DID YOU THINK YOU'D BE DOING THE JOB YOU HAVE TODAY?

“I never thought I’d be a _______.”

I hear some version of that sentence all the time.

I regularly have the privilege of sitting with business owners and professionals and hearing their stories.

People who have spent years building careers to where they are today.

And often, somewhere in the conversation, it comes out:

“I never thought I’d be doing this.”

Then they usually add:

“… but I love what I do.”

I have a friend who works in fundraising.

He’s only been in the role a short time, but he loves it and excels at it.

He also clearly understands how his work allows him to serve God and others.

But it didn’t happen by accident.

What he discovered in his 40s, after years of different roles and experiences, was that God had been shaping gifts in him he didn’t even realize were there.

And he would tell you there is no way he could have predicted this work when he was young. (Another case in point, can you name one teen who ever said they wanted to be a fundraiser?)

That’s the thing about our vocational gifts.

Most of them don’t announce themselves when we are teens.

Sure, there are some attributes that show up early.

But in my experience, that is not where most teens are.

This is one of the reasons choosing a career direction is so hard for high schoolers.

They simply don’t know enough about themselves yet.

We are asking them to draw a map from a blank page.

Most teens haven’t had enough experience for their gifts and strengths to develop and become visible.

They need more exposure.

Opportunities to try things, build skills, serve others, and discover where they can actually add value.

So maybe we need to look at this differently.

What if we stopped trying to define teens their gifts BEFORE they’ve had enough EXPERIENCE to develop them?

What if they had more opportunities with different jobs, internships, serving, hands-on projects, and caring for others?

These are the kinds of experiences that build a teen’s gifts.

They help them see what they are good at, what they are not, and where they add value.

It probably won’t chart out the path to the perfect career.

But every experience adds a reference point.

And with each one, they gain a little more clarity and confidence about their gifts.

That clarity helps them take better steps toward a future they probably can't picture yet.

Are you someone who never thought you'd be doing what you do today?