Don Dudley

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

Day five simply asks me to read Chapter 3 and asks two questions:

1. Are you comfortable seeing work as simply one tool for a successful life?

2. Are you making deposities of success in other important life areas?

Honestly, neither of these questions are new to me. I have always understood that the job does not make the man (see question 1). I know many guys who do many different jobs and who are successful.  By no means do I judge their success by what they do or do not do to earn a living (along as it isn’t something sinful or illegal). I think Dan Miller (the author) would agree with me here.

One thing I am having trouble understanding is the notion that our jobs and vocations have to be something we are awesome at. I may be misunderstanding Mr. miller here, but it seems to me he only wants us to look at the perfect job which perfectly utilizes our God-given skills. I take argument with this because I believe we are to give thanks to God for the grace of having employment.

My line of work is not one I am the most gifted in, or even something I really desire to do. I know many who know more and who are better at my job than I am. As a network technician, I am not really a huge fan of fixing other people’s computer problems. I am more of an implementer. I would rather design the network and set it up than constantly have to repair it.   However, I know that I should do my job well and to the glory of God.  The fact I have such a well paying job which is close to home is because of His grace. While I am not doing what I want to be doing, or even feel I am gifted to be doing, I know God has me where I am for His purposes.

Trust me, I have dreams of being a pastor, planting a church, and writing a book. I pray about these desires almost daily and ask God to make His will for my vocation clearer. The last thing I want to do is pursue one of these things without it being within His perfect will for my life.  I think Mr. Miller and I agree this would be a bad thing. I just do not understand how this (being cautionary in pursuing a vocation) is supposed to mix with just going out and doing what I am called to do. I think I missed the line somewhere. Maybe we get more into this later in the book, or maybe I have completely missed the point. If anyone else has read the book, please, let me know if I have.

I guess my prayer is that I do my job well and it somehow glorifies God, regardless of what I do.

-Don-

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

Today’s assignment is to complete the answers at the end of chapter 2 in the book. The chapter itself is about accepting change and being able to use change to our advantage.
Here are the questions and my answers:

1. Respond to the statement, “All progress requires change, but not all change is progress.”
Some change is good and necessary in order for a company or individual to grow and do well. In some cases, change is not well thought or planned out. Lack of planning can create unneeded stress and regrets.

2. What statement describes your career path so far?
“Same career, different company, more pay (by God’s grace!).” I’ve been working in computers and networking for many years now…

3. How has a company change affected you? How did it make you feel?
Two quick examples: While working for Gateway, I was offered a role in the tech department. This prevented me from being laid off of work, and started me on my current track of being able to be employed as a network technician. At the time I was very excited to be doing something besides sales.

4. Have you experienced any “failure” in your career? If so, what did it lead to?
I cannot think of any big failures. Nothing that lead to an all-out career or life change. I have had many small failures which lead to differences in how I interact with co-workers, etc.

5. What were your childhood goals and ambitions for life? Which ones have you been able to fulfill?
When I was in Jr. high I thought for sure I would be a professional baseball player. I was pretty good at the sport but didn’t capitalize on it in high school (thanks mostly to bad grades my sophomore year). Part of me has always wanted to start a business. I have had ideas since I was younger but have never had the guts to go forward with any plan. I think I might spend too much time calculating risks instead of taking them.
So far, neither. I’m a tad old to be a professional ball player, and I just explained my business sense.

6. Who are 2 or 3 people you know who seem to have accomplished their dreams? What do you remember about their accomplishments?
One person is my friend, Mike. He wanted to be a teacher since the start of college and has done so. I know it took him a long time to finish his degree, but once he did, he found a job in Florida and seems to really enjoy his work. This reminds me, I need to give him a call or drop him a line…
Another person is the pastor of our church. I don’t know if I would say he “accomplished” his dream, but I would say he is on the track to do so. Our church is less than four years old so it is too early to know if its mission of spreading the Gospel in our area and creating mature disciples has been “successful.”
With both of these guys there has been hard work involved. While some things come together quickly and easily, both had to put in many hours of work to see results. Both had to take risks and pray a lot.
What makes me wonder is, why do I not know a lot of people who have accomplished their dreams. I think part of it is my relative age. I am 30 and most of my friends are around the same. I am kind of discouraged that I do not know a lot of older people, much less those who have accomplished their dreams. Most worked at a good company and retired. They did not like their jobs and felt they fell short of their callings.

7. What do you imagine your retirement will be like?
I hope retirement involves having enough money to be free to do what God has called me to do. I might become a late-life missionary or author. I want to work until they day they put me in the ground.

Over the next 48 days, I am reading Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal. The book contains a checklist of activities to do over those days in order to discover more about who God made you to be. This post is about how I complete the items on the checklist. For more information, check out the other articles here.

Today was an easy assignment. The checklist merely tells us to look over itself, read the introduction, and sign the last page of it. Before I get too much into it, here is a picture I took of my autograph:

As I promised, I would eliminate some of the “fluff” from the book. The introduction basically tells us the author’s (Miller’s) story of his life growing up on a farm looking for something more out of life than milking cows. He explains to the reader that work is part of the curse brought on us by Adam’s fall (I disagree with this and will explain more in a second). At the end he tells us how God has used 40 days many times in the Scriptures and therefore he believes it is spiritually significant. This is why he gave the reader 48 days to complete the checklist. There are 40 activities and eight days left in as breaks. While I believe that 40 days was spiritually significant, I do not believe it is some sort of magic bullet given to us in the Bible. This is to say, I do not believe just because we spend 40 days on something that it is somehow holier.

The “curse” of work

I want it to be clear to everyone who reads this site. Work is not the curse.  The curse is how we will toil and sweat when we work. The curse is the ground (or, our tasks) working against us.  Work is a gift from God to us. It is good to work and even Adam was given a task or a job in the garden. He was to name the animals. He also had to pick the fruit from the trees he was to eat of, which is work.  While I know this may sound like a nit-pick, I just want it to be clear. If we believe work is our curse, we are selling ourselves short. Work is necessary and will always exist.

All that said. I did try and think about the checklist and what it would look like to complete some of the activities on it. Should be interesting, and in many cases, fun.

-Don-