Employment vs. Deployment
Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. ––2 Timothy 2:20-21
What did you want to be when you were 8 years old? Pro athlete, paleontologist (dinosaur digs!), super hero, fire fighter, police officer? When I was 4-5 I wanted to be Batman (the costume, the sheets, the pajamas); 6-11 Dr. J (Julius Irving for you “youngsters”); 12-18 John Travolta (Angel’s Flight suit, middle hair part, “Saturday Night Fever” dance moves).
I’ve never heard a little boy say, “When grow up I want to be gaslit and patronized by a narcissistic boss,” or, “I dream of selling stuff I don’t like to people who don’t want it.” Satan has convinced western culture that work is about income—about what we can acquire so we can buy stuff and survive until the weekend (or the end of the month).
That acquisition mentality is the exact opposite of God’s plan for you and your job. It’s fine to acquire stuff—car, apartment/house, clothes, furniture—but God has so much more for you when it comes to your vocation. When God’s men take on an eternal, kingdom mindset, it re-orders their priorities. As Christian men, we re-rank: God first, loved ones second, us third. But where does your job fit in? That can get a little squishy.
Like most things in God’s kingdom, it’s simple but not necessarily easy. His mandate is for you to view your job—no matter what it is—as a mission field, rather than the thing you don’t want to do so you can do the things you really want to do. I get it: some of you are in transition, or looking for work, or in a job you don’t like. I’ve been there. What I’m talking about, though, is a way of thinking that raises our sights above the daily and onto the eternal:
Your job is about deployment, not employment.
Rather than gaining an income to get the things you need, the Holy Spirit wants to deploy you to affect eternal outcomes that glorify God. When you make that shift, who you are at your work is more important that what you do for work.
Father, help me make the paradigm shift and deploy me for Your kingdom.