I’ve been thinking about work since I was a child.
As a very young girl, I liked to help my parents work, joining them hip to hip as they cooked lunch or repaired the car. As I grew older, I didn’t like “actual” work — like picking up sticks in the yard or cleaning my room — instead, I played at work I felt was more significant. In those play times, I was a teacher or a meteorologist or a poet.
As I grew older, my goal for my life’s work became focused and narrow: I would be a journalist. And so all my effort and education were toward that end. When I became a journalist, however, I felt unfulfilled. And so all my effort and education were toward a new end: finding meaningful work.
I have had jobs I’ve loved, and I have had jobs I’ve hated. I have been so sick that I couldn’t work and I missed it. I have been so sick of my work that I couldn’t live with it, so I quit. I have had three jobs at once, and occasionally I have had no job. I nearly went crazy.
Along the way, I have found that it’s difficult to determine which jobs I am “called” to. But a call to work, that’s simple. Whether I am 5-years-old standing on a chair next to my mother in the kitchen, or whether I am 40 and combining numbers into reports in a way that is meaningful, I was made to work.
In the last few years, I have been part of an online community that has this same vision of the role of work in our lives. At theHighCalling.org, I have found a group of people who understand that God made work for people so they could be like Him. The Fall of man made work hard, but work itself was part of the perfect world of the garden.
Recently, I have written for theHighCalling.org, participated in their book clubs and community writing projects, and gotten more involved with other writers there by highlighting them on Thursdays in my There and Back Again series.
Now, they have asked me to be part of their team in a more official way. Starting this week, I am serving as a Content Editor for theHighCalling.org. For me, this primarily means helping with some of their editorial duties: reviewing and prepping articles for publication.
For you, though, this means a more direct link with dozens of the best Christian writers in the country, telling stories and wrestling with ideas that affect us all everyday in our work at home, on the job, in our faith, and as part of the larger culture.
I’m looking forward to sharing this experience with you!
Thanks for the kind words about The High Calling. I so appreciate the ways you’ve promoted THC by your enthusiastic involvement. You’ve been and will continue to be a huge blessing to all of us, and I am thrilled you’re joining our team. 🙂
I love your work, your heart and your passion. And I’m so glad you are on our team
We are SO glad it worked out for you to be on the THC.org team! Our lives overlap in yet another significant way. What a delight!
Megan is right. You are a great fit. Even before you had an official title with The High Calling, you’ve long been a part of the family.
So glad it’s “official” now. 🙂
Duane – Thanks, and you are right. The High Calling team is an amazing group of people. I am definitely “marrying up”, so to speak!
LL — You are right about that . . . we are made to work AND rest. Finding a rhythm for both is work in itself. We MUST though, really.
Thanks, Nancy!
The Soap Sister – Oh no, you are definitely not the only family that had picking up sticks as a dreaded chore. Now that I live near lots of mature trees, I wish I had children to help with the job!
Megan – It will be great to meet in person!
Congratulations! What an honor… 🙂
I loved this. I was made for work too. My challenge has always been figuring out how to rest (which I believe I was also made for 🙂
Again, congratulations!
First, Congratulations Charity! I’m very happy for you -love your blog. Second -you gave me a chuckle when you mentioned “picking up sticks” -If we (myself or my sisters) DARED to say we were “bored”….well, we had to get out the coaster wagon and pick up sticks! I didn’t realize that was a common job -thought only my mom was so “mean” LOL!
Woo hoo! That’s great news, Charity! Frankly, I’m shocked you weren’t already part of the team because you’re such a natural fit.
See you at Laity!