My wife and I were talking the other day of how it seems like the businesses in town seem to be revolving doors; some people stay and many come and go. She then asked a great question: “Do you think it’s because so many people are allowed to quit teams when they are young that they can’t hold jobs when they’re older?” And I think that is the core issue. People leave jobs for a variety of issues: sometimes better opportunities pop up, sure, but I hear things from unemployed people like “I know what I’m worth, and I want to get paid what I’m worth,” and the words “toxic environment” are bandied about far too often to be true. People have, I believe, a false sense of how much they are worth.
I don’t say this from a comfortable and secure position. I’ve worked since I was 17; I paid my way through Junior College, and, even when I didn’t have work, I sought work, and worked odd jobs, or volunteered until work was available. I say all that to say this: the self-centeredness of humanity is often our undoing. Our pride keeps us from opportunities, and often is our downfall. We make ourselves the center of the universe, raise our kids the same way, and then blame others when our narrative collapses. So, then, what is our hope?
Believe it or not, this post isn’t about jobs (not exclusively, anyway). It’s about the pride that gets us in trouble more often than not. When we say “I’m too good for that,” or “I wasn’t paid enough,” or “I wasn’t valued enough,” more often than not, we’re saying “I wasn’t getting what I wanted.” We treat God in much the same manner. We don’t see our need for Him, because we’re convinced of our own superiority. But we’re a speck of dust being blown on a breeze. We’re here in an instant and gone just as quickly. Humility is the best quality of a person, and we do best when we walk in it. We can see God’s blessings in all circumstances by it, and we can walk in strength and power as we submit and surrender to God’s power. HE gives us the strength to endure, even when our circumstances are beyond ideal. So it is in our best interest to humble ourselves, and walk in His strength.
Ephesians 2
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
One in Christ
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
2 Timothy 3
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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