DEAR UNEMPLOYED,
Unemployment is not the bee’s knees.
But in this chapter I’ve learned a lot about myself and what God has to say about work.
Some may disagree, but in my opinion there is a disease that has been born into many of us millennials and it’s called entitlement. Eek.
Two month or so after graduating undergrad I had a real time of reflection as to why I was becoming so hardened or distraught by the whole process of unemployment (besides being tedious and time consuming). That’s when I realized the phrase that was hiding in the back of my mind the whole time; “I deserve it”.
I deserve a good paying job, in the right location, that I’m excited to come into every day, with awesome co-workers and a great boss, with full benefits, that does good for society somehow, and most of all to not have to start at the grunt-work level (I did have great grades and two internships in undergrad, after all).
There it was. After I heard it, I quickly realized why the baby boomers can’t stand us whipper snappers and are reluctant to hire us! What was I talking about? I must earn it through hard work and experience.
Our sense of entitlement is a plague. Symptoms include: never being content with where you are in life, putting yourself above others, and mass amounts of pride.
All deadly.
Once self-diagnosed, I put myself in check REAL quick. I wrote myself a prescription and I’ll let you all in on the secret, the antidote; better than all of the daily vitamins and wheat grass shots in the world.
We are not promised the perfect job; sorry to burst your bubble. But, we are told that if we seek God’s will for our lives and continually choose a positive attitude, and always have the goal to please Him, then we will experience true contentment in our lives and even our working situations. Our identities cannot be found in our work title; our identity is in Him.
We have been raised in a time where we have heard things like, “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life” or “if you don’t enjoy your job every day, you aren’t in the right profession.” These things have infected our minds into thinking that we should never settle for anything less.
Because, let’s be real, that all sounds great and convincing when you don’t match it up to scripture. But let’s do a quick matchup. Jesus DID make us to work; through the joyous times and the toils (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19). To be hard working, loyal, diligent, and honest workers; as if we are directly serving Him (Colossians 3:23-24).
He never promised that work would be rainbows and butterflies. We may be lucky enough to find something that we love and enjoy, of course that’s the goal of learning a trade or getting an education in a certain field, but we aren’t promised that we will find a job that we LOVE every second of.
“Success in your 20s is more about setting the table than enjoying the feast.” (Paul Angone)
Our infected case of entitlement has made us think we are above the more mundane or grunt work. We have to remind ourselves that getting passed that stage takes time, and hardworking experience to get passed.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for moving quickly up the corporate ladder, but if we aren’t willing to put in the work, we will never be more than dissatisfied with where we are in our careers. So, after attaining some solid experience in my industry and attaining my master’s degree I left my previous position, and I am now in my second round of unemployment. I was better prepared this time around. Don’t get me wrong, it sucks. If I have to fill in all of my previous work history information on an application which already has my resume attached,one more time, I may lose it. Nonetheless, it is a process I must go through, and I will continue to seek the direction that God has for my life and aim to remain thankful in knowing that His plan will always be better than mine.
Because in the bigger picture, I am nothing without Jesus; I DESERVE nothing. Yet as I seek to follow Him, Jesus blesses me with what He has in store for me.
So to all of my fellow millennials in this stage of unemployment and less-than-perfect jobs; I challenge you to take this daily antidote and watch the symptoms of our modern-day plague disappear.
Sincerely,
Jackie Summers