These are a few of my favorite things.
Anyone who has heard me talk about my #careergoals knows that the three things in the title box above encompass them.
Sex and the City‘s Carrie Bradshaw and Cosmopolitan magazine, headquartered in Hearst Tower in New York City, the setting of about 99.99% of my dreams: they embody all that I want my future to be.
Now, anyone who has watched (or even heard of, really) Sex and the City knows that the show is about just that, sex and the city. Scandalous.
As for Cosmo, the magazine’s cover usually looks about the same month to month: the big three-letter word in bold, telling women exactly how to be their very ~*best*~.
I honestly believe that hardly anyone who knows me would say that the above mentioned are topics I aspire to write about for the rest of my life, at least I hope not.
But they are my career goals.
Confusing, I know.
I’ve been known to say my dream job is “Carrie Bradshaw + Jesus,” which sounds like quite the paradox, mostly because it is.
While I know that a journalist who owns dozens of pairs of $400+ shoes is the most unrealistic expectation to ever exist, part of me desires to be that fabulous writer who spends her time doing what she loves, writing about her passions and her life.
But my passions and my life differ in major ways.
I want to write about Jesus and the way his love transforms sinful hearts and turns lives completely upside down in the best possible way. I want to share my story, both the big picture and the daily details the only way I know how, in writing.
This is where Cosmo comes in.
I would bet a large sum of dollars that the word “Jesus” has likely never appeared within the pages (or webpages) of Cosmopolitan magazine. So the real question lies, how will I be able to share my story through the venue of my passion and my dream job?
I won’t.
Well, not in the way you would think, anyway.
What I can do, though, what I plan to do, is pursue my dream of living in New York City and writing for Cosmo. I will embody the oh-so-contradictory statement of “Carrie Bradshaw + Jesus.” I will be a loyal employee and write my very best articles while keeping my beliefs out of my stories, because that is what good journalists do.
But I will share my story, my passion for Jesus through the way I carry myself in the office on a daily basis. I will build strong relationships, friendships, with my fellow employees, not only to make work easier, to make it more enjoyable, but to share the love of Jesus in the most personal way.
I once heard a quote by Martin Luther that impressed in me an urgent desire: “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”
This quote, along with the reading of Tradecraft and Life on Mission in preparation for my time in NYC this summer, further revealed to me the idea, the fact, that all Christians are called to surrender their lives to the mission of God.
This doesn’t always mean quitting your secular job(s) and moving to an unreached nation (unless that’s what God tells you to do, then you do it). Sometimes this means using your vocation, your skills, your talents, your God-given gifts to reach the lost around you, whether those are your coworkers, your neighbors, the woman you see at the coffee shop every Monday, strangers you meet on your commute to work.
The title of “missionary” goes beyond the picture that pops into your mind when you read or hear the word. Missionaries live next door to you, they work with you, they go to your local church. Their mission mindset doesn’t begin and end on a summer or spring break mission trip, it lasts 365 days a year.
It began the moment Christ became their savior, the day he became yours. It ends the day we breathe our last. God’s mission lives inside each of His children and He has blessed us with opportunities to live it out daily in every encounter we face.
Missionary is not a title reserved for super-spiritual Christians who surpass the common wisdom and devotion of “everyday” Christ-followers. Christian and missionary are synonymous. We cannot be one and not be the other.
So, I will invest in the lovely city of New York with my whole heart. I will work, God willing, on the 38th floor of Hearst Tower for a magazine whose cover is often turned around and hidden in the Walmart check-out line. I will carry Carrie Bradshaw’s love for shoes and writing and mix it with a love for Jesus. I will be a missionary and a Christian, I will be a journalist, I will be a Cosmo girl, I will be a New Yorker. I will be a combination of things that seemingly do not mesh, which will draw questions, which will lead to conversations about Jesus and what he has done for me, for them, for you.
Follow me in this mission to make God’s mission part of everyday life. Pursue your passions, both secular and Christian, mix them and use them for God’s glory.
Comments