Inside help
“Who’s your rabbi?” It’s a question often asked in the TV business, theater, and Hollywood.
Although “rabbi” is loosely used there, for someone looking for a job, it really means: Whom do you know on the inside, and are they willing to look at your audition tape, listen to you sing, or watch you act? Who will stick his or her own neck out for you when the corporate doors are otherwise closed?
Many businesses are so competitive that it’s a given that you aren’t going to get hired unless you have inside help. Without it, getting hired is daunting. You may be brilliantly qualified and experienced, but the operating assumption in today’s job market is that you must have special channels to land the job.
Surely the greatest of “rabbis,” Christ Jesus, understood the dilemma, and taught: “[W]hen you pray, go into your own room, shut your door and pray to your Father privately. Your Father who sees all private things will reward you” (Matthew 6:6, J.B. Phillips, New Testament in Modern English).
Most of us can spend only so long peddling résumés, surfing social networking sites, and pounding the streets, with scant results; whereas, a humble acknowledgment of the need for help from God, our Father, quickly elevates thought beyond the limits of human wisdom.
Jesus’ counsel urging us to pray is actually a shortcut in job searches. It involves self-surrender, trusting God, the one infinite divine Mind, to pilot us through the reefs and shoals of an otherwise intimidating job market.
It’s always God who is directing us in the fulfillment of His divine plan.
As God provided a “table in the wilderness” (Psalms 78:19) for the homeless Hebrews, so the same divine Love leads us to the good that God has in store for us. If the human track to a job would seem to require the help of a corporate insider, and if that’s God’s direction for us, He will lead us to those who can best act on our behalf. But it’s essential to remember that while the search for the right job may appear to be a human endeavor, it’s always God who is directing us in the fulfillment of His divine plan.
Ultimately, our need is not really for a “rabbi,” or even a job. Rather, it’s to learn to open our thought to God’s great reservoir of good. It’s about discovering how much God really loves us; that He has a place and purpose for each of us; and that He assuredly leads us to the place He has prepared. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, put it this way: “Now this self-same God is our helper. He pities us. He has mercy upon us, and guides every event of our careers” (“Unity of Good,” pp. 3-4).
In our growth Spiritward, it’s settling to understand that our careers run on God’s timetable, not our own. Having an arbitrary schedule that says I must be here by the time I’m 30, or there on the corporate ladder by the time I’m 50, can make fools of us. As the old saying goes, If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. He doesn’t require instruction from us on how to order the universe.
Our lives, our careers, and our callings never hinge on finding another human being to open doors for us. They are about discovering that it’s what we learn daily about God that unlocks the blessings we yearn for – or, better, blessings unforeseen.
From the Christian Science Sentinel.
