Job Hunting

July 2, 2008

(disclaimer: Adam and I are working for an Episcopal church plant this summer and part of our responsibility is to prepare and send out their weekly email newsletter, which always includes a reflection. As we do our best to be an egalitarian family, we take turns writing it and this week was my first turn. Since I am becoming notoriously poor at posting I thought I would put it up here as well. The disclaimer part is only that it is written in a different style than I might write were it solely for the blog, but nevertheless it is true and accurate – though it doesn’t mention that we’re skipping town tomorrow to spend the rest of the week in Mexico!)

Since we got back from San Jose on Saturday, Adam and I have spent the majority of our days job hunting, or looking for jobs for which to hunt. As it is only Tuesday, this isn’t that many days, and yet I am exhausted by it all. I have always been fortunate to have jobs fall into my lap, so having to go out and canvas neighborhoods for good places to work, and then having to ask if their hiring and handout endless resumes, is new for me. In some ways I believe my parents might call it character building. There is certainly humility involved as you continually hear again and again that people are not hiring, no matter how amazing you may or may not be. On the other hand, it is a little bit demoralizing to be willing to work and not be able to find the right place.

In seminary we talked a lot about our sense of call – where it was/is that we feel called to be, where we think our gifts and talents might best serve the world and where we also might find joy and energy. Another way of talking about call would be vocation. As someone anticipating another academic program this fall and looking for part-time work to make ends meet, vocation and call aren’t high on my list of priorities; but, there is a certain sense in which I do want to work someplace where I can contribute, and I definitely would prefer to work somewhere live-giving rather than life-draining. Yet, it is the first of July and places have already hired for the summer, so the options are slimmer than they might be at other times of the year, which leaves me both overwhelmed by the process and trying to remind myself that call involves not only what we desire but also what God desires.

In the Presbyterian Church, in order to be ordained into the pastoral ministry, one must both have an interior sense of call as well as have that call confirmed by their home church and the church to which they have been called to serve. While this dual confirmation results in a lengthy ordination process with multiple parties having to sign off on every step, I do think there is something theologically correct about it. As I search for a part-time job, I wonder if I need to learn to focus less on what I would really like and listen more for where God is calling me to be (part-time) in the months to come.

Posted in jobs, life by Sarah