Thursday, July 18, 2013

Career vs. Calling

punch in...do work...punch out...and repeat.

Sound familiar? It's many of our stories. Feeling stuck in a job or career we never anticipated, we never dreamt of, surviving by IV coffee drips and countdowns to our next vacation. Motivated by the fact that bills need paid. Kids need to go to school. A nest egg needs built for retirement.

When did the dreaming stop for you? When did you put aside hopes and passions to put on your big kid pants and pay the bills?

I've noticed it at the Cleveland Clinic.

The difference between Career and Calling. There are nurses and doctors and admins and techs who you can tell are just biding their time on the clock until quitting time. They are there to work a shift, to make a buck and then to get back to things they are more interested in...Pinterest, Zombie tv series, grabbing drinks and hittin' the club scene, hanging with their kids, sharknados...

And there are those who when they show up for work...they are completely present. They don't just push meds and track vitals. They enter in. With the patient. With the patient's family. They may have all sorts of other junk going on outside of that space, but they show up in more ways than just a time card punch.

I see it everywhere I go. At Kohls. At restaurants. In talking with pastors and interviewing people to be part of C3. The difference between a job or career and it being a calling.

Doesn't matter the occupation...you can bring an attitude and a joy that seeks to be a blessing.

You can add life.

Or you can decrease life.

I love what I get to do at C3 and even on the truck team at Kohls! It is not a job that I'm enduring. It's not a shift I'm surviving. It's something I want to enter into every day. To be fully present.

If you can't find passion or calling in what you are doing, it may be time to reevaluate and start dreaming again.

Because you can only decrease life so much.

Shout out to our nurse and doctor friends who have added to our life even in hard places over the last two years.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So well said Ben!
I love what I do, and for me it is not a job---it is seeing people realize someone really does care and wants to see them get their health care needs met! Unfortunately not everyone I work with has the same attitude, they verbalized that they don't like their job but because of whatever reason they stay! It makes it really hard to stay God focused dealing with them, but I just pray and I stay God focused and hope someday they will re-evaluate and move on:)

Anonymous said...

Ben, I've been struggling with this very thing lately. Thanks for posting this. Brings a lot of encouragement in a very frustrating time.

Anonymous said...

We are shouting out for the wonderful nurses and doctors who are ministering to Chaia. Bless them. It definitely is the attitude of gratitude that really counts. When one has a smile for one's patients instead of looking at the clock, it is God at work in their hearts.Blessings.