From 938f5e6d8963d441ed1b9bfe7463b689ad9c80b8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Joe Carstairs Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2025 08:27:16 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] work --- website/src/content/blog/2025/06/23/work.md | 200 ++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 200 insertions(+) create mode 100644 website/src/content/blog/2025/06/23/work.md diff --git a/website/src/content/blog/2025/06/23/work.md b/website/src/content/blog/2025/06/23/work.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e2c27c --- /dev/null +++ b/website/src/content/blog/2025/06/23/work.md @@ -0,0 +1,200 @@ +--- +title: Figuring things out +description: + I thought I needed to 'figure things out'. Here's what I did instead. +pubDate: 2025-06-23 +--- + +# Figuring things out + +'You could always do a Panic Masters.' In my last year of undergraduate studies, +that was often the sort of advice we liked to console one another with. A lucky +few people in my year had a clear sense of vocation, but most of us felt +confused. + +Not that we lacked options - graduating with a good degree from a good +university, we were lucky to have a great deal more options than most people our +age. We went all sorts of directions. Some followed the money, going into big +boring management consultancy, big bad tech companies or startups swimming in +venture capital. Others wanted something more noble, and pursued teaching or the +third sector. Others still went travelling the world on a shoestring or worked a +low-skilled job living with their parents, hoping to 'figure things out'. + +I thought I needed to figure things out. But I was sure I wasn't going to do +that by pulling pints, going on holiday, or staying in the university (even +though I felt passion for academia). I needed something different, something +that would move my life forward, and ideally, something that would pay the +bills. Then, maybe after a year or two, I would have a better idea of what +longer-term future I saw for myself. This, I thought, is the way to start +figuring things out. + +But by January of this year (2025), nothing seemed to have changed. I was still +working in the same job. I hadn't discovered a passion for software engineering. +Nor had I discovered a passion for anything else. I was more skilled, I suppose, +but I didn't have any clearer ideas about how the skills I have should guide me +into any career into particular. I had looked at other jobs, but not made many +serious applications. I had applied to a Masters programme in 2024, got an +offer, turned it down, and applied again in 2025. I was disappointed that I +apparently hadn't made much progress. + +So I vowed to do something about it. I promised myself to study the matter. I +wanted to know what route to pursue. And, being Christian, I thought, I had to +figure out how to leverage my theological resources to answer this question. I +believed that God would have a path set out for me, and so I had to find out +what it was. A friend told me I needed discernment. That, I thought, was what I +needed to do - discern the will of God for my career. + +I supposed, what God willed me to do in general was quite obvious -- he wants me +to live in line with the gospel. But that doesn't say much about my career +choices. So I expected to find something a little more specific. I didn't expect +to find it in the Bible directly, of course, as there's not much about software +engineering in the Bible. But maybe the Holy Spirit was trying to nudge me in +the right direction, and I just needed to figure out how to hear him. + +By the way, if you're not a super-spiritual sort and this is starting to sound a +little kooky, I'm with you -- but I didn't see any other possibility. After all, +what else could 'discernment' mean in practice, if not 'discerning' some still +small voice? + +So I studied. I got myself copies of some tracts, including Tim Keller's [_Every +Good Endeavour_][every-good-endeavour] and William Taylor's [_Revolutionary +Work_][revolutionary-work]. These writers showed me how I had for so long been +stuck in a view of work which didn't make sense and wasn't leading me anywhere. +I came away shaken off from how I had been thinking before, and given a new +perspective from which to start re-thinking my attitudes to work. It's been +exhilirating, and I recommend both books to anyone for whom work is a major +concern (but especially to those who, like me, are already infected with +middle-class thinking, or those at risk of catching it). + +The will of God for my life really is as simple as I had feared. What God wants +for me is the same as what he wants for everyone: to live in line with the +gospel. God probably doesn't have any special extras for me personally. If the +Holy Spirit does want to speak to me and wants me to hear it, I can trust him to +make that happen, and in the meantime, I can carry on listening to God's words +in the miraculous way he has already provided, not in private whispers but in +the blinding clear public light of the testimony of the Bible and of the Church +to Jesus Christ. + +I still have unanswered questions about my future career. But my angst is gone. + +My angst is gone because I see now I was asking the wrong questions. I wasn't +really anxious about which career I ought to pursue. I perceived -- rightly -- +that I had been called to walk a narrow path in a life full of junctions. But +this led me to think that for me, those junctions are mostly about my career +choices. It followed that the career choices I faced had the power to lead me +astray from God's way if I chose wrong. Without a map charting the way ahead, +without a rule by which to determine which was God's way and which the wrong +way, I feared that my career choices were a dangerous gamble. If I got it wrong, +I wouldn't be a genuine follower of Christ, I wouldn't genuinely be trying to do +what's right, and I wouldn't be fulfilling my God-given destiny. + +What I didn't see was that I had re-worded the world's anxieties in God-speak. +It sounded reassuringly pious, but it wasn't right. In fact, it was idolatry. + +As I observed at the start of this essay, a large part of my generation of +university graduates, Christian and non-Christian, share this angst. Most +wouldn't word it in Christian-sounding God-speak. They might say they're worried +about fulfilling their potential. But it's the same angst - the fear that if you +don't choose the right career, you won't be living life to the full, or you +won't be making the most of your talents and passions, or you won't be genuinely +doing what's right, but just following the rest of the world into a lukewarm +career-ladder rat-race. I hadn't 'leveraged my theological resources' at all: +I'd only leveraged my theological thesaurus. + +I think the scales fell from my eyes when commentators brought me back to the +New Testament's advice on work, which doesn't talk about career choices at all. +Since Jesus calls all his followers to enter by the narrow gate (Matt 7:13-14), +likewise, Paul urged the Ephesians to 'live a life worthy of the calling which +you have received' while arguing that Christ has given different gifts of +service to each of us, his workers (Eph 4:1, 7-13). But almost all of the people +Jesus and Paul were addressing had very little control over what work they were +doing. Indeed, almost all people in the world today have very little control +over what work they do. The paralysis of choice that I face is also a rare +privelege. But that means that, when Jesus calls his followers to enter by the +narrow gate, and Paul urges Christians to use their gifts of service, they can't +possibly be primarily talking about career choices: most of their audience +didn't have careers and they didn't have choices. They just had work, and if +they didn't carry on working, they wouldn't eat (2 Thess 3:10). + +The narrow gate is not about choosing the right career in a world of options. +The narrow gate is choosing to trust God in a world of temptation to worship +anything else. + +Nor does Paul encourage us to switch jobs until we find our God-provided perfect +match of talents and passions to service. Indeed, some of his most powerful +encouragement and advice to Christian workers is addressed to people who had +almost no control whatsoever over what work they did: slaves (eg Eph 6:5-8). In +two areas where people did have some limited control, namely, circumcision and +marriage, Paul advises the Corinthians that 'each person should remain in the +situation they were in when God called them' (1 Cor 17:24). + +So God's will for me in my situation is the same as it is for everyone else: to +come back to our father when he calls. In practice, accepting the good news of +Jesus Christ means continually confessing my sin and repenting of it. And that +means being turned inside out: no longer turned in on myself by sin, but turned +outside onto God my father and onto my neighbour in love. + +Nor is there any need for angst, because this is the good news: that we have all +already failed to fulfil our God-given purpose, which is to love God and one +another. If we felt angst, it was justified, and indeed the situation was far +worse than we feared. But despite that, Jesus Christ has made a way for us to be +acceptable, and if we trust in him, we are permanently secure; free from fear, +and free to turn back, however faltingly, to the way we were made to be. + +For me, this has changed how I think about my career choices. + +I've come to see that my career choices are a rare privelege, and something I +should thank God for. It's also a responsibility to take seriously, as it's an +opportunity to choose between service and self-service. + +I shouldn't choose a career just because it's easy, and I should seek out +careers with opportunities to serve, and commit to using the opportunities I +have in whatever work I'm doing to serve. I shouldn't choose a career just +because it fits my university-educated, middle-class prejudices about what work +is dignified and what isn't; what kind of job counts as a 'proper job' and what +is 'dead-end'. + +I also shouldn't choose a career just because it's perceived as 'noble'. The +world needs carers, teachers and preachers. It also needs principled, committed, +competent white-collar workers making sure that certain boring, technical, +invisible systems work well. These systems make caring, teaching and preaching +possible. Through my own experience, I've been humbled by brilliant people in +front-line jobs doing amazing work, but I've also seen how important those +tertiary systems are. + +I also shouldn't dwell too long on my career choices, paralysed by an irrational +angst that the value of my life hangs on making the right decision. I should remember +that Jesus calls everyone alike, although most people don't have anywhere near as +much power over their own career as I do. And I should remember that, as a result, God +will use pretty much any line of work for his glory if I commit it to him. + +So I shouldn't choose what's easy, nor what's perceived as noble, and nor should I be +paralysed by choice. But what ought I do instead? + +Instead, I should commit my work to God right now, starting from this morning. I don't +have to wait until I find a perfect career, because I will never have a perfect career. +God can use the line of work I'm already in for his glory, and if I don't believe that, +I'm not just doubting myself, I'm doubting him. I should trust his power. And when I +do have career choices, I should commit those to him too, not fretting endlessly as if +one career is holy and another damned, but prioritising service to God and others over +myself and trusting God with the rest. + +Comfort, elitism and moralism are all forms of idolatry. I can toil endlessly +pursuing any of them and never be satisfied. But instead, I can rest easy in the +knowledge that my place in God's family is secure, and work hard knowing that +whenever and wherever and however I make sacrifices for the good of others, God +is working through me and by me, even though I fall far short of fulfilling my +potential and my God-given purpose. + +I haven't 'figured things out'. As it transpires, there wasn't anything to +'figure out'. I was saddled with angst at a phantom problem, which my knowledge +of the gospel should have told me did not exist. I cannot earn my worth on +earth. But because of Christ, my value is secure. Because of that, I am free to +work without snobbery, without shame and without angst for the sake of love and +in the certain hope that in the end, by God's work, not mine, everything will be +figured out. + +[every-good-endeavour]: + https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781444702606/every-good-endeavour-paperback +[revolutionary-work]: + https://uk.10ofthose.com/product/9781910587997/revolutionary-work-paperback