It is all very well finding our identity in Christ, but how do we translate that into career ambitions in a world that often says "if you're not on your way up, you're on your way out".

We live in an age of success. Whether people measure it by fame, wealth, power, promotions, sexual liaisons or marital bliss it doesn't matter, the important thing in the eyes of the world is that you have it! How do we as Christians compete in a success-driven world when we're told to ‘consider others better than ourselves' (Philippians 2:3)?

This drive not to fail has made us into a nation with a dog-eat-dog mentality, where the only ways to go are ‘up' or ‘out'. Unemployment is still regarded as failure rather than the economic reality it is. As graduates, many of us will have been instilled with a competitive drive for success and performance which will easily translate into career ambition.

In Luke 12:13-21 Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool - a man concerned with building up a bigger and bigger pile of wealth with the idea that it will bring him happiness. Jesus' conclusion on the matter is that anyone who pursues material wealth at the expense of their relationship with God is a fool.

A couple of years ago one of the High Street banks published a report on its pension fund. One of the figures to emerge from the report was that the people who reached the three executive levels within the bank on average only drew their pension for two years after retiring. The reason was not that they had enough to live on, but that they died! Sounds like a modern day parallel of Jesus' story.

This is not to say that having a successful career is wrong, but rather that if you rely on it as a means to buy your future happiness, then Jesus' judgement of fool is for you. The issue is not one of having ambition, but one of knowing what a good ambition is!

Career in Perspective

The Bible has many stories of people whose success could be measured by any worldly standards. David the victorious king, Solomon the wisest man on earth, Moses the great leader, Daniel the Prime Minister to three emperors, Paul the great evangelist, Elijah the man of God, even Jesus the founder of the most significant religious movement ever! But the key thing for each of these people, as far as the Bible is concerned, is not their worldly status, but rather the way that they choose to live their lives for God's glory.

In Genesis we have the account of Joseph and his amazing Technicolor [TV1] career: a career which bounces down and up to an extent experienced by few in our society. He starts as the favourite son of a major land owner; is sold by his brothers to some travelling slave traders; ends up working as a slave for an Egyptian civil servant; is sacked and goes to jail for several years; becomes an advisor to Egypt's Pharaoh; and is then made Prime Minister.

At the end of the story (in Genesis 45), his scared brothers try to make amends. Joseph graciously responds by acknowledging that it was God who put him in the position he is now in just so that he could save his family, and thereby God's people, from starvation.

All the way along, Joseph has had his eye on a bigger picture than merely his career. At every step he's been prepared to acknowledge God's hand in his success and apparent failure. Look at chapter 39 where we have the incident with Potiphar's wife, who tries in vain to seduce Joseph. Either side of this central account are two accounts of Joseph's career to which we should pay attention: verses 2-6, and verses 19-23. In the first section Joseph does so well at being a slave that he is promoted to head slave - he is put in charge of the whole household. What is the secret of his success? It is that God blessed him. More than that, God even starts to bless Potiphar because of Joseph! Then in the second section Joseph rises from being the new inmate in jail to being the most trusted prisoner, who is put in charge of running the jail. Why? Again it is because the Lord's presence is with Joseph, helping him in his chores.

The other really crucial thing to see here is that when Potiphar's wife attempts her seduction, Joseph remains faithful to God, ignoring the effect that this might have on his career and status in the household.

One implication of Joseph's story for us is that actually it really doesn't matter if our careers bounce up and down in the world's eyes. The important thing for us is to pursue, with every ounce of our being, God's glory and a lifestyle which is worthy of the good news we know in Jesus Christ.

Learning to think straight

Paul, writing in 1 Timothy is pretty straight. He says that ‘godliness with contentment is great gain. . . People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires. . .'. By contrast, he tells us to ‘flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.' (1 Tim 6: 6, 9, 11)

It is impossible to pursue wealth, fame or worldly success and at the same time flee such things. We have a different agenda from the world: the pursuit of Christ-like character. This is not to say that our careers may not rise to great heights - as we can see from some of the writers of this publication - but it should never be our all consuming aim.

In the West Satan is fighting the battle against the gospel by getting us to buy into the lie that heaven is a place on earth! Strings of bankrupt lottery winners nursing their addictions to alcohol, drugs, sex and luxury should have taught us a lesson or two. As a society though, we seem to have missed the point.

Fight the temptation to compare yourself to others, to assess how well or badly you're being treated. Instead, compare yourself to Jesus, and ask how much better you're being treated by God than you deserve! Don't get drawn into the endless battle of keeping up with the Joneses - you'll never win.

We need to learn an ongoing appreciation of God's ongoing faithfulness, even when the going gets tough (2 Peter 1:3-4). This should be coupled with a faithfulness on our part to trust God to get us to the place that he wants us to be when he most wants us to be there (Proverbs 3:5-6; 16:9).