Photo by: kosheahan (Creative Commons)
I have written a lot about the issues I have had at my J-O-Bs.
The image of myself I developed as a result of the positions I have held over the years. Thinking less of myself because I don’t carry a brief case or use a stethoscope and I don’t own my own business. From an early age our society indoctrinates us to think that kids either grow to be doctors or lawyers or, really any job that requires the wearing of a tie, or you’re a loser.
I bought into this lie and it is a lie of monumental proportions.
It comes directly from the mouth of Satan.
This is an attack on our worth, value as human beings, as individuals and as creations of God almighty.
I would get depressed when I thought about the fact that the job I was doing was not much more than housekeeping for a group of people that – in the grand scheme – are no better than me.
It has taken me a long time and many hours of prayer to realize that my worth does not come from my position but the position of Jesus Christ and what he thinks of me.
It can be hard.
We don’t see many movies or shows on TV that show the heroes as being what most would call “ordinary” people. Their usually professionals or they have glamorous job like writers – yeah, that’s glamorous alright – or actors. Seldom do we see the people that work behind the scenes often the ones that do the real work that make the “pros” look good when everything is said and done.
Repeated prayers about this led me to a passage in the book of Hebrews that has helped the way I look at this, at others and especially how I see the man in the mirror.
The author of Hebrews writes in the 5th chapter verse 1 – 10 about how the High Priests had to not only makes sacrifices for the people but in order to be worthy of that he had to make sacrifices for himself.
He then goes on to compare Jesus to this process and equates Jesus’ suffering and eventual state of perfection to the acts of the High Priests and how that makes him the source of eternal salvation to all who believe.
But it is in verse 8 that I see the thing that stands out the most to me – the word “though.” It says, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered (italics and underline added by me). Now the rest of the passage is important, however that word “though” looms so large in the whole idea.
The verse acknowledges that Jesus IS the son of God and despite that fact he had to learn obedience, he had to suffer he had to go through – some believe – Hell to reach perfection.
How do I equate that to my lousy jobs and extremely low self esteem?
Easy!
If God allowed HIS son to be beaten, bruised, hit, slapped, struck, spit on, slandered and hung on a cross – not once did God lessen the pain for Jesus – alloweing him to suffer the full brunt of all of humanity’s sin then who am I to complain about a J-O-B that I chose; a J-O-B that is putting food on our table and paying our mortgage. Who am I to complain working in an air conditioned office when Jesus didn’t even get anything to drink other than spoiled wine?
My value and worth comes from the fact that I was created in the image of God, known before I was born and the He loved me so much that He allowed Jesus to suffer in the most humiliating way and die to remove the barrier between us.
I have value because God loves me.
I have value and that is something that Satan cannot change.
And his lies don’t live here anymore.
Mick Holt 
4 Comments
I AM SO GLAD YOU FINALLY REALIZED THAT WHAT YOU DO IS NOT WHO YOU ARE. AND YOU ARE WHERE YOU ARE FOR HIS PURPOSE. LOVE YOU BROTHER
Thanks Ron. You know it’s one of those things you “know” but you “don’t know” kinda like a brain cloud. Thanks for stopping by, commenting and following. Love you too, Brother.
I 100% agree with most of your article, in that our worth is NOT based on our jobs, and I wish that adults (particularly in the media and at school) would do a better job of letting kids know how much a job is a blessing, whether it’s picking up people’s trash, mopping floors, OR being a doctor.
There is, however, a sentence in your article that bothers me: “Seldom do we see the people that work behind the scenes often the ones that do the real work that make the “pros” look good when everything is said and done.”
My husband is a business owner, and he has spent several years (almost nine in fact) building his company from absolutely nothing to what it is today. Before he opened his doors nine years ago, he had over ten years of experience in his field, often working for free just to expand his own knowledge and skill base. In those first few years of business ownership, we made far less than minimum wage and made very difficult sacrifices as a family because we believed in his dream and his work.
Fast-forward several years – his company is now a fully staffed thriving business, our own income has grown, his employees do work incredibly hard, and we are so blessed to have the team we have. But if my husband had not been willing to do the grueling groundwork in order to build his business, it would never be what it is today. So yes, good employees are invaluable to a company, but they are NOT the ONLY valuable players on the team – without the “pros” you mentioned, there wouldn’t be a company for everyone else to work at to begin with, in which case our nation would be in an incredibly difficult situation.
Again, this is a really great article overall, and I strongly agree with much of what you say. I just wanted to offer a viewpoint from a different perspective 🙂
Allow me to congratulate you and your husband on your achievements – I hope you’re able to maintain this level success. I love stories of people building something from nothing – it is what makes, still makes, this the greatest country on the planet.
That your husband was willing to work for little or nothing to better himself, his business and your lives is truly inspiring and something that I feel is lacking in our society. A society where so much of what people have has been given to them and so many want more and are not willing to get even a minimum wage job – much less work for nothing and earn their keep or realize their dreams. Assuming they have any.
What I must not have made clear was that I was speaking of the image that movies and TV give us and that of the hard work and the hard workers – like your husband – is not held up as the model to which we should strive.
I was attempting to say that there is nothing wrong with hard work or working behind the scenes. There is nothing wrong with flipping burgers, cleaning floors or arranging flowers. It is not the J-O-B that makes you valuable. Honestly any more than your husband’s real value – or yours – comes from his accomplishments.
I agree that without business owners our country would be worse off than it is already. I would not have the J-O-B I currently have if it were not for the people that – like your husband – built our company, pay the bills and my salary – for which I am grateful. This was not intended to be a “class warfare” piece. I am not trying to make that case because I don’t support those ideas. I respect the efforts of business owners and challenge people to be intellectually honest about pay scales and what the owners deserve as opposed to what their workers deserve.
Thank you for stopping by and please feel free to come again and comment – I welcome them all. I don’t believe that any of us can close the understanding gap without having conversations.