Tammy A. Morton

Betty walked in the office a little flustered from the morning commute. She rushed to her desk and logged on her laptop to check this mornings emails. There was a project due and the deadline was coming up quickly. Suddenly her phone rang. Betty notices that it’s HR’s extension. Nervously she picks up the phone. HR has asked Betty to report to their office immediately. Betty gets there and is asked to take a seat. The HR personnel says, “Betty, we appreciate your dedication and hard work with our company, but we will no longer need your services. Your department has been downsized and the company needs to cut back on costs. A severance package is available to you with one months pay. Your manager will walk you back to your desk so that you can remove your personal items.”

This story is becoming very familiar across the corporate landscape, and it’s a scenario that is sweeping the nation. More people have been laid off due to companies downsizing, eliminating entire departments, or simply trying to keep from sinking.

People are getting desperate and nervous about their personal economy and are seeking ways to protect it. Massive amounts of people are seeking an alternative. Others are just looking for another job. This article is about the differences of just seeking another job, and protecting your personal economy. I give credit to Dr. Myles Munroe and his book: Overcoming Crisis.

Employment verses Deployment

King Solomon once said, ‘Sow your seed in the morning (which means for you to go work your day job), and at evening do not let your hands be idle (don’t have only one source of income), for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.- Eccl. 11:6-7; NIV

Solomon is saying in essence, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. If your job, is your life, you had better never lose your job. Go to work in the morning and do good; give your employer your best. And when you get home, keep on working, because you do not know which one of them will prosper you.

The wise advice given here is, cultivate the spirit of deployment and get into some other things, just in case the salary dries up. The morning part of your life, your job controls, but the evening part, you control. Some people don’t work on the evening part, that is why they are scared to lose the morning part. When you lose the morning part, you will have a l-o-n-g evening.

When you start a business at home, don’t resign from a secure job. Stay at your job, and start working on your dream after you get off from your day job. This may sound logical, but I can tell you tons of stories of people who got started in a home business and quit their job with the intention of working their business full time. Bad move my dear, and you will come from a place of neediness and want. This in turn will cause people to run from you as if you had the swine flu. The business or your ‘work’ that you work on during the evening will eventually outpace your day job. So you have to work both; one to take care of today needs, and the other to take care of your future.

If you take heed to the following steps, then you won’t be afraid of a crisis.

1. Think beyond your job

2. There no future in any JOB (you need something beyond the job)

3. The future is in the one who holds the job (they can take this from you at any time)

4. Create your own business in your job (they pay you for your training in your skilll/gift development. Take advantage of this, and allow them to pay for you to refine your gift. This will prepare you for your life’s work.)

I’m not saying that you can’t be a Career person, because most of us are. And if your career is your ‘work’ then great. But here is the big difference between a JOB and YOUR WORK:

• Never confuse your job with your work
• Your job is what you were trained to do
• Your ‘work’ is what you were born to do
• Your job is your career. Your ‘work’ is your assignment
• Your job is your skill (that’s why your employer can get rid of you)
• Your ‘work’ is your gift (no one can rid you of your gifting)
• You can retire from your job
• You can never retire from your ‘work’
• Jobs prepare you for your ‘work’
• Your work protects you from your JOB

Your job is important, but it is not permanent. So do something after 5pm each evening- this is your most powerful pursuit. Image where you would be now if you started your ‘evening work’ 5 years ago. Your assignment today: Go home and write down what you can do after 5pm. Doing nothing is not an option anymore in today economy. If a person controls any part of your time, they can always release you from it. So use the time that you control to prepare for the time when they (your employer) decide to take that time back.

God Bless,