I logged on to OurPrayer.org this morning and felt almost overwhelmed by the number of people who are looking for work, faces behind the statistics.
Just in the past 10 days I’ve had people in my office, friends of friends, in the midst of difficult, demanding and sometimes very disappointing job searches. Don’t know if I helped them, but I think of them a lot.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,” wrote the sublimely thoughtful and pithy Frederick Buechner (today, July 11, happens to be his 85th birthday. Happy Birthday, Buechner!). How do you find that place when you’re suffering? How do you keep from being pulled down by despair?
To those of us who are fortunate to have jobs lies the pleasure and responsibility of offering our insights, our support and our listening ears. If someone calls you looking for a job, go ahead and talk to them. Go out for coffee. Look at their résumés. Add them to your prayer list. I’m usually thinking, “We don’t have any openings here.” But people don’t just need openings. They need to know there is a caring world out there. (Nothing could feel less caring than emailing hundreds of people and hearing back nothing.)
If you’re looking for a job, hey, we’ve all been there before. I’m quoting that Buechner passage because I found it helpful at the time to keep from being buried by discouragement. Every job search is a holy one. There is a world that needs what you have to offer. As Norman Vincent Peale used to say, “Find a need and fill it.” Or to take another line from Buechner, “Go where your best prayers take you.”
That’s something we are here to help you with. We’ve got volunteers across the country who pray for anybody who has a need. If you know someone who’s looking for work, if you’re looking for work, they want to pray for you. Log in at OurPrayer.org.
May you go where your best prayers take you.
