Several years ago I turned down an unexpected job offer from a former employer. It was a hard decision. Previously, I’d worked for the company in an entry-level position. But this new position would change my career trajectory. For years I’d been praying for something that would give me more time and flexibility to serve the Lord. I also desperately wanted a career change. One with upward mobility.
This new offer checked all my boxes – a title, more money, remote work, etc. It was an upward move that would look great on my resume. And, it came from upper management in a billion dollar corporation. I was beyond flattered. It seemed an answer to my prayers and the opportunity of a lifetime. I couldn’t believe it. This had to be the Lord. But something didn’t feel quite right.
The offer came 6 months after I’d taken a job at a university – which wasn’t an easy job to get I was told. The university job also came unexpectedly. I didn’t even apply for the position. In fact I appplied for a different position and didn’t get it. Then, someone else happened to see my resume and thought I’d be a great fit for a different position that was soon to open up (the exact work I was trying to get away from). At the time I was doing “fill in” work at a clinic. I knew because of they way and timing, it was the Lord’s placement.
Fast foward to this new offer 3 months later. I really wanted the job, so I began praying to see the Lord’s hand in it as a confirmation, but I couldn’t find it.
What I could see was all my boxes were being checked. Title, more money, etc. I’d finally be getting what I felt I’d worked hard for and deserved. Through the offer, the Lord exposed a selfish, worldly ambition in my heart. It’s not wrong to take a promotion, or that dream job. But its wisdom to discern the hand of the Lord.
I was strongly impressed to turn down the offer, and in a very specific way. As a result, I had to turn it down three different times! In the process it hit me I was getting ready to stay in the very work I’d been trying to get out of. Wait…what?!! This made no sense. Eventually I came to understand that in saying “no” to the offer I was saying “yes” to the Lord. I wasn’t choosing to stay in a career I didn’t want as much as I was choosing to stay in the will of God. “Okay, I thoutht. Okay.”
Of course, being successful, having a dream job and making more money isn’t wrong. But in this case, it was for me. I was looking for the value that comes from position. I was looking to build up my resume. But God wanted to build up charachter.
Jesus says we must give up worldly pursuits and ambitions. We must be holy – set apart (from the world) solely for the Lord’s purposes. Upward moility in the marketplace is not a sin. But setting one’s heart on it is.
Letting go of this world is required in order to fully embrace Christ. In Galatians 6:14, the Apostle Paul wrote, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”.
So, I said yes to the Lord and remained where I was. It was super-hard. After two years ain the work I still didn’t want to do, a couple of things happened, one of which left me doing the work of 2 1/2 people for months. I was fit to be tied. Even though I saw God’s grace day after day, after 3 months was at the end of my rope.
Turns out, I was never really okay with letting that big opportunity go. The Lord had to expose my heart about it. It go so bad that one day after having gotten another rejection, I just burst into tears in the office. At lunch I called my Pastor. I was so upset that God wasn’t letting me move on and do something else. With all my experience and abilities, it didn’t seem fair.
A week later I was walking around campus at lunch, sad. Realizing this job may be all I ever do. I said to the Lord, “If this is it for me, if this is what You want me to do until I retire, so be it. But I’m really going to need Your help if it is.”
Scripture teaches everything we give up for the sake of Christ comes with spiritual benefit to our souls. I remember asking myself if I really believed that when I gave up that other offer – because it was painful to do so. Some might even say God was trying to bless me with the opportunity. He was. But not in the way one might think.
In Philippians 3:7-15, Paul speaks of not only giving up everything he valued, but considering anything gained apart from gaining Christ to be garbage. He understood what was required to become more like Jesus. So, Paul made the decision not to focus on what he could be in his world, but to look to what he was called to be in Christ.
One of the tremendous values of the workplace is how God utilizes it to test and expose our hearts. We’re continually presented with opportunities on the job to obey God and gain more and more of Christ. To advance spiritually by becoming more like Jesus.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36 kjv).
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Work As To The LORD 