It's just a job,....

it's not an adventure.

Remember that old Army recruitment commercial where it showed buff young men and women scaling obstacles, driving tanks, on recon missions, watching radar screens, flying helicopters and the like? The narrator would say, "It's not just a job, it's an adventure!"

Hoo-rah!

Husband was in the Army for six years, when we were first married. After multiple deployments and training exercises and sleepless nights and bureaucratic frustrations, he came home one day and said, "It's just a job; it's not an adventure." This became our tagline for Army life as he fulfilled his commitment and changed careers.

I've recently taken a job. I've found myself quoting the same tagline as I pick through what this new schedule will look like, how we'll continue to homeschool, and how our lives will change. As I'm learning the new routines and rhythms of a situation that I would not have chosen for our family, I'm leaning heavily on the Lord's provision and sovereignty for the nooks and crannies that I cannot see all the recesses of, but I know that He can and does.

Of course, there will be adventure because the job is about working with people. There is always adventure where there are people. But right now as I learn the ins and outs, I am reminding myself, through the tagline, that this job, like every job, has definite limitations. There will be frustrations and ruts of habit; there will be interpersonal difficulties and misunderstandings; and there will be long days of weariness and overwhelming circumstances.

I can only do what the Lord gives me to do, in His strength and by His direction. Does the job bear eternal purpose? Inasmuch as we are eternally affected by how we view and treat one another, yes. But in the daily tasks, probably not.

In other words, my adventure will not be found in the crossing off of tasks and their accompanying minutiae. My adventure will be found in continual dependence upon the Lord for a godly heart and attitude towards all those with whom I have contact--both at work and continually at home as we learn these new routines and rhythms. I desire to reflect at multiple points the Lord's goodness and grace in my life to them--even in a situation that I would not have chosen but have been given.


That's the adventure. Everything else is just a job.