"My name is Andre Agassi.....I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis. I hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have." - from the opening paragraph of his autobiography "OPEN"

WOW! What a shocking statement from an incredible athlete who reached the pinnacle of his field.

How do you feel about your job? Do you hate your job/career, but continue to because of.......? Do you strive to be the best in the world at what you do, yet hate it? Agassi, while he hated playing tennis, he felt he had a job to do, a mission to fulfill. How do you feel about your job, or career? Do you feel you're called to do what you do? Do you struggle with the purpose - the why?

Or...are you just not sure why you don't do better than you do? ...your not sure what job you would even really want to do, even if you had a choice. You've heard about callings but have no idea what it means; you keep asking "what am I supposed to do with my life?"

Maybe you "I keep waiting for God to show me what he wants me to do, so for now I just do this."

Or...you're in the perfect job, but know you can do better than you do; you've leveled out, no longer and can't figure out why and not sure what to do about it.

Agassi's story is not unique. There are plenty who are incredibly good at what they do, yet dislike the job in some form or fashion. Yet, they're feel stuck.

Maybe you're not really that good at your job, don't have the best competencies? Yet through the efforts of yourself and/or boss/others, stay on the job or in the field.

Or...are you without a job and wondering all of this on top of needing to make your financial ends meet?

Genesis says "The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground....The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it..." (Gen 2:7, 15) And then sin happened and God cast man and woman out of the garden. In no uncertain terms He let them know things were going to be hard.

But God didn't cast us out without giving us some help. Part of that help comes from the Holy Spirit, Another part from the Bible, a book full of instructions though about life and work. A book about people working and how to make a bit of sense to the whole matter.

Help also comes from other men and women. Some who are pastors and teachers. Others who are friends. I've found teachers through many really good books on this subject of God and Work. Three teachers/authors are Addington, Graves and Maxwell. In their book Life@Work they help us identify and put together the fragmented parts of our lives.

The reader is asked "which of the following do you most identify with?"

- I'm fatigued from juggling two worlds

- I need more meaning from my work

- I need a clear picture of what being a christian on the job looks like

- I need a faith that makes a difference in my job and life

- I feel like I'm receiving no help connectin my worlds

Using the lessons from Life@Work we'll explore more about what the Bible says about work, jobs and careers in the coming weeks. You can also find more on this subject at http://godandworkmatters.blogspot.com/.

And we'll explore what it means to find,understand, accept and fulfill that mission.

I welcome your comments below, emails and calls.

To that end.....