Choosing the right career

Make the right decision about it but don't worry about it too much if you went in the wrong direction there is a possibility to turn around and to get something else to do something else pray about it consider your abilities talk with others get the counsel of many and you will make a good decision.

and Gents, welcome to Voices of Life, the podcast with topics related to the apostolic faith in the 21st century. Let's talk about what interests you here on Voices of Life.

and welcome to another episode of Voices of Life. We're so happy and excited that you tuned in today again, because we are excited about the subject that we're going to talk about this time. We already did it in a German episode and it was great. So we're looking forward to talking about that with you today. And our subject is something that affects every 1 of us because we spend about 1 third of our lifetime at this thing and this is work, career, however you want to call it. It's something that affects especially Christians a lot because we spend a lot of time in church but we also spend a lot of time at work. So we asked ourselves the questions in this episode, how do we decide where to work at? How do we decide what to do? Studying, no studying. And are there any other perimeters except for God that decide or affect what we're doing. And since we have somebody so young who just started his career, we just give the word to him and let him explain how he went about in deciding what to do.

that's right. So I started my studies about 1 year ago, and I'm studying information technologies right now, that's computer stuff. And the reason I chose it is not only because I'm kind of into that stuff, but also because, or mainly, that is really not the main thing. The main thing is that I looked and thought to myself, well, what kind of working place will go along with my walk with God and with my ministry or with the things I want to do for God, because I want to be there in church. I want to have as much time as possible for church. At the weekends, I want to have free time to be there when we come together and when we have services. And so that was really an important thing for me when I chose the workplace and the studies that I chose in the end, because they are the ones that will make me able to attend Sundays and weekends, because they are only from Monday till Friday the work and it's also just 7 hours a day instead of 8 hours a day. So I will have even more time for also things in church.

you can see when we consider choosing a career or a different job or going to university and study, we also have to take into consideration the will of God. Because for us as a Christian, we cannot just rely on our abilities and our training in school education that we got. So we also need to consider that we belong to a family, a Christian family. And if you belong to a family, you should meet your family members. You should meet your brothers and your sisters. And that's why we are so focusing on how do we spend our time outside of the church? Is it too much or is it still, is there still some time available to go to services, worship services, to attend other activities that we as a church family offer? Because for us as a Christian, our Christian life consists of, of course, of our relationship with God, but also our relationship towards our Protestant sisters is a different thing for example you can do yoga by yourself but you cannot do Christian life by yourself. You need a brother and we do all understand sometimes at home you are alone, you pray and you read your Bible, you do things alone but that's not all the time the case. So you should come together with your brothers and sisters And that's why we are checking what, how much time will be consumed by this job, by this studying and so on. If we are still able to really do the life as a Christian.

a testimony to that. I started my job in retail and the problem was we had to work on Saturdays mostly or like every Saturday actually. And also on Fridays we had like a whole day shift or a late shift and I couldn't attend to the worship services or to the meetings like men's meetings, youth meetings. And so that really, really not helped me in a spiritual sense. It literally killed me in a spiritual sense because I didn't have my brothers and sisters around only on Sundays. If I, well, back then that was not my best Christian moment I would say it was a period but I made it through God bless but it wasn't the best time for me because I couldn't really see my brothers and sisters on the weekends. So yeah, that's very important.

And that's also what the Bible tells us in Proverbs. It says, iron sharpeneth iron. So a man sharpened the countenance of his friend. So you just need each other. God made it that way that we would need each other and that we form and shape each other. And that's also, like you said, Justin, so important to put the view on, am I in church? Am I still available to go to church with the job that I have with the career that I start also not looking at the moment right now because of times we just tell ourselves well just for the next 2, 3, maybe just 1 year I'm just gonna stay at this job I'm gonna make a lot of money and I'm going to be able to provide for my family. I'm going to be able to tithe so much to the church. They need a new sound system. They need a new roof. They need this. The pastor needs a new car. No.

like the way you think.

so you just tell yourself well when this time is over I'm gonna be active in church again because it's gonna be so much easier. But oftentimes the devil uses just that time to draw you away from church to draw you away from your brothers and your sisters and to make you dependent on that money make you dependent on that job and that you find your pleasure in that job that you find your fulfillment in this career that you started and we talked about that we're going to talk about that depending when we listen when you listen to this episode in another episode about goals and the motivation behind goals so we just make it short here that you always have to watch out what is the motivation behind the job that you do in the career that you start.

that's also an illusion or wrong thing to believe that when you work and you have a great career you are not able to attend church anymore but you say well I do it only 4 years and I will accumulate so much money and then I'm available for God but the thing is usually your lifestyle will change the more money you get the more you will spend and then after those 4 years 5 years or let it be 10 years you sit there and you think wow I planned it differently and throughout the whole time you hardly attended a church You hardly were present with your church family. And this will have a bad or negative impact on your life and you will know hopefully then you will notice that spiritually you are dry, you're almost dead and you need to repent and come back to the Lord But you can avoid that by just, you know, thinking, how can I find a job that I'm also able to live for God the way he wants me to live? Because let's face it, we do like our careers, we do like, sometimes we do like our jobs. I understand maybe not every job you'd like, but it's not the most important thing. And I know we need our jobs to provide for ourselves or for our families. But nevertheless, we need to know that our trust is not in the career in the job it is in Jesus Christ and he will take care of it if you check we don't read it now but if you want to check Matthew the sixth chapter you see that people are worrying they think what do I need to do to get some money, what do I need to do to pay my bills, what do you need to do to get food and stuff like that and God says don't worry about the things, seek ye first the kingdom of God 633 for you Bible people and everything else will you know come to pass so God will take care of you. Of course you may not be the multi-millionaire that you envisioned yourself to be when you were younger or in a teenage years but you will know that money is not everything and at the end in hindsight you will be very happy that you followed the plan of God.

the plan of God also includes the will of God. We just take it like that. So the will of God for our lives is also to live a holy life and acceptable in his sight. So there also might be some perimeters of certain jobs that just won't allow you to be there as a Christian, to be present or to exercise those jobs as a Christian. For example, when you go, well, yeah, we're just gonna say, you know what? We're just gonna say. If you are in a job that forces you to prostitute yourself. That's in Germany, especially. I don't know. Is that legal in America? I don't think so.

in Las Vegas it's legal, but not in all those other states. Please, everybody take your kids outside.

right.

in Germany, it is actually legal. It's a legal thing. So that would be something that you don't even have to pray about that. You don't have to fast about, you don't have to ask your pastor about it. That's a no right there. You heard it here first.

no, no.

that would be something you cannot.

had to do it. I just had to do it.

sorry.

something you just, you just cannot do. You don't even have to be spiritual or try to be spiritual about it. And there are other jobs like that that just are a certain no without even thinking about it where you won't even go.

I wanted to become actually an apostolic bartender. Wow. You see you know working in a restaurant it's not a problem usually but working as an apostolic bartender it's not possible yeah so there are certain things that are not possible for us as a Christian to work there and like brother Steven said you don't even need to ask your pastor you actually don't even need to ask God because he revealed it already in his word.

mean it depends what surrounds you also go into like you said as a bartender it's probably not the best surrounding you have you have alcohol in it you have music that is not good for your ears or for your spirit and there's also other jobs that the surrounding is just not right. You can not work in a club or for a club if it's an event management or something like that because there's mostly not always but mostly drugs involved or other sinful things involved and that's also a thing you have to seek for is what surrounding am I putting myself into before I use it.

in that surroundings there are spirits. I'm not talking about alcohol spirits. I'm talking about spirits and they attach to you and they will influence you. They will. If you go to a store and there's music and so on, worldly music, mad music or so, it's okay that happens sometimes because you go there buy your stuff and you go out but if you work in a club then you willingly put yourself in that environment and then those spirits have an impact on you.

to that point you said like even if you're in a store and have music of course when you're there for 15 to an hour, 50 minutes to an hour, it probably doesn't get you as much. But I used, like I said, I used to work in retail and I used to work in a sneaker store and we have hip hop music on it, of course. And it was not the quietest hip-hop music and it was pretty loud and also that if you have that 5 times a day every 8 hours that can influence you in a bad way and I mean I'm like I said I'm a testimony that because my playlist was full then with music that not supposed to be in my phone because I was so into in my job and I was listening to that oh I like the beat and I like that and first first that was oh I like this guy's voice he has an awesome voice So I want to listen to that. But just because of his voice. Well, yeah. Then sooner or later, oh, it's a beat. And now and then suddenly I was dancing to the music because it was so cool. You could say catchy. That's a good word.

how was it for you? Because I think and I assume that then the church music the worship songs

sang in church. Nope. Did they become boring for you?

became boring and less and less in my playlist. I mean of course there were some songs where I was like oh yeah still love it for whatever reason but it was not really. Yeah like you said it was boring. It was not as hyped like the hip hop music or the R&B music, or it wasn't as smooth, like the, yeah, because there were different singers that sounded a different way as a gospel singer and so yeah it was yeah like I said it was less and less got boring and yeah that was not ideal.

so we see here that there are also jobs where it's not clear from the beginning or as clear as day that this is a job you should not be. For example, we also talked about it in our preparation, professional sports. That's also a subject where you don't necessarily sin. As a soccer player it's not necessarily that you sin, that you hurt somebody on purpose. Except you're

the wrong club. True,

different. But that's not necessarily a sin but the time it will consume because games are mostly on Sundays. Especially when you go into more professional sports. It's not that they'll tell you oh yeah what you don't play on Sundays. Oh well that's OK. No problem. We still give you a million. Doesn't matter. But they will say well either you go for the club could be for the club or you're against the club and so this will also this is a subject now where just the things you don't you are not able to do in church is the thing that should keep you away from that kind of profession. And so that's what we looked at with different jobs now that you have clear perimeters, clear borders, that you have borders that are more open, where it's more also a personal thing and a time thing where you see, okay, does it draw me away from God or does it make it possible for me to draw closer to God? But a question that I had, that we asked ourselves is what if I decided wrong? What if I'm in a job now that is obviously not the will of God? Is there a possibility to get out or do I just stay there and just hope for the best?

will answer maybe something to that also, but to what you said before, that's why I think it's so important to pray about it, to make sure that you pray, God, do you want me to be here or not? And then he will also bless whatever processes you go through and applications you write and conversations you have and so on and make sure that you end up where you are supposed to end up.

1 little thing, praying for it. I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm not really that sorry. Anyway, when people start to pray, pray and be open minded. Because if you just pray and you go into prayer to seek confirmation that that God will say yes my son take this job do this and so on this is an easy prayer but be open-minded because God could say no.

mean that's why you want to pray because...

but some people pray with different intentions.

why it should be to really figure it out God is this where you want me to be and if for some reason you ended up somewhere where it's not good for you now that was the question that was brought up is there still a way out and I think the answer of course is yes.

give me the ball. Your question was, what was your question again? Say it again, please. Just say it again. If

made the wrong decision, if I find myself in a place now where it's obvious that God doesn't want me to be, what is that? So if you,

you choose the wrong, like, like say I go, I go to as a bartender.

For example. Yeah. Yeah. Well, of course you can always get out that's okay you missed we messed up there I just messed up I thought I thought the question was different sorry but yeah but of course you can always get out and find for a new job I would say but yeah Pastor wanted to say something sorry I messed up

and and you guys are right yeah when you when you made a wrong decision and so on, especially when you're in the young age, you still have some time to change your career, you still have some time to study something else, that is not a problem. But on the other hand, it is always better to have asked God before you really choose a career. Because let's think about it. If you chose the wrong thing, but what happens if you start to like the wrong thing that you've chosen? You get to like the way of living you get to the money that you can get from it and so on and so on then it will be harder for you to let it go yeah to say well I have to quit that job I have to quit that career and go for something else So of course we can do mistakes, God will help us. But if we can avoid mistakes, it's in this case, it's better.

I mean, there are also different cases. And that's what I actually wanted to answer about is if you, like I said, I went, I wasn't in Jordan, and at first it was the wrong decision, of course, for obvious reasons. But also, the Lord made something good out of the bad he brought me to a way where before I didn't really know that I was really into like to advise people to speak to people actually. Before I didn't really knew that, but I still took that decision. Probably was the wrong decision in a lot of moments, but at the end I got something out of it because of course the Lord's hand was over it and also after that I prayed about it. I was like, Lord, you see, I know I'm wrong. I have to go somewhere else. Please help me. And he helped me, brought me to another stop, what was in that time a good decision, but the Lord still closed the door after a month or 2 on that as well. And even there, I was like, did I did the wrong decision again? But no, the Lord opened this door to show me what I can do with him to open another door where I am right now and where I am glad now. So I think of course, if you go somewhere like let's say a bartending job, yeah, the Lord won't bless that. But the Lord, if the Lord will bless or show you a way, and if it's not really the end destination, he will close that door. And it's not always the wrong decision. It's just another stop to another door. So yeah, that's what I wanted to say about your question, what I thought was originally, but yeah.

mean, not every way of life is a straight line.

Yeah. That's also a good way to say it. Of course, pasta knows the way to

it. But maybe another thing to consider because we just focused on you check your own ability, education and so on and then you check with God if it's okay. But why don't we also ask our parents or ask other people in the church, our elders, because there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors and they can help us as well. And you can talk with them open-minded, of course, and they can advise you and help you also and I think that that is a good idea to do that. Of course in some jobs they may not have all the people may not know what to say if you say well I want to work as a community manager in social media, they may look at you, that could happen, or maybe they know it, I don't know. Anyway, but still it is a good thing to also counsel with other people. In church, of course, not...

church and also not with everybody in church. That's also why I never did this mistake, but I heard from other people who do that mistake, who just ask everybody in a church and mostly they already have an answer in their mind and they want to hear it from all these people. Well, they know they won't get that. Yeah, exactly. They know they won't get that answer from the pastor or from the elders. So they asked all the other brothers and sisters who are not as long in his church as the elders. And so they say, Oh brother so and so said this though, maybe God used him to tell me this. Even though, you know, you just talked to the pastor and the pastor says, no brother, you should do something else.

maybe after you've asked 20 other people and they are in the same opinion than you and you go back to the pastor and tell him what everybody else thinks the same way, maybe the pastor changes his mind.

really? That happens to me?

not serious. I'll let you understand that.

mean, I know I thought some people actually did that but no.

people may think that. Not in our church of course. I'm sure not in the churches of our listeners. It's only other churches. Because the people there are totally different.

Exactly.

not humans. Wonderful. Yeah. Is there anything else anybody wants to add?

think we covered it. Do we?

I mean, there is 1 thing which I think could be mentioned so if you want to go into a profession you should you of course also want to choose it for reasons so you want to choose something that if you have the freedom to choose something then you want to think is it something that is good for me, that suits my character? But this is something that also what Pastor said, your parents can tell you, maybe even better because they have a different side on it. And then think about it practically. That's what we said in the beginning, you know, your job is not your call for life or, you know, the thing where you want to grow up and glow up in and where you want to fulfill yourself and your dreams or whatever. It's not this big, huge thing. It's a practical thing that needs to be done that needs to be part of your life. So think about it practically. Of course, your job also has to bring you money. So don't ignore that part. And then if you do those things and also pray and the other things that we said consider that it's nothing really bad and all these things I think then you're already on a

good way. All right, good.

in summary we wanted to tell you make the right decision about it but don't worry about it too much if you went in the wrong direction there is a possibility to turn around and to get something else to do something else pray about it consider your abilities talk with others get the counsel of many and you will make a good decision so thank you because you also made a good decision listening to us So thank you so much for listening. Now we hope that we could help you a little bit on your way. We would like for you if you can please comment, give us a feedback because we would love to hear from you. Give us a like and share this episode. We would like you to share this episode. That would be great. Just share it with somebody else that they know about it. Maybe somebody who is just a young person seeking for advice, seeking for direction. Maybe that's a possibility. And hopefully you'll join us next time again on Voices of Life. Looking forward to see you again.

think we have to cut

out. I guess you got it. All right. Well, God bless you all.

you soon. Bye.