Why you are always qualified
Today’s contributor shares how she was freed from a crippling sense of inadequacy and hopelessness during job transitions when she realized her real job was simply to express God.
I’m grateful for opportunities I’ve had throughout my career to learn and grow as an individual, discover new talents, and apply new skills. But when I would transition from one job to another, I often felt overwhelmed and unqualified for anything. This was particularly true when it came to putting together my résumé.
To say I dreaded this task is an understatement! Trying to categorize my eclectic work experience in a traditional résumé format made me feel I wasn’t qualified to do anything specific. I also compared myself with others who seemed to have followed a more traditional career path. Furthermore, the more I’d work on my résumé, the less it seemed to accurately reflect me. The whole process sent me into a dark mental place that left me feeling inadequate, worthless, and hopeless.
This came to a head when I applied for a particular job that had an extremely competitive application process. It was at this point that Christian Science and what it teaches about God and our relation to Him lifted me out of this dark place and helped me realize that all of us are uniquely and fully qualified by God for right employment.
During that time, I was reminded of this comforting Bible passage: “The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the Lord, and He delights in his way [and blesses his path]” (Psalms 37:23, Amplified Bible). God, divine Love, wants only success and joy for His children, since He created us to glorify Him. Because we are God’s spiritual creation, made in His image and likeness, our main purpose for being is to express the fullness, richness, love, and goodness of God. So we really all have full-time employment each and every day, which is to express more of these qualities in a way that shows others how God loves all.
The passage from Psalms also reminded me that God doesn’t leave us alone to figure out how to fulfill our purpose. Because He created us as the expression of His entireness, God has qualified us with the capacity to glorify Him fully, whether at a job, in school, or by helping others in some way. I’ve found that understanding our relation to God and striving to express Him in all we do breaks limitations to health, employment, supply, peace, and joy.
Christ Jesus’ life and work was the consummate example of this. The Christ, the nature and essence of God he expressed, enabled him to glorify God in everything he did, including healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching the gospel, and feeding crowds of people. He said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
I also appreciated something Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science and founder of this newspaper, writes in her book “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896”: “God is responsible for the mission of those whom He has anointed. Those who know no will but His take His hand, and from the night He leads to light” (p. 347).
This reaffirmed my trust in God’s care for me. As His beloved children, we are all His “anointed.” I realized that glorifying God isn’t only my true purpose, but everyone’s. This helped me overcome an unhelpful sense of comparison and competition.
As I considered these ideas, the focus of my job search shifted to how I could best glorify God. I made a list of all the spiritual qualities inherent in me as God’s child – for instance, intelligence, discernment, love, joy, graciousness, poise, creativity, and wisdom. More than just being a rote exercise, this brought me a totally different perspective of myself and others, which in turn helped me feel more valued and valuable.
With this fresh inspiration I was able to create a professional yet nontraditional résumé that for the first time accurately represented not just my work experience, but me. These ideas also helped inspire me through the hard work and patience required for that particular job search, which was ultimately successful. Above all, I have remained free from that crippling sense of insecurity as I have gone through other changes in position and career.
Everyone is divinely qualified to glorify God, in unique ways. And each of us can affirm and appreciate this for ourselves and others, whatever our path may be.