Find Work That Fits You

My high school friends were a microcosm of school society. Eric was a photographer and yearbook editor. Ann was a leader in the marching band. Bill was the lead actor in theatre productions. Laura was in the dance line. Jeff was co-captain of the track team. Carol was co-captain of volleyball and synchronized swimming. Dan was in speech and debate.

Me? I lettered in debate and theatre, and I ran track for a while. I also participated in things like academic decathlon and science olympiad. But my senior year, my primary involvement and identity was as an editor for the school newspaper. I had published a poem back in first grade in our school district's poetry compendium, and I had always loved reading and writing. So the school paper became my niche.

Why did my friends and I gravitate to certain interests and not others?

Some of it was parental influence. Teachers and coaches may have encouraged us to try out for certain activities. And, of course, peers had something to do with it. I never would have run track if my friends had not also been on the team. But to a large extent, we all had certain gifts and talents that geared us in some directions rather than others.

Some people distinguish between gifts and talents. They say that gifts are those natural, innate, God-given abilities to excel in certain areas, whether intellectual, artistic, or athletic. And talents might be thought of as skills that can be acquired and learned, regardless of inherent ability. I'm not sure it's quite that clear cut, but I do recognize that people have different gifts and talents.

This seems to have been the case from the very beginning. Genesis 4:2 says that Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground. We don't know why they differentiated as they did; perhaps Adam and Eve assigned them these tasks arbitrarily, and they learned to do them. Or maybe as children Abel always loved animals, while Cain was a budding agriculturalist. We have no idea. But either way, they were shaped and formed to particular vocations.

Later, Genesis 4 mentions others who differentiated their work based on particular giftedness or interests. Jabal is described as the ancestor of those who live in tents and have livestock. His brother Jubal was the ancestor of those who play the lyre and pipe. And Tubal-Cain made all kinds of bronze and iron tools. We know next to nothing of these folks, but we can surmise that Jubal was a skilled musician and that Tubal-Cain was a skilled metalworker. Could they have traded places and careers? Perhaps. But the fact that they are recorded with these particular traits suggests that they excelled in those areas.

The New Testament likewise shows that we all have different gifts and interests. Acts 6 notes that some were called to serve in the distribution of food while others were devoted to prayer and ministries related to the Word of God. Romans 12:4 says, "For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function." Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12 list a variety of gifts that Christians might have.

Books like Parker Palmer's Let Your Life Speak and David Benner's The Gift of Being Yourself encourage us to listen to our lives and discern how God has gifted us and shaped us. None of us can do everything. But all of us can do something. The key is to do things that are consistent with how we are gifted. Not all that we do will line up entirely with any job or career. But the greater the overlap between our giftedness and our work, the more satisfaction we are likely to have.

My high school friends ended up in a variety of careers and vocations. Yearbook editor Eric is now a physics teacher. Marching band leader Ann is a nursing educator. Track captain Jeff is an Air Force fighter pilot. Bill is an actor in New York City, and Dan uses his public speaking skills as a campus minister. While I have not run anything close to a 400-yard dash in decades, I am still an editor, working in the publishing industry, and I still find satisfaction and fulfillment through the crafting and shaping of words.

May we all find work that fits who we are and how God created us to be.