{"id":4201,"date":"2017-07-05T16:07:54","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T21:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedisciplemaker.org\/?p=4201"},"modified":"2017-07-05T16:07:54","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T21:07:54","slug":"step-into-the-story-that-is-your-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/07\/step-into-the-story-that-is-your-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Step into the Story that Is Your Job"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Have you ever had a moment at work that felt like it was being spoken, written, or sketched by another?<\/p>\n

It may last for only a second, but when it happens you have this sense that circumstances are playing out on purpose, that they are heading somewhere, and that there is a plot. Even though you know you are the one making choices, it is as though you are living into a script that, in some mysterious way, has already been written. The beauty, clarity, creativity, or goodness of what you are doing seems a bit too<\/span> good, too<\/span> wonderful, too<\/span> outside-of-yourself to be solely sourced in you. It is like you are part of a story that God is, in real time, authoring and speaking.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a spokenness to all of life, of course, but one important place where it happens is at work.<\/p>\n

This can happen to me when I\u2019m preaching\u2014having a sense that my words aren\u2019t mine, even though I\u2019m speaking them. They are more eloquent than I\u2019m capable of and carry a poignancy, power, and efficacy that are beyond me. When these moments happen, it feels like everyone in the congregation also knows<\/span> that something bigger is going on, that someone else is speaking.<\/p>\n

You would expect (or at least hope for) that to happen in a church, through the work of a preacher, but if God truly is speaking the embodied parable that is you-doing-your-job, then shouldn\u2019t you have these kinds of moments as well? After all, your work is every bit as much a ministry!<\/p>\n

Following are a few ways to more fully identify and enter into the spokenness<\/span> of your job.<\/strong><\/p>\n

RECEIVING<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the best ways to learn how to identify the spokenness of your job is by listening to what God might be saying through another <\/span>person\u2019s work\u2014ideally, someone whose work has had a direct and beneficial impact on you: a nurse who helped you in the waiting room, a retailer who helped you find what you were looking for, a mentor who gave you some wise new perspective.<\/p>\n

There are several reasons why this is a good starting point.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

First, it is easier to discern God\u2019s voice through someone else\u2019s<\/span> job (it is hard to stand objective to yourself). By honing your ability to read God\u2019s word in another person\u2019s work, you grow your capacity to read his word in your own.<\/p>\n

Second, by applying this discernment process to work that directly benefits<\/span> you, you increase the odds of encountering God\u2019s activity there. By definition God is always working for your best interest.<\/p>\n

Third, when someone\u2019s work benefits you, you become more yourself<\/span>. When you are more yourself, you are more of who God made you to be, and you have more of yourself with which to discern God\u2019s work in your life.<\/p>\n

And fourth, there is something very important about the stance of receiving<\/span> that aids in discerning the spokenness of life. All of life is a gift from God. Everything is received. To be in a receptive stance\u2014needing, open, vulnerable, and trusting\u2014is to acknowledge the basic state of your reality. There is something about the humility of that place that is crucial to discerning the spokenness of one\u2019s life and work.<\/p>\n

For years I have sat in the same hairstylist\u2019s chair; trying to discern what God was saying through her job. Talk about a trusting and vulnerable place! Every month or so, I put a part of my identity into her hands. And as the grateful recipient of the good graces of her hairstyling expertise, I was aesthetically made new and became a little bit more myself again. Receiving the goodness of her work, I came to understand a little bit more of God\u2019s identity-renewing nature.<\/p>\n

Think about it. A stylist holds your head as you lean back into a washing basin. With her own hands she washes your hair and, if you are lucky, gives you a scalp massage. After she towel dries you, and moves you to the chair, she then takes a part of who you physically are\u2014your hair\u2014and cuts it, reshapes it and, for some, recolors it! A stylist touches your body and uses sharp instruments near your eyes, and you sit there, wide open to this very intimate aesthetic intervention.<\/p>\n

In order to see God\u2019s hand at work in the parable of another person\u2019s job, you have to let the good work that they do touch you. God knows every intimate detail of who you are\u2014your flaws, the grey areas, where you are thinning\u2014and wants to make every square inch of your body and being new. He wants to shape you, to wash, cut and dry, and style your life. When you receive the good work of another human being at an intimate level, you become a more trusting and open person. Openness is key to seeing God at work.<\/strong> When you put yourself in the hands of another, you become more of the kind of person who is comfortable in the hands of Another<\/span>. This is the optimal position to be in to see God\u2019s hands holding you. Every visit to the salon is an opportunity to grow in your capacity to be aware of and receive God\u2019s intimate touch wherever you work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Discussing what she loved most about her work, my stylist said, \u201cHearing the words, \u2018I trust you.\u2019\u201d Customers often step into her salon totally exasperated and give her total freedom to cut and style their hair in whatever way she thinks best. Knowing hair the way she does, assessing a person\u2019s face shape, and considering their overall look, she will come up with something her customer could never have imagined, often to their great delight! But it takes trust to get there. You need to let go and put your life in another\u2019s hands. It is only then that you will be able to experience the delight\u2014both yours and that of the one who is making you over.<\/p>\n

Even as a stylist delights in being given this kind of trust, God does too.<\/p>\n

God wants you to become fully you.<\/strong> He desires the best for your life and has a maker\u2019s heart to know what it will take to get you there. Saying \u201cI trust you\u201d can take many forms in a vocational context. When you extend trust, you make \u201croom\u201d for God to prove<\/span> himself trustworthy; in a sense you free space for God to intervene in a powerful new way. Even as a stylist relishes a time when she has complete freedom to make someone new\u2014her sense of responsibility growing, her creative adrenaline starting to pump, her desire to do her best<\/span> now piqued\u2014God must surely rise to the occasion as well. This is what happens when you submit your will to his. In that new place of increased will alignment<\/span><\/em> you discover that he is closer to you than you realize.<\/p>\n

\n

You’ve been reading Every Job a Parable<\/a> by John Van Sloten. John is a pastor in Calgary and is at the forefront of the conversation on faith and vocation. His first book was The Day Metallica Came to Church<\/em>. Watch his sermons or start reading Every Job a Parable<\/a> now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever had a moment at work that felt like it was being spoken, written, or sketched by another? It may last for only a second, but when it happens you have this sense that circumstances are playing out … <\/p>\n

Read moreStep into the Story that Is Your Job<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nStep into the Story that Is Your Job - The Disciplemaker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.navpress.com\/sites\/thedisciplemaker\/2017\/07\/step-into-the-story-that-is-your-job\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Step into the Story that Is Your Job - The Disciplemaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever had a moment at work that felt like it was being spoken, written, or sketched by another? 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