I went to a concert a few days ago and as I was enjoying the music it occured to me that the musician was enjoying it more than I was. I could see on her face that she was having a great time and I thought “How great is it to do what you love for a living”.
I have been blessed in that I love what I do. I have come to understand a few things. First, work is not a curse. My pastor taught a lesson about this a couple of weeks ago and showed us where it says we were created to work in the Garden of Eden. Now the work was different because the curse had not happened yet. I can imagine working in a garden where there are no ‘weeds’ to use a metaphor that he used. If no one was fighting against us at work or had a separate agenda then the work would be easy. Hmmm, maybe it would not seem like work at all.
When we talk about work in our culture the idea of retirement comes up in the conversation. Usually it goes “I am going to retire in X years (or months) and I can’t wait to go do what I want to do.” My thought about the musician come back up and I ask “why wait?”. I believe God gifted us with particular talents and abilities that when we use them it gives us great pleasure in the work we do. Since I got out of high school I believed I was gifted in the field of engineering and software programming. I went to school and got a job in that field and worked it for over 20 years. I did enjoy it but I enjoyed the completion of a job. The satisfaction of having done a great job and to see the end result. I can’t say I enjoyed the process. It was hard for me. I witnessed people I worked with who where truly talented in the art of software and wondered why it was so easy for them to do what I had to work hard at. Now I know.
This was not my greatest area of giftedness. Now I see why the guys in sales would come and get me to go talk to a client. I relate to people much better than I do computers and hardware. I actually enjoy meeting new people and getting to know them. It is part of how I was made. I had the knowledge of the technology because I worked hard at learning it but my natural gifts are working with people.
Now that I found that out I have been amazed at the love I have for what I do. It is still hard work and I am worn out at the end of most days but it is wonderful to know I was able to help someone by using the gifts God gave me. If you are working at a job that you can’t wait to get away from then I would challenge you to find out what you love to do and take a step toward doing it. Take one step every day and before long you will be able to say you love your work too.
It’s a Good Life!!
Jerry Robertson