Job, Career and Calling

The summary of my situation is found toward the end at UPDATE.

The prayer requests that are for me and others are at the end at PRAYER.

I worked as a house manager at the sober house for nearly 2 years.

During that time I helped many residents seek a job.

Eventually they got one.

I am very familiar with the job seeking process.

I know about the current job market.

Then I had access to a car to take them on job searches.

There is much research involved online and just walking in shopping centers.

Most but not all job applications are done online these days.

Often there is one short screening interview.

Then if that is passed there is a second longer interview.

It may take a few or many interviews before getting a job offer.

Then there can be a delay of a few days until the paperwork is done.

There is the drug test.

Then there is the first day on the job.

The job might be part time or full time.

Then there is a long delay before the first paycheck.

The hours need to be worked and recorded.

The pay cycle ends.

The hours worked are sent to accounting department.

The paycheck could arrive 10 to 20 days later.

During that gap basic needs need to be met.

The needs include housing, food and transportation.

In order to move into an apartment they require deposits.

So many hundreds of dollars are needed before that starts.

It takes a long time to save up many hundreds of dollars.

I have gone through this process many times over the decades.

I have had jobs at retail stores, fast food places, a machine shop and a feed store.

There have been lots of other jobs too.

This is the summer so many jobs are taken by students out of school.

Those jobs that are easy to get do not pay much.

So that means small budget for housing, food and transportation.

I do not have a car today.

I have had a few cars over the decades.

I have needed to spend many hours riding the bus to my job.

Most of the men I helped had been to college.

Then they got tangled up in drug abuse.

They went to intense residential rehab for 30 to 90 days.

There every hour was structured.

They had meetings, counseling and other activities.

The sober house was to transition to live on their own again.

I told them there is a difference between job, career and calling.

I said a job is what you do in the short term to pay bills.

A career typically relates to a professional position.

Examples include doctor, lawyer, engineer, architect, etc.

A career takes much study and preparation.

Then a calling is what you can do during your lifetime to serve others.

A calling comes from the passion to contribute to the highest good.

Many men appreciated this perspective.

They recognized that my job as a house manager was not my calling.

I told them about my passion to serve those in severe poverty.

I had a large bookcase in my bedroom.

It had a sampling of about one third of my books.

They were there to as a visual reminder of the libraries I hoped to plant globally.

FAITH AND WORKS

Many people had recommended that I go get a job right away.

That would seem like the logical thing to do.

But I have gone through that process many times before.

It takes me about 3 to 6 months to stabilize from a decent starting place.

I have never been homeless like I am now, so it would take longer.

I would need to borrow much money that I would need to repay slowly.

I would need to again put the lamp under a bushel about my ministry.

It would take most of my time and energy just to survive.

Along that path will be many more episodes of depression and despair.

I have struggled with the will to live since 1988.

It can be exhausting to deal with the negative thoughts day and night.

Recently the mind talk has been as follows.

I do not want to live.

I want to not live.

My deepest desire has been to slip into dreamless sleep or annihilation.

I have not wanted to think or feel any more.

I have not wanted to fight the good fight or run with patience the race.

I am not in danger of taking my life.

I have prayed for God to take it and He has not.

I have had three near death experiences.

Those give me a perspective on how fleeting this world is.

What is most important is to trust and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.

The best way to follow Jesus is to be a doer of His Word.

During the last twenty years I have not just been sitting on my hands.

I have been actively researching, planning and preparing for ministry.

I have invested dozens or hundreds of hours in the following sites.

These are online services used by large corporations for doing business.

I used their free or low cost versions.

I share this to indicate I have laid much ground work.

I am familiar with the tools used by companies that trade internationally.

It is like those at NASA that did massive amounts of preparations.

After the launch the many preparations were put into action.

I just need to launch the ministry.

These relate to strategic planning, project management, marketing and more.

On Strategy http://onstrategyhq.com/

Biz Gym http://www.bizgym.com/

Ten Step http://tenstep.com/

Sales Force https://www.salesforce.com/

Liquid Planner http://www.liquidplanner.com/

Smart Sheet http://www.smartsheet.com/

Kanbanflow https://kanbanflow.com

Pomodoro Technique http://pomodorotechnique.com/

Due to this an many other factors I believe I will do well.

I know God has called me to this good work for me to walk in.

I trust He will provide the funds right on time.

I will hire others as needed to get the job done.

UPDATE

I got a reply to the email about the garage apartment.

The owner is leaving town soon for many weeks.

Pray for us to meet very soon.

Maybe this is not the right place for me to live next.

Pray for God to open the right door and guide me there soon.

Not yet connected with the key to storage or ATM card.

Pray for rapid progress on crowd funding site.

PRAYERS

Here are a few prayer requests.

I genuinely seek prayers along these lines.

Also these are general so they can apply to praying for others too.

God grant me ears to hear and eyes to see.

May I hear Your still small voice.

May I see truths in Your Word that will set me free.

Lord Jesus Christ I ask You to weave into my soul an attitude of gratitude and a heart of thanksgiving.

Grant me Your understanding and insights about what season of life I am in now and the next season.

Guide me to most wisely use my time and talent to address the challenges of this season.

Guide my preparations for the next season.

Lord God help me to live a better balanced life including the following ways:

Working on short term and long term priorities

Ministering to others and taking care of myself

Using my reason and my intuition

Shalom