Navigating the transitions of life and career
I vividly remember hearing of a missionary in his late 20s arriving at his new post and announcing to all assembled that he was there for the rest of his life and career. A noble intention, no doubt; but naive.
Alas, he has no doubt come to learn—and the sooner we learn it the better—life and work in the contemporary world is full of multiple transitions. Few if any will join a company in one role, or be assigned as a missionary to one spot and 40 or 45 years later receive the gold watch and the announcement of retirement.
Life is more complex; changes, indeed multiple changes, are part of life and work.
Sometimes these changes come due to our very success. If we are effective in our work, we likely will be promoted. An effective administrator may find the very developments she has implemented call now for another to take them from there. A person pastoring a church finds the church has grown and now needs pastoral leadership of a different kind.
But sometimes, the reasons for change are not so satisfying. The economy or the politics of the workplace can force us on—and we are out of a job, either because of these factors or because we were in a role where, quite simply, we were not effective.
And sometimes, change comes as the fruit of an inner restlessness that in time we conclude is a calling from God to a new venture or challenge. We respond to an opportunity that presents itself.
Essential life skill
Whatever the circumstances, the capacity to navigate well the transitions of work and career is an essential life skill. And what we find is that each transition is another opportunity to gain self-knowledge—to embrace the change as one in which we learn about ourselves: our strengths, our limitations and, perhaps, what it is that really matters to us.
When the transition is less than pleasant—we have been forced out of a job, perhaps—it is crucial that we move on with grace. The danger here is that we would remain perpetually disheartened, feeling like victims and continually blaming our circumstances on some administrator’s failure to appreciate our ability or potential. We are locked in the past allowing someone else to poison our future.
Finally, a transition is also an opportunity for renewed dependence on God—a radical reaffirmation that God is our provider and that in our work we will not be driven by a misguided desire for wealth, power or recognition. We embrace the time of change as a deepening of our faith—our trust in the providential care of God.
In all of this it is vital we remember that God only guides us through life one step at a time. When we face transitions, we are often stymied by our eager desire to know what this next step will mean way down the road, multiple years hence: where it will lead, and what it will mean if we do this or the other.
But part of learning to trust God is that we embrace this chapter, this step forward, confident of God’s provision and direction for the future.
Gordon T. Smith is the president of Overseas Council Canada.
