THE FIRST TIME I GOT FIRED BECAUSE I DIDN’T MAKE QUOTA, I STARTED A SALES COMPANY THREE MONTHS LATER. 

 I was 30 something and I didn’t know any better.  I’d just set a dismal record as a sales person with ink-jet printers and I’d done so well, now I wanted to go into selling computers!  Three months later they closed down the division, small consolation for a guy with a mortgage, a wife and three kids.

When I got fired, I set a goal for myself; I had two alternatives…Either find a marketing/sales job or start my own business.

By the end of the three months I had two or three interviews, but none of the jobs looked that interesting or challenging.  If I knew then what I know now, by the end of the three months, I would probably have had 5-10 interviews and 1-2 offers.

There is wisdom in the two or more alternatives approach.  Taking a page of paper and listing both alternatives and then the advantages and disadvantages of each allows you to think through all the issues of the alternatives.  God has given us a mind…we need to use it.  This approach also provides a providential possibility…God may begin to work, either to close a door and open another. 

 At a minimum, I challenge you to look at your job search as a full time job.  Here are some helpful hints for those who are looking:

• Networking is everything.
• Send out unsolicited resumes to every one you can find in your industry.
• Ask them for referrals.
• Use the internet
• Answer Classified ads
• Tailor your resume to the job requirement.
• Buy a book on job searching.
• Go to job fairs.

 You know, in reality, all of our job opportunities provide two alternatives.  And it’s up to us (and our response to God) that helps to determine how each alternative plays itself out. 

 In fact, this is really not just about looking for a new job…it’s about making a job everything God intends for it to be.   The two alternatives?  They come in the form of two questions:  Are you seeking a job?  Or are you seeking to be in full time ministry?   Christ might say, “If you seek a job, seek to be in full-time ministry!”  I’m not talking about full-time ministry in the normal sense of the word.  I’m talking about making God’s mission for your life on planet earth the reason you work.  Is this the purpose you are seeking to fulfill right now?

 What does God’s Word have to say about it?

Matt 7:7-10

7          "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

8          For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

9          "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

10        Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

Col 3:17

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.