A Wasted Lie

One of the things I love most about this calling is the chance to help people discover their better selves. One of the things I like least about this calling is when my own words are used against me. Dang it!

I have an amazing village, and one of the most important members of the village is a man named Ray. He is the father of my retirement plan, and if I am truly honest, he is the big brother I always wanted. When I have questions about employment, or computers, or good bourbon, I call him. He's the photographer who took the profile picture for this blog. Knowledgeable about jazz, passionate about football, and an overall good dude and great dad, he is almost perfect. 

Until this.

See, he is helping work on my resume, and he told me to change the way it was done. I deferred to him, because, well, he has a job and his resume obviously got his foot in the door. He told me to change a couple of other things, and I was cool. Then I got this email:

I’m going to challenge you here…

Is your resume and LinkedIn to get you a clergy position? Or a “normal” job?

So I responded:

It’s to get a normal job. The clergy job is taken care of through the UCC Profile System (Linked In for the denomination). But I’m in a bit of a bind - I haven’t stayed anywhere long enough to really make an impact. 

That sounds whiny.

I’m just tired, cranky, and frustrated with this whole “looking for a job” process. When I was a secretary, it was not an issue. Now, people have told….still sounding whiny.

I’m going to Trader Joe’s.

Remember I said he’s almost fits the bill as the perfect big brother? Here’s why:

I assumed. But I have to ask as right now your materials read like your looking for a clergy job. That’s why telling your story of planning and getting things done is important.  So some things to expand on that:

•                Change the default headline on LinkedIn. By default it lists your current position.

•                Draft a personal mission statement that highlights what you want to achieve, give back and your values. Use that as the first thing people see.

•                Write your job descriptions in terms of things you can do for employers and what you can solve for them.

We can talk through this more over break or I can work comments and such into the next round of your resume.

Dang. He caught me. I realized after I sent my response that I was not quite truthful about who I was and what I really wanted.

So, me being me, I responded:

I just realized I lied. 

My desired job is pastoring. That's what makes me get up in the morning. That's what makes my heart beat. The secondary external job is a necessity. I am a pastor. Changing the world through social justice is done through my church work, not in lieu of it. 

So let me apologize for lying to you and myself. That's a wasted lie, I might need it on my deathbed. 

I realized that by telling the lie that I really want an external job, I was selling myself short, and once again, sabotaging my own success. Yeah, I NEED an external job, but do I really WANT one?

Absolutely not.

My calling is to serve God’s people. I know that, and like I said, that’s what gets me up in the morning. I love doing the work of the church, and thinking about doing anything else full time fills me with dread. The pay sucks (like teaching, who goes into ministry to make a boatload of money?), the hours are crappy, but the rewards are immeasurable.

So, today, I encourage you to tell yourself the truth and do the thing that makes you wake up in the morning. Do the thing that makes your blood flow and your heart beat. Stop wasting lies.

Do the thing that makes you YOU.

So, he really IS almost perfect. Except for that Pittsburgh Steelers thing…

Be blessed, but more importantly, be a blessing!