Over the course of my life, I’ve had three career changes, and now, in 2023 at age 66 I’m getting ready for a fourth – semi-retirement! My first career was in the world of government affairs. I worked for the Indiana legislature, became a lobbyist, started a government affairs newsletter, and became the head of a political grassroots organization called The Christian Coalition.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, I began to transition to a career in the telecommunications industry. I began by working as an independent business owner with American Communications Network, went to work for a firm selling business telephone systems, and then sold communications network services (high-speed internet data, phone lines, and Webhosting services).
My third career began in the early 2000s when I started teaching college courses as an adjunct instructor with several colleges and universities. By 2012, after having taught online courses for several years, I expanded my education career by creating and marketing online courses, thus combining my earlier sales/entrepreneurship interests with my third career path.
Looking back over my evolving career path, I have seen God’s hand in my life as He has changed my circumstances to expand my comfort zone. In this sixth Journey Step, I focus on my transition to the world of selling communications services. To help educate myself about the sea change in technology that was happening in the 1990s and how to apply these new, high-tech applications to business, I wrote a book called Buying Technology: Understanding What You Need & Why You Need It. After writing the book, I knew I would need a website so I could market it. And so, I bought a book and taught myself HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).
Deuteronomy 29:29 perfectly captures the message of this journey step post. God, knowing the secret things of our lives, was forcing me to get out of my comfort zone. He led me to learn the art of selling in a high-pressure, high-tech business world, as well as the language upon which all interaction on the World Wide Web is based. My newfound skills helped me to land an adjunct teaching position with an Indiana school teaching Personal Selling and E-Commerce at a college called Indiana Tech. As I responded to moving beyond my comfort zone, God slowly revealed to me strengths and interests I didn’t realize I had that would allow me to succeed in my next career.
Deuteronomy 29:29 says “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those that are revealed belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we might obey all the words of this law.”
What about you? How has God forced you to get out of your comfort zone? Perhaps through corporate downsizing that required you to learn new skills? Only God knows all the secret things of our personal journeys. I believe God designs circumstances that change our attitudes about things. These changed attitudes then guide the actions we take in response to our new circumstances. If we follow God’s leading, He will prepare us for the mission in life He has called us to pursue.
I hope you’ll explore my course, Pursuing Your Mission from God. You can sign up for the course by clicking here.
Thanks so much for joining me for this Journey Step.
Until next time, remember that the wise man makes knowledge acceptable (Proverbs 15:2).
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