As the year winds down, I thought it’d be helpful to direct you to the Christian Career posts which were posted before the Your Next Triumph: Just a Step Away SERIES was launched.
As I stated in the first career post on this blog:
My ministry leadership experience is with the educational ministry I first envisioned in the Fall of 2009. I proposed the Dare to Work Ministry as a Career/Employment ministry to my Pastor (Dr. Rev. James A. Webster) in early December 2009. After Thursday Bible Study a few weeks later he asked me: ‘So what do you plan to call the ministry Bro. Silverthorne?’. I smiled; I knew what my Pastor’s question meant! 3 days later, from the pulpit, he announced the ministry to the entire congregation.
As Wood notes in the Wood piece I showcased on October 2, 2013:
“We lose sight of the sacredness of work, the benefits of education, the spiritual value of a career, the impact of our potential influence in the marketplace.”
Four tips for Managers were offered. As well, I offered the following food for thought for all workers:
When you go to work, your faith and Christian values shouldn’t be locked away in your car in the parking lot! No matter how high or low you are in your employer’s Organizational Chart, all Christians should strive to be God-abiding 7-24-365 – not just at home and 2 hours on Sunday.
Six steps for getting unstuck are offered in this post. Needless to say Stop Digging! The steps elaborate on how to do so.
These two posts are based on a Parker J. Palmer book I recommend highly. In his book Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, he offers some great insight into how people typically go about choosing their career path. Palmer states in the book:
“Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.
Parker Palmer believes you’ll be more victorious if you let your life speak; listen to your own voice – to help you discover the vocation which suits you best.
If God called your number in a life-threatening, ‘valley of death’ situation at your job, would you have responded as a Georgia school bookkeeper did? Earlier this year, Antoinette Tuff was surely a profile in Christian Courage! As I stated in the two-part post:
The God-strengthened bookkeeper at the Georgia school “started off as his victim, then turned herself into his messenger, confidant, protector and mother before reverting to what she was all along: A survivor.” Because she had more than ‘Georgia on her mind’, because Antoinette Tuff surely kept her mind stayed on the Lord, she masterfully kept a lot of people (including herself) from being killed or shot. The God in her stepped in; He transformed an initially terrified person into a life-saving hero.
The Life Lessons that Tuff offers, as she discussed her behavior that day (and faith every day) with CNN are simple, but profound. She inspired me to create this blog’s Faith in Action page. Those Tuff lessons:
- “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” (Nelson Mandela).
- “The tools we need in a time of crisis are sometimes within us.”
- “Our story could pull someone else through, if we are willing and able to share it.”
- “Make your judgment but decide to give people the benefit of the doubt.”
- “Be humble.”
- These 8 posts, prior to launching (June 2014) the Your Next Triumph series (first Series post), touched on several Christian worklife issues. In the new year ahead, I plan to continue posting about workplace and worklife issues facing abiding Christians on this blog. The workplace in America today can be quite challenging. However, the children of God have someone to help them deal with these challenges.
- What is the biggest challenge you overcame in 2014?
Grace, mercy, and Merry Christmas to you!
Greg Silverthorne, 66 Assurance Way
66 Assurance Way 