This week I dipped once again into the scary whirlpool that is the job market. God’s blessed me with a very convenient and fairly enjoyable job, so I don’t think much about my next one or worry about it in general, because I know that it is in God’s hands and He will open and close the right doors at the right time. Etcetera.
I have that trust until I actually go and have a look at what’s available, then it’s just like there is so much to wade through and think about.
A theme I’m noticing lately is that every time I spend a few hours on this, I end up feeling like my qualifications and my experience don’t match, that even if I let my interests guide me I’ll still need more experience to back up my qualifications, or a qualification to back up my experience. I’m still confused about what I actually want, let alone what God actually wants.
And then at some point, I realise that is totally besides the point. Whilst praying about how I was feeling, He reminded me that none of these things on my CV determine my future. Working out the “next step” is not a matter of using my skills, qualifications and interests to create some algorithm or formula that will lead to some “perfect job” (although that said, going on mission showed me how God used all of those things to lead me to and use me in Ecuador).
I can’t remember who first showed me that God uses our passion(s) in His plan for us, but He reminded me that the key might be passion – passion quite apart from interests, of which I have possibly too many.
I think I have a few passions – (social) justice, education to empower others, youth – but I need to pray more about this. I wonder if you can call Europe a passion, I’m increasingly convinced it’s more than an interest for me …