dailydatewithgod

At least in the Western world, there is a lot of emphasis on one’s profession.  Western identity is strongly tethered to the world of work. In school, we are asked to think about what we want to be when we grow up.  What schools do we need to attend so we can be sure to get into our chosen profession?  Is the profession we are interested in one that is respected and revered?  Is it one that is paid well or poorly?  Is it one that will make you stand out as someone who makes a noticeable contribution or behind the scenes contribution?  Is it one that aligns with what you are good at or what people in your family are invested in?  Before we even have a chance to discover who we are, what our strengths are or what we like and dislike we are asked to think about our careers.  Our profession is the primary way we make our mark in the world.  What about those who do not stay within a particular career trajectory?  What about those who have a profession only to make money so they can do what they love doing outside of work?  The reality is our professions are more about who we are being than what we do.  We may be a professional doctor but if we have the bedside manner of a crook, we are professing two different ideas. Our career as a garbage worker may say we dig through people’s garbage but what we are professing is we are willing to do the things others deem as less than with dignity.  We are more than the labels we put on ourselves or others put on us based on a set of particular criteria.  We may be in a particular profession but the way we live professes to the world how we see our role in that particular profession.  This is how we can bring our hearts into the work we do each day regardless of what the outside world calls that work.  None of us our stationary beings.  Even when we are a part of a particular profession on one day we profess the best parts of that profession and on other days the worst.  How might our lives and our view of others change if we began to look at what professions people are making with their beings versus their titles? How might the eyes of our hearts open to the hearts of others if we see past their professions into what the professions of their hearts are portraying in their lives?