Posts Tagged: dream marriages?

“Questioning Our Dreams”

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

A friend of mine is trying to discern what to do with the rest of his life vocationally. He is young and smart, hard-working and good with people. He is working now and is good at his job. Nevertheless, it is not what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

He mentioned a conversation with someone in which the other person spoke of something “not being his dream job.” My friend mentioned this to me in an email. This set me thinking, as most things do. Here is my reply to him.

“Dear________,

I am not sure there is any such thing as “a dream job”. In my opinion, we set ourselves up for disappointment and disillusionment when we think in those terms. I think that this is true in every area of life. For example, my wife and I have a good marriage. A dream marriage? An emphatic NO!  In fact, a rather brutal riddle comes to mind:

Q: What do you call someone who wants a dream marriage, or thinks they have one?

A: A single or divorced person.

I wonder if it might be helpful for you (or anybody) to ask certain questions about any job. Here are some possible questions for your consideration:

  1. Does this job have a good shot at benefiting others?
  2. Does the doing of this work give me a feeling of satisfaction a good deal of the time?
  3. Does this line of work give me the prospect of personal growth?
  4. Can I make enough money doing this to keep my body and soul alive?

No doubt, other good questions will come to your mind.”

In fact, one very important question came to me after I emailed my friend.

  • Would this line of work bring a smile to the face of God?

For those of us who believe in God, this question should probably be the first one we ask. The fact that I did not think of this when I was responding to my friend does not speak well for my present spiritual state.

The truth is that there are no dream jobs, except in our dreams. We do need to pay attention to our dreams, but we also need to continually question our dreams.

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