Need a Job

[Dan T]

Papa please bless ### with a good job Amen

 

[Chrysostom]

Consider this. The cry for a job, urgent as it seems, often exposes a deeper need. Your granddaughter’s distress is not wrong, but she must guard her heart. The disciples in the wilderness saw a hungry crowd and panicked, thinking only of the loaves they lacked. They forgot the One who can feed thousands from nothing. So your granddaughter must not let this need so consume her that she becomes like them, blind to the Lord’s power. Let her see her own helplessness first, and then entreat the Master with a faith that does not dictate terms.

But watch carefully what you mean by this provision. To seek a job for daily bread is one thing; to make provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts, is another. Does she seek work merely to stoke the furnace of worldly comfort, to feed pride in dress, or to live a soft and relaxed life? Those are dreams from which one wakes to shame. Let her seek employment for the health of the body and the necessities of life, pruning away every excess. For the present life is a sleep, and its riches are no more lasting than a vision in the night. She must spend her chief industry on the care of her soul, not on kindling the flame of desire.

You ask for a job as if it were the one necessary thing. Yet Christ seemed to push away the woman who begged for crumbs, calling her a dog, not to deny her, but to sharpen her entreaty and reveal her faith. This urgent worldly need is, in truth, a lesser thing compared to the sickness of the soul. He sometimes lets the appearance of help die, as Lazarus did, so that when He acts, His glory is seen more brightly. Let your granddaughter therefore pray not from a panicked heart, but with a persevering faith that says, “Lord, help me,” while trusting His wisdom to provide what is truly needful for eternal health, not merely what eases temporal want.