I don’t know what your experience is with work.  I’ve seen it all.  Like the business owner with five stores in two cities commuting to and from whose kids had not been on a family vacation in their lifetimes as six- and eleven-year-olds.  Like a professor who gets four weeks free in summer but chimed “I don’t think I’ve ever taken off a whole month. What would I do?”  And still others who are working hourly-paying jobs, enduring the routine, and forever eyeing the clock.  They loath their work, glory in coffee breaks, and live for long weekends.

Bryan Robinson studies workaholism and defines it as a compulsive disorder characterized by self-imposed demands, over-working, and the inability to regulate our work.  One sign of it is not investing in our home lives.

At the other end of the continuum is sloth which is inactivity born of ‘careless indifference’ or not giving a rip.  Maybe we don’t care about work when we find no purpose in it.

I suppose there’s virtue somewhere in the middle.  In between is that mix of hard work and intentional play.  In the creation story God’s purposes were wonderfully guided: He intended to architect the universe, earth, bugs, and us.  And then he rewarded himself, not because he was tired, but because he wanted to set an example for us, his creation.  Work, work, rest; work, work, rest.  When those tasks are out of balance, we’re prone to exhaustion on the one hand, or insolence on the other.

Questions:  How’s your work-life balance?  Does your work sap your life?  Does your life provide no purpose for your work?  How might God help give purpose to life and work?

“Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”  (Psalm 10:1)

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? . . . But I trust in your unfailing love. . .” (Psalm 13:1,5)

Jesus broke into first century religious Jewry when He challenged the view that material prosperity proved God’s blessing and approval. Could it be that Jesus is seeking to break into twenty-first century, Western, conservative Christianity in a similar way? Could He be saying that material comfort, good health, and picture-perfect families are not necessarily indicators of God’s blessing?

In The Voice of Jesus, author Gordon T. Smith writes, “We cannot assume that a comfortable lifestyle is necessarily a sign of God’s blessing… (We must be) alert to the way in which Jesus may want to disturb rather than comfort us… Through the illumination of our minds, the Spirit challenges our basic cultural assumption; the gospel is countercultural.” (Emphasis mine)

Immediately after Job’s friends misdiagnosed his condition we hear the thunderous question of God: Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? I love the way Eugene Peterson so vividly paraphrases it in The Message: Why do you confuse the issue? Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about?

Only after God’s roaring description of His character and actions is Job finally able to say: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” (Job 42:5) It was Divine Disturbance that finally revealed truth.

Father, Help me not to lose sight of You when I’m faced with circumstances that I do not want to deal with. Draw me closer to You.  Amen.

Question: Has God ever used your circumstances to speak to you? Why do we assume that God’s best is the same thing as our comfort?

You’re wise to hunt for a job before you lose one.

The number of people dissatisfied with their jobs appears to be increasing. The Society for Human Resource Management survey found that the percentage of unhappy employees has been rising since 2009. People are reacting to job uncertainty by hunting for new jobs

So how can you find a new job that’s perfect for you? Begin with some of the many job sites on the web. You might begin with an article we recently ran on “16 Totally Free Job Sites You Need to Know About”.

But today we’re not going to focus on how to do resumes or network to hunt for job openings. Let’s look a little deeper and see if we can’t help you decide what type of job, company and career you should be pursuing. Rather than sending out thousands of electronic resumes, we’ll try to narrow your search so that your efforts become focused.

Begin with some self-examination. That’s something that most of us are too busy to do regularly. But, it’s important if you want to change jobs/careers. Take a few evenings to think about you. What are you good at? Bad at? What things do you like or dislike? What things get you excited? How do friends and family think of you? What events in your life were really important? And, what do they tell you about yourself?

Spend some time alone with these questions. Write your answers down. That will force you to dig a little deeper for your answers. After you’ve finished the self-examination ask some close friends or family to answer the same questions for you. Often they’ll see things that we can’t see about ourselves.

Armed with this self-knowledge, the next step is to do a little dreaming. Think about what your perfect job would look like. Don’t make it practical. If your dream has you showing up at noon so you can sleep in, that’s fine. If it means you take your netbook to the beach and work from there, that’s fine, too. This is a time to be unrealistic. Think big and bold!

Obviously, you won’t expect to find a job that looks exactly like your dream. But you may find that certain jobs/professions share elements with your perfect job. Wherever possible, you’ll want to choose potential jobs that include some of your dream ideas.

Next choose some potential professions to consider. You’ll want to take into account some of the personal traits you’ve discovered, but you’ll also need to be practical. This is the time to learn about any long-term trends for the profession. Use the net to research the field. Will there be job opportunities for years to come or is it a dying profession? Is it one that’s being replaced by robots or computers?

Finally ask yourself if you can picture being in that profession ten or twenty years from now. Will you be able to handle the physical or mental challenges? Or would you be totally bored doing the same things over and over?

You don’t want to change jobs or professions only to find out that you’ve run out of opportunities in a few years. Better to discover that now before you’ve made the effort to find a good job.

By blending the practical and ideal you should have a good idea what type of job and company you’re looking for. So target your job hunt on those targets. Let others send out thousands of resumes. You focus on the few and take the extra steps to increase your odds of success with them. Don’t just send a resume. Send a resume and follow up with a personal call. Use LinkedIn to make friends within the company. Use multiple resources to reach your goal.

Hopefully you’ll find a job that suits your skills, provides ample opportunity in a field that can supply a steady income for many years to come.

Take the next step:

Starting over (Whether you want to or not)
How to love the job you’ve got
Take a lesson: How to manage time wisely

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Want To Discover Your Purpose?

Our thought for today comes from a woman who has had more difficulties to deal with than a lot of us put together. That is why she has a right to say what she says, and why we should take notice when she says it.

“I know discouragement comes easy, but I also know things happen when God is ready for them to happen and not a second sooner. God knows why he wants things to happen in the order they have to. We just need to be ready when they come.”

This is a woman in a complex situation seeking to hold onto a childlike faith while displaying an adult-like wisdom. What she’s saying is that she has recognized there are two different time zones going on when it comes to correlating God’s will and our experience. One I’ll call My Desperate Time (MDT) and the other, God’s Own Time (GOT).

Most of us run on MDT. MDT defines our reality. It’s what we see and feel always. We are conscious of it the minute we rise up in the morning until we put our weary heads on the pillow at night. We measure pleasure and pain by it; we judge our overall state-of-being by it.

God, on the other hand, exists in another time zone entirely. In GOT, His will is always done, and nothing is ever late. GOT also takes into account the MDT of everyone, which can often get tangled up. You see there are as many MDT zones as there are people, and that means they can often be in conflict. But with God there is never any conflict. There is only one GOT and as far as He is concerned, everything is right on schedule.

This is why it is utterly silly to wonder if God has heard our prayers based on whether or not He has acted in MDT. God always hears our prayers — He has most likely already answered them — he just answered them in GOT.

Most of our issues with God are all about time zones. Think about the hapless Bible character, Job. Job was smack in the middle of MDT all the while he was suffering, and his best friends were trying to figure out why God wasn’t doing anything in MDT. Well, we know now that God rarely does; He is always in GOT and we can see that now, in Job’s case, because his life ultimately caught up with GOT. Eventually, all MDT will be GOT. In fact, that will be what heaven is all about. We will all be kicking back in God’s Own Time.

So faith is mostly all about time zones. When you pray, know that you were heard, and move ahead, believing in GOT and just maybe, MDT won’t be so desperate.

Question: What “time zone” do you see yourself usually operating in?

About the Author: John Fischer

Every week in the USA, nearly half a million people apply for unemployment benefits.

In fact, trying times like these (when none of those dozens of resumes sent out seem to generate the slightest interest) are often what cause us to reach out to God anew. C. S. Lewis once said “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Not that we should seek pain, but when we do encounter it, it is often intended as a refining process. If it’s your husband rather than yourself that has lost their job, you may want to try reading “Coping With Your Husband’s Job Loss”

That said, I think most churches do a pretty poor job of supporting their members who are unemployed. Here’s how the first century church worked:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

Later in Acts, Luke further emphasizes the attitude of the early church:

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:32-35)

Shouldn’t it be the church members’ privilege and responsibility to care for others in their congregation? But how often does that actually happen?

At my church we have a prayer meeting every Sunday to pray for the prayer requests of the church in general and individuals in particular. However we rarely hear that anyone is unemployed to be able to pray for them, even though we know many are currently struggling in this way. How have our churches become a place where we’re ashamed to admit our struggles? How can we pray for people if we don’t even know they need to be prayed for?

Even after introducing this idea to a church, it may take awhile before people are willing to buy into the vision. If you would like someone who will pray with you, confidentially via email, please contact us for prayer, and we will pray with you. Or you can leave a public comment below.

Are you experiencing financial concerns? We are here to pray for you.

This passage reminds me of the song children sing in our church – “All Things Bright and Beautiful”. It says that God made it all. God, our Father is the Creator of the world, the universe and all things big and small. Everything comes from Him. He just lets us use it.

I think often times; it is easy for us humans to forget that fact. We fool ourselves into thinking we have created something, not that God first gave us the where-for-all  and talent to do it. When we do that, we point to ourselves and not to Him. Eventually, it will get the better of us. Then we are reminded that all things are from Him. Praise God from whom all things flow.

All things that happen come through Him as well. He allows all things, even evil. The Book of Job speaks to that. But He also protects His own, is there to help us through the tough times called life, and to correct and guide us when evil lurks whether at someone else’s hand or our own doing. Paul says we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.  Guidance, strength, love and hope flow through Him to us. Through Him, death has been conquered and sins forgiven.

Our response? All things should come to Him. We need to bring God our sorrows, our thanks, our praise, our confessions and our questions.  We sing glory to God. Because of the Holy Spirit, whatever we ask in Jesus’ name we can bring to the Father. The more we lay at His feet, the better off we are. Our lives are calmer, happier and more fulfilled.

I see the Trinity in this passage from Romans. All is from the Father, through the Son and to the Holy Spirit who presents our prayers  and offerings back to God. Our identity as children of God comes from knowing that. Once we realize it, our lives will be more full.

Question: How can remembering this passage improve your life? Is there something you need to know is from God, or must give to God, or see it is through God’s mercy and grace?

About the Author Julie Cosgrove

Hurting from the pain of losing a baby or child? We care and want to pray for you.

Have you ever felt that low?

So many things had gone wrong in Job’s life — for no apparent reason — that he despaired of life. He had lost his children, his marriage, his belongings, his health and his reputation. When he asked, “Why?” his four friends said, “You must have sinned grievously or God would never allow this to happen to you.”

“But I’ve always tried to do what’s right,” Job replied.

“You couldn’t have,” his friends insisted. They kept accusing him of sin and Job kept defending himself. After thirty seven chapters of this, they were no closer to an answer than when they started.

That’s when God showed up and spoke for Himself. Although He cleared Job of all sin, He did not give him an answer as to why he had suffered. Instead, God asked Job questions which he, being a mere man, could not answer. And what was Job’s conclusion? “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5,6).

Job worshiped.

We worship God when we leave it up to Him to interpret our circumstances. We worship God when we allow our heartache and our horrible circumstances to crowd us closer to the One who grieves with us because He loves us more than we can imagine.

Like Job, I’ve discovered that God doesn’t give us an answer to our why questions. Instead, He offers Himself: a listening ear, a refuge in the storm, a center when persons we trusted forsake us; a foundation when everything caves in. Suffering provides an opportunity for us to get to know God in a deeper, more personal way.

I’ve stopped asking why to life’s inexplicable situations. Instead, I ask now what? Now that this thing has happened, what can I do to make my life a little better? How can I help to bring some relief to those who are also suffering? I can’t do anything about the why, but I can do something about the what. And that’s where I want to put my energies.

Dear God, I want to trust You even when I don’t understand what’s happening in my life.  Amen.

Questions: How can you help to bring some relief to those who are also suffering? Why does God allow suffering?

About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid

Is multi-tasking hurting your productivity?

The BBC reports:

Indeed, media multi-tasking sounds, at first glance, like a boon for productivity. If we can do two things at once, we can do twice the amount in the same length of time, or the same amount in half the time. Either way, it’s a nifty trick. But it’s not quite as simple as that, as my frustrating evening demonstrated. A raft of studies has found that, actually, multi-tasking is a good way to do several things badly.

For example, studies by Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University of California, have found that when people are continually distracted from one task, they work faster but produce less. Another found that students solving a maths puzzle took 40% longer – and suffered more stress – when they were made to multi-task.

As I wrote this post, I was listening to music. I was also interrupted several times as I attempted to multitask or otherwise got sidetracked. I responded to messages via instant messaging, email, AND texted messages to my phone! All of these things ironically distracted me from writing this post. I’ve also noticed that while I used to sit and read a good book for hours, now after about a half hour I start getting restless. Is this a product of age, or of the increased pace and multi-tasking of our daily environments?

There is another interesting comment made in the article: “Philosopher Damon Young, author of [the book] Distraction, says that we’ve become habituated to checking e-mails and texts, and turn towards the “safe novelty” of Facebook rather than the important but tricky stuff of real life.” Texting is now supposedly being the preferred communication method for 12-17 year olds. Is the “safe novelty” of this sort of multi-tasking distracting us even from the “tricky stuff” of real life relationships because its easier?

Do you think multi-tasking helps or hinders your productivity? What about your relationships? If you’ve been realizing lately that you need to focus more on your relationship with your significant other, children, or other important people in your life, but aren’t sure how, you can always contact a mentor to talk about it.

Do you want to learn how to manage your time effectively? Take our free life lesson