[CS-FSLUG] Career paths

[Tim Young]

Since none of us took a bite at the actual "Career" component of your 
question, I thought I would chime in on that. Again, I am a career 
missionary, so how I have chosen my life path may not be at all helpful. :)

We are all called to ministry in some form or other, even if we do not 
feel like it. We are the salt and light in this world, both of which 
need to be spread around. If all the salt in the soup is in one clump of 
salt, the soup is bland until that one bite, and then it is horrible. 
But salt that is distributed makes the soup taste good. Light must be in 
the darkness, to be lights in the darkness. :) In all, Christians must 
be ministers of the Gospel wherever they are at, and there must be 
Christians in every walk of life.

Sometimes God gives people a role in life, sometimes He gives them a 
ministry, sometimes it is a gift, and sometimes you are left to decide 
for yourself. As you walk through life, your situation may change, so 
what is true for you now may not be true later on.

I am a missionary, and I learned how to make decisions based on having a 
ministry, but needing to determine what that ministry was. For me, it 
was made clear when of of my teachers asked me to write a paper called 
my "missions statement." The idea of this paper was that I would write 
down all the major strengths and weaknesses of my life, the major 
building blocks, skills, and gifts that I was aware of, and then to 
write a few paragraph on how I thought the Lord could use this peculiar 
mix, called Me, to best affect His kingdom. Through writing this paper, 
I got a fairly good glimpse of what the next fifteen years of my life 
turned out to be. It did not tell me how I was going to get to that 
point, but it gave me a good target to shoot for.

My question for you, then, is: Do you know your spiritual gifts? And if 
so, do you believe that those gifts should be used to guide your career 
choice?

An answer of "No" to either of these is fine.
"No, you do not know your spiritual gifts." Most do not. Spiritual gifts 
are best learned about through use. As you volunteer at church or help 
out here and there, your gifts start to manifest themselves. You can 
jump-start the process of learning about them by searching on the 
Internet. There are a number of decent questionnaires which help you 
guess what they are. Spiritual gifts can also be seasonal. There are 
greater gifts and lesser gifts, and one can supplant the other. So doing 
a spiritual gift inventory every so often is a good thing.

"No, your spiritual gifts should not guide your career choice." This is 
true for most people. Most are not called into full time ministry. One 
of the key factors of Spiritual gifts is that they are made for the 
building up of the church. They are best applied in a career way, in 
full time ministry. So if you do not feel that they should influence 
your career path, then you simply are not being called into full time 
ministry at this time. :) Most people use their gifts through volunteer 
efforts. Like your programming skills that you are wondering if you 
should develop, or continue to enjoy as a hobby.

If you are not really sure about whether your gifts should influence 
your career choice, you may try a short-term-missions trip which uses 
some of the skills you are thinking about using. There are various 
computer-related trips one can go on, but using your gifts may be better 
done through a building trip, or something else entirely.

If none of this applies, not to worry. God leads us each on our own 
path. Sometimes that is a wandering, through-the-wilderness path, other 
times it is very direct. God calls you to obedience, not to one 
particular position in life. He may have set up your situation to help 
push you into the next position where He wants you, be that school or work.

One final thing. I went to Taylor University, a very good and very 
expensive school. I studied computer science, artificial intelligence. 
It was heave duty programming. I ended up going into network systems and 
hardware instead of programming. My younger brother went to a Bible 
school that cost a pittance. I believe that his education prepared him 
for life equally as good as mine did. Both of our educations impacted 
our futures a lot, but not quite in the way one might anticipate. It it 
somewhere around 2/3 of the folks who graduate who do not get their 
first job out of college in the area of their studies. After 4 years, 
another 3/4 of people change jobs to something in an entirely different 
field.

All of that to say, do not be afraid of making the wrong decision as 
what focus to do your studies in. Statistically speaking, that choice 
will not make or break your future. If you think you are being led to 
further education, then choose something you are interested in learning 
more about and go with that. You can always change your major.

Anyway, hope some of this helps some.

God be with you in your decisions,

- Tim Young

Nathan T. wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>
> I'm being accused perpetually of being a liar at work. It happened  
> What I was hoping for was some ideas for career paths. I do care to  
> some degree about the kinds of incomes I can earn, but more  
> importantly I want to retain some will to live while also having the  
> job. (snip)