I hate it because people tend to ask this question in the first 3 minutes of meeting someone new, as though a job title will immediately sum up all that this person is and all that he or she is about. I hate it because it's just downright nosy ... I mean, when you actually sit back and think about it, is it really anybody's business what you do for work? But, most of all, I hate it because it makes me feel inadequate. Because I can't say something impressive like "I'm a lawyer" or "I'm a doctor" or "I'm a crazy rocket scientist plotting ways to take over the world." I'm just an administrative assistant and even though I love my job & know that this is exactly what God has called me to do for the next little while ... it often just doesn't feel like enough. When they ask me what my career plans are and I explain that I hope to keep this job until I get married and have children, the look I often get makes me feel like that's not enough either.
I'll just be straight up honest .. this is totally a pride issue. The fact that I cringe inside every time someone asks me what I do for a living has *nothing* to do with my actual job and *everything* to do with my own insecurity and my selfish desire to impress. Lately, God has been showing me that if my goal is to impress people with my career or my job title or my income bracket, then I've missed the point. My ultimate goal in life should be to point people toward Christ so that HE (not me!) can impress them. After all, he's the only one who can truly impress. The rest of us always fall short.
I wish I could say that I woke up this morning and suddenly felt 100% proud of being "just" an administrative assistant ... that any insecurity I was struggling with in this area just vanished overnight. We all know it's not that easy. In a society that encourages you to do whatever it takes to move up the corporate ladder as quickly as you can, it's not easy to be at peace with a position that many of your peers unconsciously consider to be insignificant, unimportant. So, no .. I didn't wake up this morning to find that my longing to impress and be respected had disappeared ... but I did wake up with a new perspective.
One day, I will trade my emails and phone calls and invoices for diapers and teddy-bears and play dates at the park. But, until then, every time I step into my office, I want to remind myself that I am exactly where God wants me doing exactly what He has called me to do. He calls some to be CEO's and others to be administrative assistants and we are all equal in His eyes. My job description might not impress people at a dinner party, but {hopefully} my obedience to God makes Him happy. And, really, at the end of the day it's not so much about what you do but why you do it and who you are doing it for.
"In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people." Colossians 3:23
