I didn’t really ever want to be a lumberjack. I like to start my posts with something silly. Then people will say “I thought he was silly, but he’s quite actually sensible”. But maybe they’ll say “I thought he was silly, but he’s even sillier than I thought.” 🙂
Seriously, I dreamt of being a rock star, but that never happened. I enjoy reading rock star biographies. One thing I learned from them is that it isn’t as much fun as I thought. 🙂
When I was in my early teens, I thought that I’d like to be a psychiatrist or a psychologist. I don’t think that there would have been an easy pathway to doing that. And I think that my view of what they did came from watching movies. 🙂
I had this notion that someone would lie on a couch and tell me their problems, and I would solve them for them. Well, any of us can attempt that, and we might be of some help. But some conditions aren’t easily solved. And thankfully, nowadays there are an astonishing amount of resources that help us address minor mental health issues.
After that, I decided that I wanted to be a metalwork teacher. I wasn’t particularly good at practical subjects, but I loved the smells and sounds of the metalwork room, and I was very drawn to science and technology.
To enter teaching training college, you could either go through second-level school and get your Leaving Certificate. Or, you could start an apprenticeship as a fitter, electrician, or motor mechanic and then go to college. The benefit of the second option is that you got paid throughout 🙂. It just meant that your teacher training course was more condensed. And that’s the path that I took.
I never really considered not being a metalwork teacher, but I sometimes wonder how things would have worked out if I remained a maintenance fitter. A maintenance fitter maintains factory machinery and makes new parts where that’s feasible to do. But in the 1980s, the manufacturing industry declined in Ireland. I remember watching a man on TV saying that in the near future, people will need several careers throughout their life. It sounded scary, but what he said was true.
I committed my life to Christ when I was 18, and I threw myself into evangelism and church work. That became my main interest. Some people that I knew became full-time missionaries or pastors.
I felt drawn to missionary work. I wasn’t sure if it was feasible, but at times missionary organizations were open to taking on full-time people – even people like me 🙂. I worked as a voluntary evangelist with London City Mission, and I did have some discussions about staying on there full time.
I did consider that, but at that stage, I had the option of training as a metalwork teacher. I thought that it might be more sensible to do that and do my church work on a part-time basis. There was always a focus on what God was calling you to do. There’s something in that, but I think that in the Bible, prophets and apostles got a very definite call. If I hear some guy nowadays talking about God calling him, I’m always a bit skeptical. God does guide us, but there are many swings and roundabouts to consider. We shouldn’t see ourselves as Moses or the Apostle Paul.
But over time, I was more drawn to full-time Christian work. I did a little bit of metalwork teaching, but my main interest was in mission work. So, then I became a full-time missionary, here in Ireland.
Some are puzzled by the notion of a missionary in Ireland. Isn’t Ireland already a Christian country? From an evangelical perspective, the labels people put on countries is of no significance. The gospel goes out to individuals, and individuals are called to respond. So there’s always a place for evangelists.
One of my problems with the Irish scene is that everyone is told that they are a Christian from childhood, even if they show little interest in God or his word. And most of my friends and work colleagues were pretty much agnostic, or at least gave that impression. The percentage of evangelicals in Ireland is growing, but it’s still around 2.5%. You don’t need to be an evangelical to be a true Christian, but you do need a personal relationship with Jesus, and evangelicals, more than anyone else, appear to focus on this.
The advantage of being a full-time missionary is that is that you can give all your time and energy to learning, evangelizing and assisting with church activities. The downside is that if you work with a charitable organization and get paid, you always feel a bit guilty. You wonder if you could do some of the work and support yourself in a full-time job.
In my early years as a full-time Christian worker, I could see that I was making a big difference. The church that I worked with grew, and others were taking on some of the work that I did. Also, as I gained experience, I didn’t need as much time to prepare talks etc. So, as time went on, I wondered if I could go back into secular work and do much of the same Christian work. And that I did.
A slight miscalculation was that I didn’t realize how stressful secular work can be and how tired you are at the end of every day. I didn’t do much Christian work outside of Sunday, but I was very happy to speak, organize Sunday worship, create our fellowship website and get involved in some other activities. If I had been exceptionally gifted, like some of my favourite teachers, such as Wayne Grudem, I would have remained in full-time work. And I can think of a good number of missionaries that I personally know that are so effective that it would be a shame to see them leave full-time work. But occasionally I’ve come across some who weren’t making much of a difference and seem to be just trying to hang onto their job and justify their existance. I wouldn’t have wanted to end up like that 🙂.
My secular field was computing. I was keen on being a software developer, but I ended up as an instructional designer, creating elearning courses. I’m always a bit jealous of people in other areas of IT. But nowadays, you can easily pursue all these interests from your home computer, though I’m not sure if anyone would ever want to employ me as a software developer.
I’m pretty much retired now. I say “pretty much” because I don’t rule out the possibility of full-time employment. I sometimes think that it would be fun to go right back to 1977 and start all over again as an apprentice fitter. Well, I couldn’t go back to 1977, but I could take a course on welding or lathe work. But IT work is much simpler because I can do all that at home on my computer.
Will we work in heaven? I would imagine so, but it’ll be delightful work. When I look back on my careers, I can think of good days and bad days. It often depended on the people that you were working with. It’ll all be good in heaven. The Bible doesn’t give us a lot of explicit information about heaven. But there are some hints that we won’t be idle. Here are a few examples:
Matthew 25:21
“Well done, good and faithful servant… I will put you in charge of many things.”
1 Cor 6:2
“Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?”
Revelation 5:10
“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Revelation 7:15
“Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.”
Hibernia Gospel 