How to Find a Dream Job That Matches Your Spiritual Gifts

Well, good morning, afternoon, or evening, everybody. I’m Wanda Thibodeaux, your host, and you have opted to download or stream Faithful on the Clock, the podcast where every cookie dunked into the milk is dunked to get your faith and work aligned. In today’s episode, I’m gonna piggyback on Episode 83 about spiritual gifts and give you some guidance on how to find a work position that uses your gifts to a high degree. If you’re feeling like all your work does is pay the bills and you want more, stick with me.

Okay, listeners. To start off, what I want to do is clarify right away that just because you have been doing something successfully, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a gift. There are a lot of people who work ridiculously hard to learn facts or skills, and they’re able to do a good job, but you know, there’s just a ton of effort behind the results they get. And I actually think that happens a lot. Why? Because people tend to chase money. You know, they’re not necessarily greedy or anything like that, I mean, some are, but most people, they’re just trying to get work that’s gonna give them some financial security later in life. And they’re willing to set aside the real gifts they have if those gifts aren’t gonna easily pay the bills. They’re not looking to use the gifts God’s given them or to build their relationship with Him because they’re so scared they have to provide for themselves instead of letting Him provide. And I think another big one that happens is that people get pressured into jobs from other people. So, like, maybe your parents wanted you to be a doctor, and so you worked hard and you went to medical school and all that, but it never really felt good to you. You’re just trying to check all the boxes so your parents can live out their dreams through you or just to earn their approval. But I’ll just remind you, Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus makes it really clear that we’re not supposed to put our light under a bushel basket. We’re not supposed to hide what He’s given to us. So, the first step to finding a dream job that matches your gifts is to just consider and admit that maybe where you are doesn’t necessarily even reflect your gifts. You might be at the highest level of your business and be doing all right, but that doesn’t mean you’re tapping what God really wanted you to be. That doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge all the hard work you put in. You absolutely can feel amazing about that. I’m just saying, there’s a difference between things that come naturally and things you have to fight for, and I don’t want you to confuse the two.

Now, related to this, I’m gonna give you some advice that might be a little controversial here. And it has to do with the mantra you hear all the time that you should do what you love or that you’re passionate about. Well, I’m sorry to tell you, but you can like or be passionate about something and still suck at it. Most people don’t think that’s true, because they focus on the fact that if you enjoy something you’ll work hard at it. You know, you practice, you’ll get really good at it. But sometimes, you can be passionate and still struggle. Like, I’m a runner. And I’ve gotten decent at running. But you know, I’m only 4’8”. And with as petite as I am, I’m never gonna have the mile times that someone who is six feet tall has. We could have our legs moving at the exact same rate, and they’re still probably gonna win because they can cover more distance. So, I can run, and I can enjoy it, but even if I’m working hard, I might not come out on top. So, I recognize that it’s something I can enjoy and have improved a lot at, but it’s not necessarily one of my gifts.

So, what does that mean for you in your dream job search? It means that you have to pay more attention to things you love AND the things that come easy for you. I was telling someone just the other day how, you know, I’m a writer and a musician. And I worked hard on those things. But they kind of always have felt like home, too. And the way I described it was, it’s like breathing. Most of the time, you don’t even pay attention to your breathing. You just do it, right? And now, sometimes, do I pay attention to it? Sure. I get out of breath because I exercised or because I was singing a long phrase, then yeah, all of a sudden, I pay attention to what my body is doing a little more. But the point is, a lot of it just comes. It feels automatic. And I think a lot of us miss those kinds of things and we don’t see them as gifts specifically because they seem so easy or like they’re no big deal. And we don’t really learn to love or appreciate them because they feel so simple. I mean, especially in corporate culture, we’re told to go after challenges. So, if something is simple, we can think it’s not worth valuing or caring about. But gifts by definition mean that whatever activity you’re doing, there’s not a lot of effort to it, OK? Steve Harvey, you might know him as the host of Family Feud, but man, for a comedian, he knows a thing or two about life. And the way he defines a gift is, he says a gift is something you do at your absolute best with the least amount of effort. So, that’s the second thing, is just to start paying attention to the things that seem like a piece of cake to you.

Now, this leads to the third point I want to make. One of the biggest pieces of advice you’ll hear around finding a satisfying job is to go back and look at your previous work successes and try to find the common thread that goes through them all. Like, maybe the thing that let you do well in different circumstances was that you just knocked it out of the park in how you were communicating. And that’s decent advice. But the problem with it is that it only focuses on the successes you planned or intentionally worked for. Right? What about all of the successes you had that weren’t part of your script or agenda? What about all of those times you succeeded in your community or other areas of your life? Because, see, again, the planned things, you can call on learned skills a lot more. But the unplanned things, that’s where you’ve gotta draw on everything on the fly, and you start seeing more of the gifts you don’t necessarily apply in the office every day. So, yes, look for the common thread, but don’t just look at the successes going on in your workplace, because that might hide what you’re really good at. Look at all of the successes you’re seeing in your life, and look at what God is doing with you off script.

The fourth step in finding your dream job is to get feedback from others. Because, psychologists will tell you, we are pretty horrible at assessing ourselves accurately. We can conflate our strengths and ignore our weaknesses and all of that, or we can just completely have blind spots to strengths and weaknesses, either one. So, we need others who can be good mirrors for us and be honest about what they see us doing well. And this ties back to the idea of gifts seeming natural I just talked about. You might dismiss your gifts because they seem simple to you, but if everyone else around you consistently points out that something you’re doing is amazing, well, that should clue you in, right? The kink in the wire, though, is that people also can be really good at wearing masks. You know, they can wear masks and hide who they really are. You would not be the first person who is good at something but is too embarrassed to let the gift be out in the open. Like, me, it’s been really hard to tell people I’m a writer, because the reaction I get is negative so much of the time. So, it’s taken me a long time to learn to be honest about what I do and to be really proud of what I’ve managed to accomplish with God behind me. But if you are used to hiding yourself, and if all you do all day is let people see you doing the skills they think are acceptable, well, they might not have enough information to give you an accurate assessment. So, I’d encourage you to ask others what they see you doing well both in and out of work, but get really honest with yourself, too. Admit what you’ve been doing but not really enjoying or having an easy time with, and really identify those parts of you that need to be free.

So, let’s assume at this point you know what your gifts are. You’re in touch with that. When you go to review job listings, you wanna look at all of the responsibilities that are listed for that job and make sure that there is a way for you to apply your gifts to those responsibilities. I mean, it’s OK if some of the responsibilities are a little off-target. No job is 100 percent perfect, right? But the idea is that you don’t apply for a job unless you know that the majority of it is gonna connect with what God gave to you. So, your gifts should be central to the position, rather than on the periphery. And when you go to submit a resume, make sure that everything on the resume shows that common thread, even as you’re connecting it to different tasks you were responsible for. Same thing during the interview. Keep circling back to your gift in how you answer the interviewer’s questions, and make it clear how having that gift is going to allow you to thrive in everything the company is asking you to do within that job. Because they need to know you fit their needs across the company, but they also need to know that you understand who you are at your core and that it’s not gonna be an accident when you fill their needs from a specific approach.

The fifth step is to consider the media or mode of expressing the gifts you have. So, for example. Let’s use communication again. Let’s say that’s your gift. Well, you use communication skills in writing. So, you might do well as a writer. But you also use communication skills in visual advertising. Same thing with videos or podcasting. So, ask yourself what mode feels best to you. That’s gonna narrow down the jobs that make sense for you to apply for. Like, I do think one of my gifts is communication. But I’m far more comfortable doing a podcast or writing than I ever would be getting up in front of people doing public speaking. So, this is where you’re kind of fine-tuning things a little bit and really trying to get specific about which type of job within your gifts would make you the most comfortable. Now, I do recommend that if there’s a mode of expression within your gifts that you haven’t tried, just give it a shot, OK? Just explore a little bit before you rule anything out. Job shadowing is a great way to do that. Because sometimes, what happens is that we make assumptions about how things will go or how we’ll feel, and then when we actually have the experience, it’s totally not what we expected. So, if you give yourself that chance to at least try different modes, you’ll be able to get a little more verification of which mode you’re most well suited for.

Lastly, and I do mean put it absolutely last, take a look at the pay for the jobs that make sense. If the job that’s the best fit is also the one that pays the best, fantastic. It might be that God has put a great-paying position right in front of you because He wants to bless you through a specific role. But if the job that’s the best fit is not the one that pays the best, I just want you to pause and consider that there might be other non-financial blessings that come through that job. I want you to pause and ask yourself what value it has to be able to be closer to who God made you to be. I want you to pause and ask yourself how willing you are to live a life that’s a little bit simpler where you’ve got to lean on Him a little bit more. I’m not saying don’t do the math on your rent or groceries or any of that. I don’t want any of you out there going out and saying I’m teaching everybody to be irresponsible. That’s not what I’m about, OK? I’m just saying that there are a lot of ways to define success, and how much money you make is just one way, OK? And if you really trust God, making a little less shouldn’t scare you too much.

So, if I had to sum all this up, it’s all really about finding out what you’ve been succeeding at without really even trying and then basing the way you job search, build your resume, and interview around what’s been present in the majority of those successes. You accept that that’s the core of how God built you and you get intentional about showing companies why it’s logical for them to use that core to meet the needs they have. That’s not always easy, because it means you have to pay attention to what you might have overlooked. It means you can’t hide yourself and that you can’t just chase and practice the skills that are trending or in the highest demand. You have to bump up your trust in God and appreciate the design He gave you a little more.

So, with a lot of hope that you’ll be able to do that, let’s pray.

God, as we think about applying our gifts today, I think one of the saddest things is that we so often try to force ourselves into positions we weren’t really made for, just because we don’t feel like You’re really going to give us the security we need. And my biggest prayer is that you’ll help us to go after not what society is demanding we do, you know, not what’s trendy or getting paid the highest, but what’s as easy for us as breathing. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Well, I’m outta words, people. You’ve gotta wait two weeks for a bunch more. But when you join me for the next episode, we’ll be talking about decision-making. You’ll learn the key elements of making choices from a Biblical standpoint and how to implement those elements in your daily work tasks. In the meantime, I’d love to have you as a supporting member of the show. If Faithful on the Clock has added value to your life, go to faithfulontheclock.captivate.fm/support to sign up as a member. You also can sign up at patreon.com/faithfulontheclock. Until next time, everybody, be blessed.