Unemployment and the meaning of life
Warning: this blog may contain whining.

I'm guessing that if you've been unemployed before, you know that it sucks. I am personally between jobs at the moment, and it hasn't even been for very long, and I've got some good leads, so why should I be complaining? Ah, but I am.

There's a statement of faith from my church (see: cuddly mainline propaganda link to the right) that is more sort of talking points than something you need to swear to, but one of the lines that comes to me lately is: "God saves us from aimlessness..."

Isn't that a funny thought? Or at least a funny way of phrasing it? If I remember the story right, when this statement was written about thirty years ago, it was subject to lots of discussion. Lots of discussion.

But you know, I wouldn't mind being saved from aimlessness at the moment. I get up in the mornings at a reasonable hour, still, and it's nice to have time to do some meditating, but then it's really kind of hard to follow a regular schedule. The TV calls to me with little voices, "C'mon, Amy, one more episode of Judge Mathis won't hurt you." Or, now that we have cable, "Maybe you can figure out where to put your photographs if you watch Trading Spaces all day." And then my muscles feel stiff and achey, and my voice is chalky from disuse.

I think part of what makes a person happy (or at least makes me happy) is doing something that is meaningful. I admit that there's a part of me that wants to be important/looked up to/respected. But there's another less selfish (and I hope stronger) part of me that really wants to make a difference and leave things better than I found them. And my career/livelihood represents a huge chunk of time and energy. A big part of who I am.

While I've had jobs where I was just a cog in a big machine, at least I had somewhere to be in the morning. Of course when I'm doing that kind of work, I usually wish that I weren't working. [Technical assistance from a fellow nerd required: did I use the subjunctive correctly in that sentence? Please advise.] And it's also important to consider, in those situations, not only the work being done, but the ethics and relationships involved, too. But that's not the same thing as work that really comes out of a sense of who you are and who God wants you to be.

The idea then is to not only have work, but have work that is meaningful. But I think salvation in this case is a slow process. In other words, easier said than done. It takes lots of patience, a willingness to really listen to hear what God is calling you to, or where your strongest reserves of energy come from.
And then preparing for it, and then waiting for just that right position or career. Yikes! (For some people, it's okay to be a cog in the big wheel because it allows them to support a family--also a deeply meaningful endeavor.)

So where am I going with this? I think unemployment is so sucky because it leaves us without a sense of meaning (or a paycheck, but that's another blog entry) or purpose, and these are both things that are good for the soul. We're not created just to sit around on our butts. We really are supposed to be doing something.

I need to find somewhere to volunteer.

May God save us all from aimlessness.