Final Thoughts - Making a Living

As you can see, it's been quite a journey. Looking back, I don't think that I ever had or really pursued a "career" in a real sense. And when I did - human resources or teaching - I wound up moving or being moved into another direction, following opportunities which came my way. And remember, while I didn't have a plan per se, I had one goal when I started working: "I knew one thing: I didn't want some corporate-type, high-powered office job. I didn't want to manage people. I didn't want a lot of responsibility. I just wanted to make a decent living." Oops. Missed that one. I have been managing people, in an office, at a fairly high level for about 25 years now. In the beginning, I had no idea what I needed to do "to make a decent living." I certainly didn't have a plan and when I had a plan, it's execution wasn't very successful! What are our plans anyway? James has something to say about human plans:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-17)

Of course, planning is a good thing (Proverbs 21:5), but we shouldn't hold onto our plans or "dreams" too tightly. The Lord is sovereign and has our lives planned out; our lives will follow his will. Our job is to seek his will and make the wisest decisions we can: pray and call on trusted friends, colleagues, parents, relatives, etc. Ask them for their opinions. But we do not have perfect knowledge of the future and, apparently, God does not want us to know the future. Therefore, we act in faith and trust that he will shepherd us in this life. This is not easy...believe me. But it is what we are to do.

Finally, we all know the passage (Matt. 6:25-34), but I think we find it hard to believe. It's best to get into the habit of trusting God when you are young:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Finally, here's some advice. Kevin DeYoung, in his book on finding God's will, encourages his readers when they aren't sure what to do: "Just do something."