I don't like what I do. The 8:30am–5:30pm job is wearing on me and I don't have much optimism for the four hours between dinner and bed time in which I can call "my time". Four hours before I'm so exhausted I collapse on my bed, only so I can wake up and do it all over again.
I call this a 'living for the evenings and weekends' kind of lifestyle—where God is kind of in my quiet times in the morning... unless I decide to hit my snooze button!
During the day, my thoughts easily run to questions: "Didn't Jesus come to give us life, and life to the full?" "Why do we have to work an 8:30am–5:30pm schedule?" "Why is it 38 degrees outside, and why am I painting this roof?"
Questions
As I sweat and lose 5 pounds of water weight, my mind seems to run in circles around questions and side-tracked answers. My own strength and ideas are fighting a faceless war inside my head.
A quick history lesson: I worked in an accounting position for three and a half years. When someone joined our team I would say: "Welcome to the second floor..." followed by the unspoken thought, "...where you will never leave". It was kind of a joke, but I knew it was partly true.
So I quit my job and joined a Christian organisation. But still I find myself in a situation where work I don't enjoy dominates my day, my week, my month... my life. God's timing is funny like that. He is such a good Father and does everything for a reason.
This isn't a "four point guide to making a job you don't enjoy better" type of article. It's a "there is hope, and there IS a reason God has you where you are" type of article.
God is teacher
Recently, God has been teaching me a lot about authority. To be honest, one of my deepest, most common prayers is for God to give me authority; to learn to speak what He is speaking and do what He is doing. Authority so the unseen things in our world would respond to the words God puts in my mouth. For now, the battle I'm waging is in the unseen spaces in my mind.
Authority
One way God gives authority is through understanding. When we understand and know who God is, who we are (our identity in Christ), and the promises God has given us, we can start to operate in the victory Christ won on the cross.
Another way we gain authority is by walking through different situations in our lives—especially the hard ones. When you go through a storm or stick to a job you don't enjoy, God is giving you authority. You're walking through these times for a reason and He is building you up, even if you don't realize it.
Hard work is important, God values it and so should we
God knows I don't necessarily enjoy what I'm doing. So, during my quiet times in the morning—when I don't hit snooze—He is taking me back to the very beginning. He is teaching me about when He created the world, how He walked and talked with Adam in the garden. He is reminding me He worked six days and rested on the seventh, and that I only work five days. He is showing me Adam worked as well. In Genesis chapter 2, verse 15 it says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."
Hope
We don't stand on what we are experiencing in the moment; we concentrate and get our reality from something bigger and much better. Our hope and security is found in God, so hope isn't just for the future—it's for today. Whatever happens and no matter what we go through, we stand on His promises.
My challenge to myself and you is to dream with God during those long work days. There is so much He wants to give you. Let Him enter those long hours. When it's difficult, ask for His joy. When you ask God for joy, He will also give you strength, as it says in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 10: "...the joy of the Lord is your strength".
Jason LaLone is on staff at YWAM Brisbane. He is passionate about discipleship, taking Jesus' command to make disciples of all nations as a practical reality he can live on a daily basis. He loves lasagna, cats and used to dislike Mondays—making him most like Garfield.
Jason LaLone's previous articles might be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/jason-lalone.html