Times they are a-changin’.

I’m starting a new job soon. For the last two and a half years the second largest banking corporation in the world have been paying me to turn up and sit at my desk for 7 hours a day. Well, they’ve maybe been paying me to do a bit more than that but recently it had become so dull I felt I was just sitting there staring at my screen all day long.

A change was needed.

I could have switched allegiance and joined the largest banking corporation in the world - who pays more. But that’s not the change I was looking for. Instead I’ve decided on a complete career change and joining an organisation of approximately 8 people.

Whilst becoming increasingly disillusioned with my daily activities I was asking myself "what exactly do I want from a job?" It struck me that the ideal situation would be to have a job doing something you love doing and just happen to get paid for it. We all know people out there who love their job, don’t mind doing overtime and actually want to talk about what they do when they’re away from work. I’m not one of those people. In fact, I wonder if I ever will be. This is because of all the things that I love doing I’m not good enough at any of them to turn it into a career. A couple of examples:

I love playing guitar. I play in church quite often and get by ok. It’s one of my favourite daydreams to make a living by being in a rock band. I don’t wish to be hugely famous, just a bit. How great it would be to be performing in front of hundreds (It’s a modest dream) of people and wowing them with my musical abilities! I wouldn’t sell out either and write a commercial album, no, no, I’d be true to the music.

Cooking is another passion of mine. I find it very therapeutic. I’m also of the opinion that most of the time food tastes better if you’ve cooked it yourself. This is certainly the case in my house anyway. This predilection to enjoy my own cooking used to particularly annoy a university flatmate of mine. When I’d cooked a meal for us all I would always be the first to declare how tasty it was. Apparently this had a slight whiff of arrogance about it. Anyway, I’d like to be a Chef. I think it would be extremely satisfying to have people praising the gastronomic delights that I have created. All the more so because I would agree with them.

These things are fun to dream about, but these days I find myself becoming too practical – even in my daydreams! With the rock-star dream, for example, I realise I would have to travel a lot, which on one level would be fun but I’m sure it would get tiring and old very quickly. With both of the above careers I would have to work evenings, this would mean I wouldn’t get to see much of my wife and my sleeping pattern would be disturbed. How annoying that these thoughts are sneaking into my daydreams!! This is the difference between being a teenager and a person in his mid-twenties - Practical daydreaming!

I wonder at what point this starts to happen. When is it that most of us acknowledge we’re not going to be the best in the world at anything? Is it the moment you graduate from University? Is it when you get married? Is it when you get a job and realise that life will always have an element of monotony about it? I suspect it’s different for different people. And even then it comes and goes. Although at times I am resigned to life as it is there are many other times when I dream. I dream small and I dream of great things. I dream of some things never changing and dream of the changes that need to take place. As a Christian I believe that God can work in people’s lives in incredible ways. We can dream all we want, the more the better because God says in his word that He can and will achieve things greater than we can ever imagine.