Article June 20, 1988 Issue

God has made you greater than your job

When it comes to defining our individual worth, no job can do what God has already done for us.

Ralph Byron Copper

My first job after graduating from college was as a file clerk. I filed, by hand, the hundreds of book orders that came into the office each day. My take-home pay amounted to barely a spoonful of beans—which is a more apt analogy than you might think, because at least a couple of nights out of the week, during the first few months, I ate my dinner from a can of pork and beans.

I took the job because I genuinely wanted to work for a nonprofit organization whose cause I believed in. What I gained from my first job was much more than a puny paycheck. I learned some valuable lessons that, quite frankly, I'm still trying to understand better and apply to my current employment.

I guess the first thing I had to come to terms with was the relation of "me and my job." Which was greater? Which had primary influence over the other?

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

God has made you greater than your job

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access