Most of us won’t say it out loud, but we think it:
If I had a better job, I’d feel better about myself.
A bigger title. A better salary. Something that sounds impressive when people ask, “So what do you do?”
And if we don’t have that?
We start to feel like we’re less.
From a young age, we’re taught there are two kinds of people:
- The successful
- And everyone else
Doctors. Lawyers. Business owners. People with titles.
And then there are the rest of us—working jobs that don’t sound impressive, wondering if we somehow missed it.
I bought into that lie.
I let my job define how I saw myself. I thought less of myself because I didn’t fit the image.
And it led me exactly where you’d expect—discouragement, comparison, and a constant sense that I wasn’t enough.
Then I came across something in Hebrews that shifted everything.
Hebrews 5:8 says:
“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”
That word—though—matters.
Jesus was the Son of God.
Perfect. Holy. Above all.
And yet—He suffered.
His value wasn’t tied to status. It wasn’t proven through position. It wasn’t protected from hardship.
Instead, His path was obedience through suffering.
And through that suffering, He became the source of salvation for all who believe.
So what does that have to do with my job?
Everything.
If the Son of God Himself walked a path that didn’t look impressive—
If He endured humiliation, pain, and rejection—
Then why am I measuring my worth by something as temporary as a job title?
My job doesn’t define me.
Not the title.
Not the paycheck.
Not what people think when I say what I do.
My value was settled at the cross.
I was created in the image of God.
Known before I was born.
Loved enough that Jesus suffered and died to bring me back to Him.
That’s where my worth comes from.
And that’s something no job can give—and no job can take away
The world can keep its titles.
I already have mine.
Edited MAY 2026
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.