2007-06-13 - Summer Questions

2007 #2 - Career Progress

Psalm 62:8, "And lovingkindness is Thine, O Lord, for Thou dost recompense a man according to his work."

Today is the first of the summer questions that have thus far been sent in. You can still send them in (I actually need more). I always answer the first question that comes in as the first summer question, and this year, we stay with that tradition. This question is very practical.

Question: "What do I do after waiting in vein for more than 5 years to see some progress in my career, despite the fact that I am delivering strong performance?"

This is a hard question to answer, because I can almost feel the despair in it. There are some practical things, of course. The first might be to look for another job. There are lots ways to do this. It is very easy to post a resume on the Internet, and an hour each evening looking for opening, or searching through job list openings, that can be signed up for on the Internet, can be useful to finding something. You might not even have to relocate. Often, another way to advance a career is to take some classes at a local university, get some certifications, and/or show that you are still developing as a person. I can't know if you have tried these things, but they are some practical steps that can be taken, to get noticed and seek to advance.

From a spiritual perspective I will say first that it is possible that you have to adjust to the fact that the Lord has you right where you are and He has you there for a reason. It could be that it is to build a relationship with someone. It might be someone who the Lord is seeking to draw to Himself. He might use you to that purpose. He might use you to get them connected to a good church, or simply to encourage them in their walk with Christ. On another front, it could be that the Lord is teaching you to wait patiently upon Him for all your dreams, hopes, and desires. It is a hard lesson to learn, but one that we must all learn. It could be that the Lord is teaching you, through this, that His plan, His timing, are always perfect.

The Psalmist says (Psalm 25:5), "For Thee I wait all day." Like Job, we have to acknowledge that sometimes, God allows things in our lives, even things that at the time seem disagreeable, that are ultimately for our growth and good. It could be, and I hope it is so, that you will look back in future years and say, "Now I know that the Lord's hand was in my feeling stuck at that time, and I can only confess that He knew exactly what He was doing all along."

We have to wait on God's time, and believe. It is easy to type. It is easy to read. It is next to impossible to do. We desire the Lord to work on our calendar, but He doesn't. We expect God to meet our expectations, but He seems to be in the business of reminding us that His ways are better than our ways (Isaiah 55:8, 9). His sovereign providential plan far exceeds our plans, but we still have (and rightly so) plans, expectations, dreams, hopes, and desires of our own. The Christian lays these things at the foot of the cross, and submits to the Lord and His will in everything. We often do it kicking and screaming, but when we come to Christ, we come to Him with our whole person, and we give everything over to His will. The glorious comforts of the Gospel provide comforts that the world can never come close to matching. All our wants are met, and all our griefs our covered with the joy of forgiveness. The consolations that the believer receives in Christ do lead through the wilderness of this world, to lasting happiness, that only the redeemed in Christ can know and experience.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

GodRulesTB@aol.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org

Editor's Note: The questions in this series are stated in the exact form sent by the readers - unedited, unproofed, in order to remain true to the reader's original wording.