Your True Job Security

The trend in careers has been changing. After my dad found what he liked to do, he basically had two different careers in his entire lifetime. Not so today; I've now heard that people might expect anywhere from two to five career changes during their working experience. That a job change can and even should take place as often as once every 18 to 24 months.

The feeling seems to be that job security no longer rests with the employer, but with the employee and his or her knowledge. People are being told that they aren't marketing their careers but rather themselves. And as a result, if any employer can offer them more money and better benefits than another, they might be inclined to job hop. The message seems to be that the only loyalty is the loyalty to oneself, not to a company or to other individuals.

Yet this kind of approach might also leave some people feeling a little uneasy. They might worry about job security in this kind of environment. They might wonder if getting to the top of the ladder is really satisfying and beneficial to all involved.

If you were to ask me how to proceed, I'd say the answer lies, not in gaining the most profitable job you can find, but in gaining a clearer concept of what true job security is. Where it comes from. How it relates to what's beneficial to us and to those with whom we work. I'd say we have to understand something else first: our true identity, which is our spiritual identity. That is, we have to know the way we each express God.

Why? Because when we understand that we are each an expression of God, we come to see that each one of us is necessary to God. And because of this, everyone has a place with God.

Each one of God's children - and that's you and me - reflects qualities from Him that are needed in daily work. God is good, and these qualities are good: intelligence, compassion, patience, cooperation, and many others.

This means that there's no need to try to outdo someone else, or to keep another person from getting something that we want. We don't need to, because God has already perfectly provided for us. He has provided our place, our talents, our usefulness, our income. These good things are spiritual because they come from God, who is Spirit. They are permanent because they are God-given, and God is forever.

All that is rightfully yours is God-given. And what is not rightfully yours - what He doesn't give - you can't have. Nor could you want it. Understanding this eliminates feelings of competition and shows God's unerring direction and care for you. We have all that we need abundantly because we reflect those qualities of God. I've found that it's this understanding that gives us our most safe sense of job security.

Apprehending your relationship with God, the Principle of your existence, you'll find proof that this relationship is inseparable. Any fear or concern about your present or your future security can end by your seeing - spiritually - that you are always employed and guided by God.

The Monitor's founder explained a great deal about this relationship with God in "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures" (the textbook of Christian Science, written by Mary Baker Eddy). One paragraph says, "The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history" (Pgs. 470-471). You are right now held in perfection by God. That is why your job security isn't dependent upon other people.

We may find we are indeed changing careers very often. Or that we stay with the same company for years and years. Either way, we can be calm in the spiritual understanding that true security is always found in God.

He hath shewed thee, O man,

what is good; and what doth

the Lord require of thee,

but to do justly, and to love

mercy, and to walk humbly

with thy God?

Micah 6:8