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I enjoy my
work. There, I’ve said it. I love my job. I’m self-employed and work
from home (except when I travel to speak). This morning I got up,
saw my kids off to school, put together dinner in the crock pot so
I’ll be able to keep writing this afternoon while the kids do
homework. It’s pouring rain, which makes me doubly glad my commute
consists of walking upstairs, coffee mug in hand. It’s Yesterday, I worked on my latest marketing project—setting up a new blog called Deep Breathing for the Soul. Check it out at www.keriwyattkent.blogspot.com. I’m learning as I go along but I’m hoping it will help me connect with readers. Tomorrow my job will require me to drive an hour during morning rush hour to go speak at a church, but today I’m home writing. This morning, I’m writing these words. Later, I’ll make phone calls to set up interviews for a magazine article, do some research on that. I hope to spend a little time working on the book I’m trying to write, and I’ve got a radio interview to publicize Oxygen this afternoon. I heard from an old friend this week, and she asked what I’ve been up to. I told her I was working a lot, but that I really do enjoy it. She didn’t believe me, thought I was giving her a line of some sort. Her reaction confused me. Why didn’t she believe me? Maybe it’s because she is a single mom, and doesn’t particularly love her job, which takes her away from her children more than she’d like. That’s not my situation, I realize. But I’m also aware that I was lucky to grow up in a home where work was celebrated. A lot of us grew up in homes where work was valued: our parents worked hard, and perhaps expected us to work hard. But the joy of work—that’s a little different. I started working at about age 11, at a riding stable. I got “paid” with free riding, and put in long days grooming, shoveling and doing all the tasks associated with caring for horses. I loved it. When I got a real job (in retail) at about age 16, my father told me two things. First, he said, “You can do anything you want.” There was no pressure to work for him, even though he owned his own company. And I honestly believed him, that whatever I set my mind to and went after, I would achieve. Second, he said, “Whatever you do, I hope that you choose something you love. I hope that, like me, you will wake up each day and say, ‘Oh, good, I get to go to work today.’ Because that’s what matters—doing something you really like to do.” I thought most dads gave similar lectures to their teenagers. Not so, apparently. My first job as a newspaper reporter featured low pay, long hours, stressful deadlines, demanding editors. I was in heaven—because I was getting paid to write. My by-line was on the front page of that little newspaper each week. And I think having the expectation that I would enjoy my job influenced my choices to pursue a career doing something I actually love. God gives each of us gifts, but it’s up to each of us to open the gifts and put them to good use. It’s scary, it takes faith. But when we move forward in faith, we not only serve God, we give our children a legacy as well. As Paul wrote to Timothy “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” (2 Timothy 1:5,6) We often quote verse 6 but leave out the verse before it. But it is because of the legacy of faith handed down by his mother and grandmother, and by Paul, that Timothy is exhorted to use his gift and grow in it. The fact is, many of us don’t love what we do. We may be very skilled at it, but competence is only one factor in overall job satisfaction. This really has to do with calling. What is it that God has created you to do, wants you to do to make the world a better place, and to bring you joy in the process? Are you doing what you love? None of us loves every part of our jobs—I didn’t like changing diapers when my kids were babies, but it was part of my job description as a parent. But I did love reading to them—so I changed diapers as needed so that I could read to the kids, play with them, sing with them—I tried to focus on the parts of the job I really liked. Is there some aspect of the work you do—whether you are an executive, a stay-at-home parent, a salesperson or an office worker—that brings you joy? If you want to enjoy your work, focus on the parts you like. What are you passionate about? That’s a clue to your calling. The word passion originally came from the Latin root pati, which means to suffer. Sometimes, the things you’ve struggled with, or the pain you’ve seen other people go through, can lead you to finding your passion. That’s what happened to my friend Beth Corcoran, who is our guest columnist this month—see her story below. Even if you don’t love your day job, but you love the volunteer work you do on weekends, or the work of writing the novel you’re secretly writing in your spare time, pay attention to that. We bring more energy to what we love, and in return, are energized by it. The thing you love is often the thing God needs you to do in this world. How about you? Do you love what you’re doing? Are you doing what God called you to do? Are you fanning into flame the gift within you? If you could do anything, what would you do? Dream a little, and then, take one step toward that dream. Until next time, Keri For further study: Read more about this topic in Keri’s book Listen: Finding God in the Story of Your Life.
This book inspired a movie of the same name (the DVD just came out). But the book is vastly different from the movie, because the first half tells the story of Chris Gardner’s incredibly difficult childhood, growing up in the ghetto of Milwaukee. It’s an inspiring story because Gardner overcame almost impossible odds to become a wealthy stockbroker. Today, he’s a philanthropist and sought-after speaker, and owner of a multi-million dollar company. He did not have a father, and his step-father’s legacy was one of abuse and neglect. His mother, feeling she had no options, stayed in a horribly abusive marriage with Gardner’s step-father. But she told her son, “you could make a million dollars if you wanted to.” Gardner took her words to heart, and worked hard, even as a homeless single father, to make his dreams come true. The book offers more detail on the beginning of Gardner’s story, and how that difficult childhood shaped him as a father and as a man. I highly recommend the book. You can purchase this book for
$14.95, which includes shipping, from Anyone Can Make a Difference Last year, God broke my heart. He brought a crisis into my husband’s life, and in turn, into my life. I was sad for 441 days. The saddest I had ever been. And I will never forget that pain. But somehow now my heart is both stronger and softer at the same time. And now that I am a woman who has experienced true heartbreak, I find that I understand a broken heart…I ‘get’ the broken heart…I can almost sense a broken heart in someone else. And because of the pain I went through, I desperately want to reach out and do something about the pain of others. And I want to encourage women just like me to get in the game too. In August 2006, I was minding my own business, trying to get through a crisis. I was given the opportunity to attend a leadership conference where Bono was interviewed by Willow Creek’s founding pastor, Bill Hybels. What started out as me thinking it was pretty cool to hear Bono at a church conference turned into something that would work its way into my heart and change it forever. Bono talked about Africa. He talked about the AIDS pandemic, and what he referred to as ‘stupid poverty’ (poverty that we have the ability to fix). He talked about the millions of people infected with AIDS, how mothers pass the virus onto their babies through pregnancy or nursing, how children are raising children because parents are dying off faster than anyone can count. And he talked about how we could make a difference and how it is our responsibility to reach out to the poor, disenfranchised, the widow, the hungry, the orphan. And I don’t know how or why, but it got to me in a deep way. Yes, you can do something about Africa (or any place or person who is hurting). I know you’re busy. I live on Busy Street myself. Yes, you’ve got little kids…all the more reason to care for kids who don’t have their parents anymore because they were stricken with a disease that they didn’t mean to catch. No, the majority of us won’t actually ever make it over there…but you don’t have to go there to find out what’s going on there. Money’s tight…you have bills to pay let alone the need to start thinking about college for the little ones…I’m right there with you. But no one is asking for thousands of dollars here. $1 is one year of clean water for one African. Who of us does not have one dollar to spare? Other people are taking care of it --- yes, they are…but it’s not enough. They need our help…bottom line. You can make a difference in really meaningful and practical ways. Ways that will change your life. Ways that will make God smile. Ways that will change the world. I’ve done some reading. Go to www.elisabethcorcoran.com. to read about some easy, quick, inexpensive, non-changing-your-entire-life steps you can take even if you’re busy/broke/up-to-your-neck-in-mommying that will help you to make a you-have-no-idea-how-big-of-a-difference. (c) Elisabeth K. Corcoran, 2007 Elisabeth Corcoran is the author of In Search of Calm: Renewal for a Mother’s Heart (2005) and Calm in My Chaos: Encouragement for a Mom’s Weary Soul (2001) and on staff at Christ Community Church--Blackberry Creek Campus, Aurora, IL. She and her husband Kevin have two children. Visit her at www.elisabethcorcoran.com “Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be. As we do so, we will not lonely find the joy that every human being seeks—we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as ‘the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.’” Parker Palmer, in Let Your Life Speak (Jossey-Bass, 2000)
What are you passionate about? What is one thing you can do to explore that passion, to pay attention to determining your calling? What gift has God put in your heart that you need to fan into flame? What one step can you take to, as Palmer writes, grow into your authentic selfhood? Keri has her own blog! Check out www.keriwyattkent.blogspot.com, Keri’s new “Deep Breathing for the Soul” blog site. She’ll be posting thoughts, videos, photos, etc. about making your faith real, writing, social justice and lots of other topics. Please click on the link and at least take a look at the site, leave a comment, subscribe or whatever.Keri is also a part of the Boomer Babes Rock blog team (what a great group of women!) at www.boomerbabesrock.com/blog check it out. I post on Thursdays. I recently reviewed the movie Amazing Grace on that blog, you can read it by clicking here http://boomerbabesrock.com/blog/amazing-grace/Read Keri’s latest “For Your Soul” column: On my desk, I have a cut-glass vase housing bright yellow daffodils and two small but pungent purple hyacinths. All from my garden, which suddenly came into bloom during a warm spell last week. A few days of warm weather (along with plenty of rain) turned the grass from faded yellow to bright green, pushed the bulbs I planted last fall to bloom, and brought all of us out into the sun to play. Play may not seem like a spiritual practice, but it is an essential one, if we are to obey the commands of Scripture: Rejoice in the Lord always! The joy of the Lord is your strength! Click here to read the rest of the column: http://www.christianitytoday.com/childrensministry/articles/joymotor.html April 18: Keri will be a guest on the Georgene Rice Show, KPDQ FM radio in Portland, OR. The show will air at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Keri will be chatting with host Georgene Rice about her new book Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul. Tune in if you’re in the Portland area, or listen on-line at http://www.kpdq.com/ April 21: Keri will lead a half-day workshop for Ascend, the singles ministry at Christ Church Oak Brook from 9 a.m. to noon. Her topic will be “Oxygen: Six spiritual practices to breathe life into your conversation with God.” For details, see www.keriwyattkent.comApril 27: Keri will be speaking to the Mom’s Place group at Peace Lutheran Church, 21 W 500 Butterfield Road, Lombard, IL at 9 a.m. She’ll be teaching on “Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life.” For details about the meeting, contact the church at 630-627-1101. May 5: Keri will be signing copies of her newest book Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul, at the Wheaton College bookstore at 10:30 a.m. The college is located at 418 N. Chase St., just north of College Avenue in Wheaton. For details phone the bookstore at (630) 752-5119. Keri will be signing with several other alumni authors as part of Alumni Weekend at the college. May 12, 13: Keri will be presenting the
Mother’s Day message at |
April 10, 2007
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Oxygen: Keri's
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"Breathe" In Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life, Keri looks at how the hurried pace of our lives affects us spiritually.
Connect with Keri in Person click here to see my speaking schedule
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You are receiving this eZine because you shared your email address with author and speaker Keri Wyatt-Kent. If you prefer not to receive future issues, please unsubscribe by sending a blank email with "unsubscribe" in the subject line to kwk@pcpublications.org. We will never share your email address with anyone - ever. © 2007 - All Rights Reserved - Keri Wyatt Kent |
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