More advice for iMonk

Sorry for the interruption. Don't take a job situated on the edge of a political knife; own the part of the displacement you have made for yourself. Right? I said that already.

Advice #3 is this: make sure you understand why you are working in the first place. You know something? I work for the paycheck. No offense to anybody, but if this was the 23rd century and we lived in the United Federation of Planets were replicators made everything we needed, I promise you I wouldn't be working in manufacturing. Not because Manufacturing is bad in some way, but because I'd rather read and blog. Sadly, blogging isn't the cash cow some people make it out to be, but in my non-blogging time I'm a pretty good leader and job coach -- and there's decent money in that.

I work for the money, and I hope for heaven's sake you do, too. If you work for the status, the "satisfaction", the "challenge", or any other non-money reason, I think the odds of you sleeping well at night are pretty low -- because those things are fleeting.

"Cent," you might say, "money is fleeting, too, don't you think?" Indeed, moth and rust and thieves and all that -- but the common experience is that money spends to a budget and you can know when the money is going to run out. You just have to have a paycheck come in before the money runs out. You can't possibly gage when status, "satisfaction", or any other apparently-lofty aspiration will run out.

The exception to this, such as it is, would be full-time ministry, and again: you should ask your questions clearly about that exception rather than expect me to run up 3 pages on the subject and bore the other readers with your inquisitiveness.

Work for the money. That means you should find a job that requires as much of you as you are willing to trade for the money. Realize that money can't buy back years of your marriage, or your kids' childhood, or your health. Work for the money, and keep money in its rightful place.

But if you find working for the money somehow base or uncouth, then if you choose to work for the status or the power or the admiration of others, work as if those things matter to you. For example, if you're a teacher, you prolly won't get rich. But you will get 35 years to influence the minds of young people. That's what you're working for: don't waste it.

Last one: Don't attach your personal worth to employment. Not to get too God-centered here, but if you're an adopted son of the God of the universe, and the One and Only Son of God has shed his blood for you, none of that happened in order that you can be president of the convention or CEO of the company: it happened for a purpose God has already established, so whether you get to be famous or homeless your worth is not a function of your performance. If you get walked out, rejoice. Hope in God.

I am sure the readers have other good advice, and I leave it to them to go ahead and give it. Cruel and stupid remarks will not be tolerated.