Jesse Medina

After a year and a half of being micro-managed and underpaid in a call center, I have been offered a new job with a Christian organization that assists other Christian organizations with holistic marketing, focusing on a term called Transformational Giving.  I’m no expert, and surely I will write more about this later, but Transformational Giving is a fundraising idea wherein the donor is not merely a donor giving to you and your ministry, but a fellow champion in whatever cause you are working towards.  A very elementary definition to be sure.

As part of this new job, there are several personal perks:

1. Doing something satisfying.  Contrary to my current job where I speak with 40-80 people each day and answer questions that don’t make much of a difference in the real scheme of things, I’ll be doing something that I will genuinely enjoy.  Namely, writing and helping others.  And doing it for and with fellow believers.

2. Use my degree.  After three years of being graduated I will finally be able to start using my knowledge that I paid so high a price for.

3. More money.  Not that I’ll be rich or anything, but I will be making more money than I have ever made and, to be honest, that feels good.

I am exceedingly happy about getting a new job, but more than that, I am happy about working for an organization that I believe in (which is not something that I can say about my current job).

However, I have already found my ability to try to find my identity in this (yet to be started) job.  How easy it is to breathe that sigh of relief and think, “Finally, someone thinks I am worth X amount of money!“  It is hard to explain the gamut of feelings that one gets when someone else sees something valuable in you and wants to recognize that value by paying you for your contributions.  Money alone doesn’t do this, I got the same types of feelings when I was invited to be an editor for Wrecked for the Ordinary, an on-line Christian magazine.

The problem, of course, is that these things do not – or at least should not – define me.  How much I make, or whether people  like my work and want to recognize that, is not the most important thing about me.  And I don’t want it to be.

Instead, I want my identity to be found in Christ alone.  It is who I am in Christ that gives me worth.  Not my money.  Not any prestigious titles.  Not accomplished goals.  Not the sweet sound of those words, “Good job!”  But Christ.

So I ask for your prayers and encourage you to pray for yourself as well.  That you find your identity in Christ alone.  And the good news about doing that is this: regardless of whatever else happens, whether you lose your job or get the one of your dreams, whether you are sick or healthy, whether “successful” or not – you need not question your worth.  Because your price has already been established.

You were worth dying for.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Identity, Jesus