Chapter Three

You Want A Job????

Everyone wishes to have a means of supporting themselves. It is called a job. Ask people what they do for a living, and you will find an endless list of jobs that need filling. Everyone is important, right down to the person who digs ditches, washes dishes, and sweeps floors. All jobs need doing.

Many people define themselves by their jobs. They are doctors, lawyers, and shoe salesmen. To some people, work is a place where they dread to go, and when they get there, they act like work is a drudge. To others, it is a place where they love to go because they enjoy and excel at it. What do you think a job is for?

Yes, you need finances, so is that the main point of a job—money? What about feeling useful, independent, and able to carry your own responsibilities as a husband, father, and contributing wife? Do you tolerate your job, or are you content with it?

How does your job affect your personal life? Does it consume you, stress you out to the max? Is that why people run after lottery tickets and such in the hopes that they will never have to work again? What is this thing with a job that people complain when they have one and despair when they do not?

I watched Oprah one day, and there was this lovely African American woman on. I never caught her name, yet she said words that stick. They are: NO ONE SHOULD BE USED NOR ABUSED, BUT EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE USEFUL TO SOMEONE ELSE BESIDES THEMSELVES!! True words.

Would you believe that the way to get past use and abuse is to help others? Take time to notice the woes of "others." It is amazing how your thinking will change, especially if you are not bent on self-centeredness.

A Christian's world should not revolve around themselves only. Yes, we need to learn to be responsible for ourselves because we have shelter, food, and clothing. Yes, family is responsible, but is that all we are to bother with? You get up, go to work, come home to family, do family schedule. Maybe go to Church on Sunday and attend a few church activities. You might even have time for hobbies. Is that it? Years and years of it. Is that life?

Would you consider living as a job? Would you consider being a parent a job? How about wife, mother, husband, father? Have you ever thought of these roles as a job?

What do you think of work? I grew up with a mother who did everything, and when she left, we were left to do everything. Of course, we did not know how to do anything; we were cursed at and hit but never taught. Consequently, work became something to flee from. The feeling of never doing a good enough job settles, so why start?

Add to that poor nutrition, thin clothes in a prairie winter, and no proper boots, and work becomes something you are determined to avoid. If every experience with work is hurtful and harmful, why would anyone want anything to do with it?

Many people on the shady side have similar stories.

I tried regular work when I graduated from school. I had no clue. I did not know then that I did not know how to be around people. I was an angry person—more than angry. It was so obvious that I did not fit in.

I worked as an engraver for a while. I liked that, but there were too many details that I did not comprehend the importance of. I became a cook. That's where I met the dancers. After slicing my finger and having a hard time with a boss who liked young things, I thought, why not?

Working in an office, I made $350.00 a month. Working as a dancer, I made $350.00 a week. Only I will tell you something. I stepped into that world and I knew I had crossed a line. A line that marked good from bad. The world will forgive many things, but never a girl who purposefully walks on the wrong side.

Society does not like anyone snubbing their nose at them. I did. I just simply did not care. I did not understand how psychotic I was, I did not understand the effects of growing up. Yet.

GROWING UP IS LEARNING TO DEAL WITH THE HANGUPS YOU GET FROM GROWING UP!!!

And guess what? Everyone has them. Our parents are who they are coming from the human background where things were done or not done. People pass on how they were treated, taught, loved, not loved, not taught.

It has taken a great portion of my life to understand simple things. I first had to see enough of life to get a picture, and when I quit the shady side, I had to see enough of Average Joe's world to get a proper picture. First, I had to get rid of wrong thinking and wrong expectations. I have literally taken courses in logic so that I would learn to think right. I have studied history, chemistry(surface), physiology, psychology, biology, genetics(surface), economics(surface), philosophy, warfare history and military tactics, natural medicine, and religions of the world. I started out as an absolute black-and-white person. Totally analytical, wanting life to run on logic. Learning shades of grey has been quite an adventure.

No, I am not losing my train of thought. I want to go down a side track. Remember, we are talking about attitudes toward work and doing a job. Please keep that thought while you ponder how you look at life. How do you?

Is life drudgery or an adventure? Do you mind existing? Do you "just survive" life? No control, out of control. Where do you put your mind? Seriously, when life is crazy, what do you do with your thoughts and your pictures? What do you do with your emotions?

I see life as an adventure. Children's stories started it. Peter Cotton Tail and Floppsy and Moppsy. They would go out, have fun, have a bad time. They were either in danger from the farmer, the fence, or the fox. Yet, every night, no matter what happened, they would say, "What adventures we had!" And as I read older adventure books, it continued to be spoken of in that way. The dangers of foreign land, wars, wild natives, and wild country replaced the farmer and fox, but the thinking towards the event was as an adventure. I wanted to see life that way.

Life will either make you bitter or better. I want better; bitterness does not taste good or give life. I read and read and read. The idea of a well-rounded education never left me. I have always figured that if there was a subject, then someone had written something somewhere on it. It's finding the somewhere. Libraries keep all the some things together. I love libraries. It has never occurred to me that I could not learn. I understand some subjects can take a long time, but I have no problem with that.

I am like a chipmunk storing nuts. I get enough pieces on a subject stored away, and eventually (on some subjects), I get a full picture. There is a pattern to life, and no matter the variety of people, there is a pattern to people.

WE ARE ALL CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH, WITH A VARIETY OF DIFFERENCES.

And because we are cut from the same cloth, there is a pattern. Man is man; animals are animals. The plant and sea life are as they are, and so is the universe. It runs as it does on the principles it does. Each thing runs on a pattern suited to the subject. Learn the pattern, and you will understand the subject. Life is a whole lot more subjects to study. Being human is its own subject.

There is behaviour, emotion, sexuality, finance, work, relationships, knowledge and a whole lot more that I may or may not be aware of. What is a job if these subjects do not make a job in the learning? It is a work done in a particular area. Living is a job. How you look at it is up to you. If work is drudgery, then so is living. If one dreads work, then one will not like living. Living takes work. It has taken much work to learn to be human, in all that a human is meant to be as God intended.

When I wanted to be snarky in the restaurant, I was not because I wanted a better life more than I wanted the right to be rude. It was part of my job description to be polite to customers. It was important enough for me to say "Tomato Soup" as an answer, so I did what was important at the moment.

I wanted to stay quit from the shady side, as much as a medical student pushing himself through medical school. It was that important to me. I discovered that it has to be if one will stick out the "blood, sweat, and tears" it takes to accomplish the goal. So, how do you look at this thing called living? If, like me, you were warped (caused to deviate from the original design), finding the deviations and learning how to get them straightened out becomes a matter.

Learning the tools needed for correction and the tools needed to keep things running. When things run on a common pattern, it is easy to see the uncommon. Yet, in people, the uncommon is not always visible. So, how do you learn?

So too the (Holy) Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of (Holy)
Spirit, what His intent is, because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will. We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labour], all things work together to and for good to those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose. For those whom He foreknew, of whom He was aware and loved beforehand, He also destined from the beginning (foreordaining them) to be molded in the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the first born among many brethren. And those whom He thus foreordained He also called; and those whom He called He also justified, acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself. And those whom He justified He also glorified raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition [state of being]. (Romans.8: 26-30) Amp.

Remember the skit. The Father talks to the Son, speaking of His Creation and Design, which was done before the angels. He knew before He started what He wished to end up with and all that would be entailed to arrive there. He knew the hearts that would follow Him and the hearts that would turn away. What kind of heart do you have? Do you even know or are aware of it? Are you just learning? We need to be able to face our heart condition if we are to be His child

Nothing good grows on bad ground unless it is worked.

All Scripture is God-breathed given by His inspiration and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, and for training in righteousness [that is in holy living, in conformity to Gods will in thought, purpose and action], so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly
equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3: 16) Amp.

Woman is included in that. We are of man therefore part of the human race. Many places speak of man, meaning the human race. Learn the meanings of the language, and it makes sense.

It is the Spirit that gives life, He is the Life giver; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever there is no profit in it. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.(John 6: 63) Amp.

If any man desires to do His will (God"s pleasure), he will know have the needed illumination to recognize, can tell for himself, whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking from Myself and of My own accord and on My Own authority. (John 7: 17)Amp.

The benefits are incredible, and the job descriptions vary. It is an adventure in learning and living and getting to know God personally. This personal relationship enhances, brightens, and focuses every other aspect of life. It is not always easy, but by His grace, it is always doable.

Blessed, happy, fortunate, prosperous and enviable, is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes,] nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather. But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law, the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God, he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night. And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth his fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not fade or wither, and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity].

Think of it. You go for a job and get the position. A good boss will take you and show you where you work, tell you your job description, and give you performance expectations. Parents start it with chores at home, which help the child learn how to accomplish work. Are we to then think that if humans do it, God would do less? At a regular job, you apply yourself, and the boss notices and rewards you accordingly. Do you think the work of applying yourself to God's things will not be the same? Why? Because you cannot see God?

If you do not know love and have never been given love, then why spend so much time looking for love? You cannot see love, yet it is a driving force in life. The need for it's reality. So is the need for our soul to know God. It is a yearning, a hunger. Many people speak of attaining positions, wealth, and fame, yet life has an emptiness and hollowness.

The reason is that the soul is empty; God does not live there. Yet our soul life was personally breathed into man by God. He said, "Let there be." There were animals, birds, vegetation, day and night. Yet with man, He got personal. He formed man, personally gave him a soul and life, personally taught him, personally disciplined him, and personally gave His Son so that the personal aspect could continue.

No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [that is, in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him, He has revealed Him, brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known. (John 1: 18) Amp.

When He prepared the heavens I [wisdom] was there; when He drew a circle upon the face of the deep and stretched out the firmament over it. Then I [Wisdom] was beside Him as a master and director of the work; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in His inhabited earth and delighting in the sons of men. (Prov. 8: 27, 30,31) Amp.

A job is work. Jesus worked for and with His Father since the creation of everything. His Father delighted in Jesus, and the Father rejoiced in the completed work of the earth and delighted in the creation of man. There was no discord; everything was in harmony. So what happened?

Satan, known as Lucifer in Heaven. Satan is the original conceiver of sin. He started in heaven, and eventually, he and one-third of the angels were kicked out of heaven. Despising man for having legal dominion over the earth, he planned to take the dominion from them. It worked, and Adam and Eve were evicted from the garden. But sin did not stop.

Their son committed the first murder, and it has continued from there. God did not cast off man, and we were not ignored as if we were in too much trouble. Instead, we were given a redeemer who paid the price for all men to have the right to come into the presence of the Father if they choose. It is a free gift paid by His Son, but it is work to live it and understand it. Are you willing to put in the effort? Is it important enough to you to work hard at it or diligently as His Word says?