Capitalism, Man-Eating Snakes, and Doing What You Love.

Having just returned home from a 5 day experience with one of the more dysfunctional boss’ anyone could ever not ask for, this marks the end of my short stint with one of the more dysfunctional companies anyone could not ask to work for. Some of my preceding thoughts come from my natural progression into the professional world; yet, most of them come out of a semi-traumatic work experience, and may be prone to dramatic translation. In either case, here are a few random thoughts I’ve had during this recent seemingly long and rather taxing road of employment.

1.Leave Emotional Expectation at the Door.

I’ve found myself job after job completely out of sync with my boss and not enjoying anything I put my hands to. In my investigation of why, I made some significant discoveries. I recently found myself stuck in another situation where my boss was looking to me for production, my co-workers- for assistance, and there I was still trying to get my childhood needs of approval and friendship met. I know it sounds silly and one in my position probably should just be slapped and told “Welcome to the real world, now grow up.” But I’m not convinced that I’m alone in my problem. Here’s my issue: I spent the first five years of my professional life, not only using my jobs to primarily develop as an individual, but also working either in the Christian church or directly for friends. Both dynamics were huge gifts, but possessed a whiplash that has my neck aching today. Ministry in the church and Friendship both demand emotional involvement, healing, and progression, which means I’ve been bred to bring emotional expectation in to the workplace. Luckily enough, I recently found myself in a steel cage called “employment” with a man-eating snake called “my boss,” where my feelings and emotional needs were the last thing considered. Needless to say, it inspired me to investigate and discover that the professional world is not the place to look for, expect, or attempt to get emotional needs met or healed. Now, it’s simply a journey of learning how to establish boundaries and change my expectations in my professional life.

2.Capitalism: A Double Sided Coin.

I don't know if you have ever given thought to the system of government we're under (if not, you might as well stop now b/c this next point is going to bore you), but the integrity of capitalism has haunted and kept me wrestling for years. Ultimately concluding my love for living in a capitalistic society, in the workplace I still find myself disgusted with some of the wrong that it enables. The same system that affords the individual the liberty to make their own choices (a biblical reality), also presents the value of monetary wealth superior to the value of the individual-which entitles those with money to treat people like dirt. My last job was my first experience as the dirt, and only accelerated my questions and solidified my unrest with the system. For the longest time, I couldn’t reconcile it, but here’s my conclusion as of now::: A perfect society would be full of perfect people who make perfect choices. I've far too often yelled at the system for being flawed, but when you give liberty to imperfect people, you give liberty to bad choices, immorality, and corruption. I’ve tasted the fruit of both the good choices capitalism empowers, as well as, the bad choices it enables...and concluded that in the context of governing the free human race: it is the lesser of evils.

3.Say Goodbye to Unhealthy People.

Life is too short and our hearts are too valuable to continually subject ourselves to unreasonably unhealthy people. Above all else, you are not just an employee, you are a human-created with value, power, and liberty-and the choice to subject or not to subject yourself to unhealthy people is yours.

4.Do What You Love.

Have I mentioned how much I love my wife? She has recently joined and inspired me on this journey in discovering what I/we love and how we can and want to be wonderful to the world around us. Do you know what you love, and is it truly valuable? In my experience with the wealthy, most in our American society have been far too dominated by monetary gain, stability, and success to ever even ask themselves what they actually love, or to consider if what they love is valuable. Unfortunately, those who don’t take the time to investigate usually just fall in love with busyness or money itself, attach their heart to invaluable things, and tragically wind up disappointed and miserable at some point in this life or at the start of the next one. Analee and I have committed to investigate. We've made the first year of our marriage all about offending our societal fears and developing all the courage we can---to learn, articulate, and in the end, do what we love. God not only designed us to bring something wonderful to the world; he designed us to love doing it. If your doing something you don’t enjoy, chances are you weren’t designed to do it. It’s guaranteed to require all the courage you can muster and come with a level of sacrifice...but...you have the CHOICE to do what you love. If it’s business, music, public relations, writing, leading, hospitality, painting, pastoring, speaking, farming…etc that you love, there is nothing besides your fear stopping you from doing it. If you don’t believe me, take a season to press into God’s heart and you’ll find a Father waiting to give his children what they were made to want.

Your Turn. Teach me. Comment, Facebook, or Twitter me with advice or things you’ve learned in the workplace.