Before I was in ministry, I worked in Northern Thailand working on human trafficking cases. We did everything from undercover investigations to prosecuting cases to helping children reintegrate in schools and providing vocational opportunities for their families. It was the kind of job that drew a strong reaction when I talked about it, that made my fellow 20-somethings say “wow.”

It was the kind of job that felt important, that I put my heart into, that introduced me to incredible people, and which, frankly, I got a lot of self-esteem from. But, for all of its perceived drama, the day-to-day of the job was just a job, and an entry-level one. I was reading an article the other day that said we can evaluate whether a job is really a good fit for us not by our imagination of what the job is like in the abstract, but the reality of what that job is at 3pm on a Tuesday. 

The Tuesday 3pms of my anti-trafficking job were mainly transcribing interviews, compiling case files, and filling out documentation. Despite all of my love for the job in the abstract, in the day-to-day, in those 3pms, it wasn’t a job I actually enjoyed doing, or was even particularly good at. It was my first full-time job, so I assumed that was just what having a job was like, and that, by the time I moved back to the United States, I had probably already had about the best job I could hope for. 

After my brief stint in anti-trafficking, I became a youth pastor, which was on the opposite end of the spectrum as far as how much admiration you can get for a job. It felt like a step back (and it looked like one to my college friends and peers), but I felt the call, so I followed it. The abstract of being a youth pastor didn’t really appeal to me, but the Tuesday 3pms of being a youth pastor? It turns out, I loved them. 

I loved my co-workers, loved the high school kids who I would go meet for ice cream after school. I loved planning events and writing talks. I loved brainstorming up the funniest way to get kids to learn scripture, and playtesting just how far away someone should stand if we’re trying to get them spit a marshmallow at a target, so that its hard enough to be fun, but not too hard. 

It turns out you really can love your work, and not by picking a job that is “cool” but by picking work that you’d want to do at 3pm on a Tuesday. Ministry has the potential to be that kind of job, given how multifaceted it is, and so do innovation projects, like the ones so many of our clients launch. 

But it takes some unpacking, some careful thinking: this thing you feel called to, do you feel called to the idea of it, or to the Tuesday 3pms of it? Do you feel called by the idea of starting a community garden, or do you feel called to the reality of it – the weeding, the volunteer recruitment, the irrigation system maintenance, the grantwriting? Because there is work you are called to, that you love and it can be inside ministry, but it may be more easily identified by its Tuesday afternoon than by its cocktail-party appeal. 

Take some time this week, and wonder:

• What is it in my work that I really enjoy doing?
  • Where do I lose track of time?
  • What do I look forward to each week?
• What activities, roles, and projects allow me to do that work?
  • Is it something that I get to do in my job, or is it something I find only in my spare time or hobbies? 
  • Is there a way I can do that kind of work as part of my job?
• What holds me back from doing that kind of work more? 
• What would it look like to more align my call with that kind of activity?

If there’s something that you’d like to be spending your Tuesday 3pms doing that you haven’t started yet, reach out and we’ll help you think through getting started.