Article May 29, 2017 Issue

You can never be obsolete

Martha Sarvis

Changes in the job market as a result of advances in technology may make one question one’s individual worth. If machines can do all the work better and faster, what are we good for? And if we’re facing the need to find new employment, or a whole new line of work, we may wonder: Am I too old to learn a new skill? How can I find the money to pay for training? Can I get by on a lower salary? Will anyone want to hire me at my age?

Reassuring answers to questions such as these can seem out of reach as long as we’re looking at employment only from a material perspective. When we think of a job as strictly a human activity driven by market forces, with opportunities subject to personal circumstances, age, gender, and financial resources, we are accepting limits imposed by a mortal sense of life apart from God.

But the ups, downs, and difficulties of the human scene never affect man as God knows him. Man is God’s spiritual idea, always beloved and in his right place; he is not a beleaguered mortal. In chapter 10 of Matthew, Jesus says of man’s worth: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows” (verses 29–31).

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