Why do we get so anxious when it comes to choosing a career path? You might wonder how a question about calling made it onto a list of urgent questions concerning vocation. I think, like a perfect storm, we have created conditions today that place a crazy amount of pressure on finding the “right job,” “the best fit for me,” or as we often say in Christian settings - “discerning my calling.”

What’s the universal question co-workers across the country ask every Monday morning? If it’s not some form of “what did you do this weekend?” then it’s probably related to the weather or who is going to make the coffee run! Out of habit or actual curiosity, your weekend plans were likely the source of inquiry at some point this past Monday morning. How often do you respond with something related to your Sunday morning worship attendance or some other church-related activity? It’s usually easier and less awkward to skip over that part of our weekend, even if those activities actually took up the majority of your time. Why is that?

In less than a decade, I have already left four different jobs.

I’m not an expert, nor am I especially proficient at leaving jobs; I’ve simply had to consider if or how I should leave a role more than the average person! As I went through my first few job transitions, I noticed that other Christians in the midst of career angst or at a career crossroads also found themselves ill-equipped when it came to wisely discerning a job transition.

On any given Sunday in America, “how we reckon with wealth and ambition” varies as much as our contexts do: from city to country, megachurches to small parishes, and so on. Questions of wealth and ambition are likewise varied across time and culture, as the example of church history shows. In fact, entire denominations have formed over the finer nuances of these very questions…A number of different “absolutes” are prescribed, and so Christians are left at a difficult fork in the road: whose school of thought is right?

As followers of Christ, how should we think about the big and small ethical dilemmas that come our way during the workday? Sometimes it’s a gray area and it’s just easier to go with the flow and do whatever our co-workers are doing. Are there principles to help us process what to do?