Be Engaged :: Getting Started :: With Passion
The US military requires recruits to take standardized tests when they enlist. The AFQT (Armed Forces Qualification Test) and the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) are used to reveal someone’s areas of strength and ability. The test results are used to determine which job opportunities a recruit can pursue.
I know someone with a B.S. in Accounting who talked to a recruiter. She was told she would be able to put her degree to good use in the military. However, her test results showed a high aptitude for linguistics. Despite no prior education in the field, she pivoted. The Army sent her to language training, and she became a translator.
While this sort of thing might work in a professional setting, I don’t think it’s the right approach when looking for opportunities to serve.
We’re not browsing the “Help Wanted” ads. You’re not looking for career advancement opportunities. It’s not about tying your strengths to a certain position. Mercy is different.
It’s neat when your competencies and resources can be used to help those with needs. It makes a lot of sense. If you have a surplus of something, and you know someone needs that thing, then the path forward can be obvious.
But helping others may require you to leverage your weaknesses and your incompetencies. You will need to be humble, candid and vulnerable. You’ll need to strike a balance between being comfort and being uncomfortable.
We err when we focus solely on trying to find a perfect fit for our strengths. Why limit God’s freedom to act through us? He can do more with our weakness than we can do with our strength.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
There’s an old idiom about the futility of trying to jam a square peg into a round hole … but being a square peg doesn’t mean you can only fit square needs. God can shape you to be the peg that He needs. Exercising mercy changes us. This must be considered.
Ideally, you’ll be able to say, “I can do this, but I’ll be stretched beyond my current level of comfort.” The best place for you to serve is a place that allows you to grow.
I submit to you that rather than looking for something that matches your strengths, look for something that matches your passion. When something is stuck in your gut (splanchnízomai) you are more likely to stick with it.
I believe that, in most cases, the needs you are best suited to meet are those needs that are nearest to you (and not just geographically close to you).
What causes do you care about? What kind of needs have you experienced that gives you empathy and insight? How have you been helped in such a way that you can return the favor by similarly investing in others?
The old hymn, Brighten the Corner Where You Are, was written by a woman who had been invited to teach in a traveling education program. It was her dream job.
Unfortunately, her father was in a car accident and required long-term medical care. At first, she resented giving up that job, but she came to understand that she could still help others from her father’s bedside.
You don’t need to wait for a grand opportunity before reaching out to others. You can make a difference right wherever you are.
Doing so doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck in that spot forever. After all, mercy is a journey. “Here” is a great place to start.
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