I have been thinking recently about work and vocation, about christians being competitive in the market place. I mean, many of us are hardworking lot, but we all know very well that hardwork burns us out. I am talking about work performance, meeting the target, managing the organization, negotiating and closing a deal.

Sometimes, the temptation to go into "full time" church work or some christian work is very strong. I mean, pls do not take this as an insult to the church/ministry workers, they have all my respect for their commitment to their work - many ppl I know are great personalities whether at work or out of work, some of these deserved special mention - my Pastor Rev. Wong FY, my good friend and pastor in Evangel Church in Singapore Dr. Tan Soo Inn and current training coordinator for FES Dr. Loh Kim Cheng.

But how many of us were mistaken that we are led a sense of altruism? Perhaps its the grass is greener feeling. I know that because I experienced it myself. There is a dreadful sense of being pushed beyond the limit all the time in the corporate world, one practically have to drag one's feet to work out of bed each morning because as soon as we arrive at our cubicles, or offices, there are important and urgent instructions to be followed up almost immediately.

And there's the pressure to keep up with the never ending demand to be the best within the team, within the company, within the industry. And how about the complexity of dealing in the corporate world? We can say all we want about how difficult it is dealing with church and christians, but if christians are already so hard, what about the free market where everyone is given the free hand to do anything - even breaking the law and going against one's conscience?

Life began to feel like an unescapable pressure cooker. One may even begin to wonder, what is the purpose of such a life, what is the meaning of such sufferings even if the paycheck is good (or relatively good - since many of us in the corporate world still complain we are very much underpaid, me included).

Then what we thought of as altruism, or a charitable character, or a vocation (?) came to our mind to inspire us to consider more meaningful careers such as working with the church or some parachurch or some christian NGOs. The grass seemed greener from here. Helping people, less target and performance oriented, lesser (or no?) opportunities for the complexity we face in the corporate world, and probably a more flexible workhour with very heavenly minded (read: non materialistic or over ambitiuos) colleagues. I mean, we assure ourselves that there will be pressure and devils everywhere, but this must be certainly better than our job in the factory, law firm or the emergency ward?

And if we suddenly "hear" words from the Lord confirming this to be our vocation? It is very tempting...

Later...