Should you always do a job that uses your charisms? This thought-provoking question is relevant to many individuals as they navigate career choices and seek to align their professional paths with their spiritual gifts.
Should You Always Do a Job that Uses Your Charisms?
The conversation begins with the realization that the word “always” typically raises red flags in matters of faith. Whether to always believe in Jesus or fulfill our Sunday obligation, some aspects of faith are indeed consistent. However, when it comes to career decisions and the utilization of charisms, the host emphasizes the importance of God’s infinite creativity. It’s highlighted that God’s endless creativity allows for countless unique expressions of charisms in various aspects of life.
Rediscovering Charisms in Unexpected Places
Through the engaging narrative, the host shares stories of individuals who initially underestimated their charisms. For instance, a hairdresser initially believed that craftsmanship was not her charism, only to realize that her creativity was beautifully expressed through her work, making the beauty of God present in her creations. This highlights the fact that our charisms can manifest in unexpected places and that God’s creativity knows no bounds.
Reframing Career Perspectives
The podcast prompts us to reconsider the significance of our jobs in the context of charisms. It challenges the notion that our professional lives solely define the scope of our charisms. While our jobs may absorb a significant portion of our time, they represent only a fraction of our lives. Therefore, the idea of confining our charisms solely to our professional roles seems limiting. The narrative encourages listeners to embrace a broader perspective and remain open to the possibilities of how their charisms can be manifested, even if not evident in their current professional endeavors.
Embracing Flexibility and Trust
The episode underscores the necessity of moving towards a life that allows for greater flexibility to surrender completely to our charisms. It acknowledges that some individuals might need to consider job changes to align with God’s calling. However, it also cautions against hastily dismissing current opportunities, reminding believers to pray for a sharing in the creative vision of God, opening our minds to broader possibilities.
Discerning our charisms is an ongoing journey, and the interplay between our spiritual gifts and career choices requires careful consideration, prayer, and trust in God’s creative vision for our lives.
In conclusion, “Charisms for Catholics” provides a profound exploration of the intersection between spiritual gifts and career choices, offering valuable insights into discerning and embracing charisms in various aspects of life. If you are in the midst of navigating career decisions or seeking to discern your charisms, this podcast episode offers an enriching perspective and highlights the significance of openness, prayer, and trust in the discernment process.
Jill Simons:
Hello, and welcome to Charisms for Catholics. My name is Jill Simons, and I’m the executive director at Many Parts Ministries, where we equip the Body of Christ by helping people learn about and discern their charisms, which is really another word for spiritual gifts. When you discern your charisms, you’re able to see how the Holy Spirit is already active in your life and where he is inviting you to further build the Church. Let’s dive in.
Jill Simons:
Today, we are coming in with a mail bag question which I absolutely love. And it’s the question, should you always do a job that uses your charisms? And this is a really interesting question because we have talked about so extensively how we want to really lean into our charisms and we want to focus on using them. But anytime there’s the word always, that is almost always, and I didn’t use it there, it’s almost always, a red flag to me. Because very few things in the Christian life are always things unless it’s, you know, what should I do in this situation? It’s always I should go to Christ. I should always pray. I should always fulfill my Sunday obligation. But when we get out of those really prescriptive norms within the faith, then very rarely, if ever, is the use of the word always appropriate. Because God is infinitely creative.
Jill Simons:
And that’s one of my favorite attributes of God is the fact that God is a lot of things but absolutely never is he boring. Satan can be boring sometimes. There’s kind of a banality to evil where it’s just like, yeah. Okay. This we’ve done this. We’ve seen this. You know, if you look at the narrative of life apart from God, it’s always pretty dull. I’m just like, okay.
Jill Simons:
Yeah. This is rehashing old territory. Whereas God is endlessly creative and everything that he creates is so minutely unique. I have been doing this work with charisms now for well over a decade. We are approaching 15 years of doing this discernment work with charisms, obviously, at a vastly increased pace in the last year. But I have seen and sat with several thousand people now going through this kind of discernment. And every day that I am with people, there are expressions of charisms that I’m like, oh, I would have never thought of that. But, yeah, that is still that kind of thing.
Jill Simons:
For instance, stories I always tell, the hairdresser craftsmanship person, someone who was just so dead set that craftsmanship was not the right charism for her because she said she wasn’t creative as all at all. And it turns out she was a hairdresser. And when we went through some questions and discernment and asked about her experience of that, came to realize that, yeah, this is how she makes the beauty of God present. And she she’s actually aware of that and has that experience as she’s doing it, but she chronically undervalued that and just said, well, I just thought that was kind of a silly thing that I thought of and that I did when in actuality, the Holy Spirit didn’t even wanna let somebody’s haircut go to waste. And so that just speaks to the endless creativity of God. And so long preamble to basically say, I’m never gonna answer and should I always do something in the affirmative unless it’s, should I always believe in Jesus? Should I always go to God to prayer? Should I always receive the Eucharist when I can? Because at the end of the day, your job is a small part of your life and a small part of who you are. Feels like a big part because for a lot of our lives, a lot of our adult lives, our jobs absorb a lot of our waking hours. But even when you break it down, you know, a work week, a typical work week is 40 hours.
Jill Simons:
Right? We have I wanna say it’s, like, a 162 hours in a week. If my son listens to this episode, he’s gonna correct me. But but much more than simply 40 hours in a week. And so I think there’s a lot of people that are called into professions where it’s gonna use their charisms, but that is not the only forum for the expression of your charisms. Because to limit an endlessly creative God that way is just, short sighted, basically. To say, well, you know, god can’t really use this if it’s not being used in my job. You know, that to me is just God’s probably like, hold my beer. Like, yes, I can.
Jill Simons:
Of course, I can. There’s so many things that are possible that we can’t fully comprehend the magnitude of what is possible, and that’s why we want to be returning to the Holy Spirit in all of the dreaming that we’re doing about what is possible in the use of our charisms. So here’s what I will say in in response to this question. I don’t think it’s something we can answer with a yes or no because it’s not an always kind of thing. That said, I am comfortable saying, we always need to be moving toward a life where we have the greatest possibility, flexibility to surrender most completely to our charisms. For some people, that’s gonna mean that they need to move towards a job change. We I need to get out of this situation that I ended up in because I was really focused on just kind of financial provision and rejecting the fact that God could provide for me if I went in the direction that I feel Him calling me towards. That’s a pretty clear situation where we’re struggling with a lack of trust in God and we need to move away from that place that’s allowing us to kind of persist in our lack of trust, towards a place that’s gonna engender greater trust in God.
Jill Simons:
Now there’s some people where, you know, I’m trying to think of a really good concrete example. So maybe discernment, for example. Maybe they are in a professional role where that is not coming up on a regular basis. I would say that there’s probably a fair amount of rules where that’s not a huge player in what it is they’re doing. Now, again, as I said, you can’t rule anything out. Maybe someone has been given a gift, God can use that in ways that we aren’t thinking of and aren’t imagining. So it could possibly come up in ways that you’re not foreseeing. And therefore, we also can’t really limit the kinds of jobs that can or cannot use the charisms that we’ve been given.
Jill Simons:
Another great example is that I get, you know, question I get a lot is from stay at home moms where they say or, you know, stay at home dads for that for that matter. People who are home with children. Am I, you know, have we pressed the pause button on my charisms, basically? Are we not having those now because they’re the forum that I perceive being best for them is sort of out in the world and I’m not particularly out in the world right now? And that’s where I would say we just need to defend against limiting what is possible in our charisms to what we currently can think of. Because that is always going to be less than what is possible based on God’s infinite viewpoint. And so something that I have prayed at various points in my life that I always invite other people to pray in this situation is really just a prayer seeking, a sharing in that creative vision of God. To just have your mind opened to more of what is possible if you truly trust him. If you’ve seen me speak in person, you’ve probably heard me tell ad nauseam the four minute mile story, where in the 1950s, it was widely believed that a four minute mile was impossible. But in the late 1950s, a man and his trainer said, no.
Jill Simons:
We think it’s possible. And lo and behold, he did it. And now that is the standard for elite athletes. As soon as people knew it was possible, then tons of people were like, well, if someone else has done it, then I know that it’s possible. And when we’re living a saintly life, we don’t always have the luxury of, oh, I’ve seen somebody else do this before because that’s not always the case. There’s gonna be new ways that you have not even seen someone manifest the kingdom of god that might be out there for you if you’re willing to take the risk of being pushed back what you can perceive as being possible. And so this prayer for a sharing in the creative vision of God, of an opening of your eyes to what is possible if you fully trust Him, just creates the situation where you’re open to that. The awareness that that could be the case.
Jill Simons:
And so when you’re looking at something like your work, it’s very easy to feel like that is the one and only forum for your charisms. But in reality, it can be so many things. And so, if you feel like you’re not using your charisms in your job right now, if you feel like you need to change jobs before you can use your charisms, you might be right. I don’t know. It’s different for different people. But I would really caution discernment in that and discernment specifically by asking for a share in that creative vision, a share in the imagination of God so that we don’t run from something that maybe we just can’t see where he is in it. And if it is time for us to, you know, move to a new profession or change jobs, we’re doing it because we are sharing in that vision of what is possible, and we are acting out of radical trust. That God has something for us that he wants us to do and he will always provide for us to be able to cooperate with and follow through on his will for us.
Jill Simons:
So thank you so much for the question. If you have questions you want answered on the podcast, just send them to hello@ManyPartsMinistries.com, and, just put question for the podcast in your subject line, maybe with the question as well if you want and we’ll get this categorized and in our queue for future episodes. Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.
Jill Simons:
Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode of Charisms for Catholics. If you would like to learn more about your charisms or begin your own discernment journey, head to our website at manypartsministries.com where you can download our free pdf guide to all 24 charisms and also begin your own journey by taking our charism assessment.
