The New Job
When I was sixteen, I showed up to Hoss’s Steak and Seahouse for my first job interview. My nerves were wrung as tight as a wet rag. Would I get the job, or would I have to keep looking elsewhere? I had applied to be a hostess, which would entail standing behind the front counter, wearing the circular pin with my name on it and the cheesy smile. The woman who interviewed me asked questions I no longer remember and took me on a “behind-the-scenes” tour. At the end, she announced that I was hired. I was so excited! I wore that pin proudly, and my smile wholeheartedly greeted every guest who walked in.
As time passed, my enthusiasm for the job waned. I still enjoyed the work to a point, but that’s exactly what it became for me: just work. My mouth could formulate the standardized greeting mindlessly, my fingers type in the guests’ orders mechanically. On the days where I dreaded working, I could easily go through the motions. But the smile remained plastered to my face, and no one could tell the difference.
A Second Job
I actually got hired for a second job when I was sixteen. I didn’t apply for this one though. I wasn’t hired because of knowing the right people, or because of my resume. I was simply chosen. Unbeknownst to me at the outset, this job put me in the most honored position I could ever hope to achieve. I was granted regular correspondence with the CEO, known to be the most kind, patient, and good boss in the world! What a special opportunity! I was to grow and mature under his direct guidance. My reward for working would not be cash, but it would be worth much more.
The job description was a little daunting; I was to work 24/7 with one break per week, exhibit joy even on the tough days, regularly communicate with the CEO, trust the CEO’s orders even when he didn’t return my phone calls, study my training manual on a daily basis even after I memorized it, lovingly tend to difficult customers, expect ridicule, and replace my agenda with the CEO’s. My boss made it very clear that a lot was expected of me. And yet, I was so excited to serve my new boss – this man who loved and lived in a way I had never heard of before – that the intensity of the job did not scare me away.
The Moral of the Story
Maybe you see where I am going with this. That second job I was hired to do, but never applied for, was to be a follower of God. I didn’t earn it; I didn’t seek it out. God chose me, just as He chose the Israelites so many years ago:
“The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers” – Deut. 7:6-8.
God didn’t choose the Israelites because of their resume either, but because He loved them. He rescued them from slavery, just as He rescued me from the bondage of sin, and what He asks in return is for a life of dedicated service.
A Paradigm Shift
I have been learning recently that there is a significant difference between working as an employee, and working as a servant. An employee works for the reward (to earn money), and because he has to in order to keep his job. A servant, on the other hand, works for the Master (out of love and respect), and because he gets to as a response to the Master hiring him in the first place.
Unfortunately, there is also one similarity …
As time passed, my enthusiasm for the job waned. I still enjoyed the work to a point, but that’s exactly what it became for me: just work. My mouth could formulate the correct religious jargon mindlessly, my body attend church mechanically. On the days where I dreaded working, I could easily go through the motions. But the smile remained plastered to my face, and no one could tell the difference.
Sound familiar? These words are almost verbatim how I described my deteriorating excitement for the job at Hoss’s.
Friends, that scares me. A lot.
My work for the King, the Master of the universe, should never become something that I approach mechanically. Lately, I have been asking off of work a lot. This job that I was supposed to work 24/7 out of pure delight and worship has become a job that I halfheartedly perform when it is convenient. Or, I simple ask off for a lot of vacation.
Is this what Jesus meant when He asked people to follow Him? In the apostle Paul’s words, “By no means!” In September, I will embark on the World Race, where my ministry will occur 24/7. But I realize that in the eight months preceding that, I must work just as fervently, consistently, and joyfully for my Master as I intend to on the World Race. God has hired me to be his fellow worker now (1 Cor. 3: 9); He has appointed me to be an ambassador right now (2 Cor. 5:20).
I am through with asking off of work so that I can pursue my own ambitions and only seek God’s agenda at my earliest convenience. I have been chosen, and as a result, I intend to live as the servant God has called me to be in 2015; not just when I leave for the World Race, but TODAY.
Siblings in Christ, I invite you to join me. Maybe you have been waiting to share the Gospel until you feel less like a hypocrite, or maybe you are postponing your responsibility to care for the poor until you are no longer a “poor college student.” But I beg you, please do not fall into the mindset I was beginning to subscribe to. Just as God isn’t calling me to begin His work when I leave in September, He isn’t calling you to wait until the “perfect” time or place. He is calling you to serve Him TODAY. He has chosen you. What is your response?
