The other day when I was in my office, I overheard a conservation from two passing-by colleagues.
One asked, “Haven’t seen you for a while! Are you still there?”
“Not anymore, I changed my job a few weeks ago”. The other responded.

This simple conversation reminds me of a very common phenomenon of job switching. In fact, a recent statistics from Department of Labor indicates that average job changing is as frequent as 4 ½ years. The average length of time is even shorter for young adults – they are on an average of 2 ½ years. If we ponder upon reasons behind the job changing, we could come to two categories. One is due to personal aspiration or ambition and the other is due to involuntary actions. I think most of us would prefer the first category over the second one. And we wouldn’t like to leave our post when we are forced. Oftentimes, an involuntary action equates to losing one’s employment – a victim of company’s resource action. Under such a condition, become “unemployed” is certainly not an enjoyable thing to have. Because not only the feel of betrayal and abandonment by your company, but you may face tremendous pressure and disruptions to life and family too – the stress level created by such situation can be very high. 🙁

If we think of God’s kingdom, a logical question is “Are we employed or unemployed?” This is not mean whether you are a paid staff / pastor or not; rather, it is a question whether you are employed by God to preach His Gospel and to love His people by serving in His church? The crux of the question is “Do you feel the same way as losing secular employment when you are NOT employed by God?” Bible told us that we are called to serve in His kingdom and we are entrusted by our Lord the Great Commission. Therefore, there should be NO sentiment of betrayal and abandonment if you don’t serve because it is by your choice instead of a forced action!

Then, you may argue that “I don’t have any spiritual gift and therefore, I don’t know how to serve”. Well, it might be what you thought, but I would like to point out that it is more important to have a willful heart than arguing whether you have the spiritual gift or not. Because, without a willful heart to serve, you are still unemployed regardless of possessing spiritual gifts or not. In the epistle of 2 Corinthians, apostle Paul challenged the church of Corinth to do good work in helping others in need, he said, “For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have 因為人若有願做的心，必蒙悅納，乃是照他所有的，並不是照他所無的。(2 Corinthians 8:12)”The truth is even though the Corinthian Church was equipped with many spiritual gifts and graces, they failed to help brothers and sisters because of their unwillingness.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, are you employing by God now? Hope your answer is “yes” and your serving is joyous. When the day you are face to face with our Lord, I pray that you will receive a praise from our Lord, “You good and faithful servant”!