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“A lot of people are dissatisfied with their jobs.”

A thought by John Ortberg (2014-04-22) from his book, Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You (p. 163). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

John tells of a study on this by a research group affiliated with the University of Chicago and they recently listed the ten least happy jobs in the world and the ten happiest jobs in the world.  He said, “What they found was the ten least happy jobs actually were more financially lucrative and offered higher status than the ten happiest jobs. The difference? People in the happiest jobs had a higher sense of meaning. Less money, less status, but a higher sense of meaning.”

He then goes on to say, “The main thing you bring home from your work is not a paycheck. The main thing you bring home from work is your soul. Work is a soul function. We’re made to create value.”

Solomon, the writer of the Old Testament book Ecclesiastes in the Bible says, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should make his soul enjoy good in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God.”

I know that we have to work to survive.  We need that paycheck but we also deserve to be satisfied in what we do.  John also says, “A paradox of the soul is that it is incapable of satisfying itself, but it is also incapable of living without satisfaction. You were made for soul-satisfaction, but you will only ever find it in God. The soul craves to be secure. The soul craves to be loved. The soul craves to be significant, and we find these only in God in a form that can satisfy us. That’s why the psalmist says to God, ‘Because your love is better than life . . . my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods.’ Soul and appetite and satisfaction are dominant themes in the Bible — the soul craves because it is meant for God. ‘My soul, find rest in God.’”

So are you satisfied or dissatisfied?

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