and to feel confident that the steps I was taking were, indeed, a stairway God had set before me. Twelve of them are baby steps (such as pray purposefully, meditate on Scripture, seek counsel of others); the thirteenth is a big one: Take the leap of faith.

Using those steps, I took the big leap two years ago, leaving my corporate position and trusting that God would help me land safely. He has.

Now I have traded in a life of growing desperation for one in which every day has been a blessing and an adventure, exactly as God has intended. Family members and longtime friends now remark that I seem like a new man. And isn't that exactly the business God is in - turning each of us into "a new creation." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I didn't crash and burn financially either. God has provided so many financial blessings that I can't begin to recount them, allowing me and my family to continue the amazing journey we're on. Like Jonah, he safely deposited me on a distant shore doing something completely different in my work

There is a specific call to work that God has placed on your life. It's explicitly for you, and God has given you the talents, time, strength, and financial resources to discover it. Embrace it and you'll have the abundant life Jesus promised when he said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10) Be prepared to give up all control and surrender yourself to God's plans. That will require a leap of faith. Trust God and don't worry. God is faithful.

Is God calling you to do something different with your life? If you're like a growing number of Americans, there's a strong likelihood you're stuck in a spiral similar to the one I was in. Perhaps God is prompting you toward something new, whispering, "See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:19)

My story isn't really the story of Jonah. More than likely it's the story of you.

After all, there's a little bit of Jonah in all of us.