Hello world. If you’re still following me, then I’m sorry for the unfamiliar name that is suddenly appearing on your dashboard. If you unfollowed me, then I wish you the best with your Tumblr travels. May your future follows post more often than I do.

Here’s a long post for you. Read if you dare.

Recently, my mind has been flooded with many thoughts concerning one focus: my career. I am a Mechanical Engineering student, but my resume screams Software Engineering. I chose MechE to change the world with one engineering solution at a time. I wanted to make a real impact by making real products. Yet, here I am with multiple developer positions under my belt. I’m not saying that software companies aren’t making a real impact, I just wanted to build real physical products. So, WHAT AM I?! Engineer or developer? Ah, but this frivolity is for another time. What’s more pressing is of a deeper resolution.

Do you know those feel-good stories told by pastors and speakers everywhere? Where a kid is changed by Jesus and becomes a ninja missionary in a godless land? I’ve heard so many. I feel that many churches/fellowships measure success by how many of their members went into a full time ministry position. “Yes lads, your very own [insert church/fellowship] alumni/member is now making 1.4 converts a day as a missionary in the land of Catania (the ‘c’ is pronounced like an ‘s’). And did you know [insert another member from church/fellowship] is now a full time pastor at the giga-church up in [urban city]? How wonderful!”

Perhaps you feel there is a bitterness in my tone. There is none. But it has made me think, “so I’m not a success if I don’t go full-time ministry? They won’t mention my name during feel-good-story-sharing meetings?” That part doesn’t really bug me. The thought that was most pressing was, “what happens if I just simply become an engineer/developer. I’ll get $80k-ish a year and live in a good house and go to church and serve the Lord.” That option felt so empty compared to the grand stories of missionaries abroad.

But.

Just a couple days ago, such a simple question concluded all my worries. “If there’s nobody to be a salt and light in the workforce, how will they ever get a chance to see and hear about Jesus?” Yes yes, it is quite a simple question. A very obvious one too. But I never really thought about it. Now, I’m at peace with where God will lead me. I no longer have to feel like I’m not being the best Christian I can be if I choose to go to the workforce. Because the truth is, the souls working in the soulless companies need Jesus just as much as the souls barely living in the starving countries.

It doesn’t mean that God is calling me 100% to the workforce or missions. I don’t even know what I’m going to do after I graduate. It just means that I am confident that wherever I go, God will use me in a way that is glorifying to Him.

Thank God for the gospel in giving me purpose and meaning in Jesus so that I don’t have to strive for purpose and meaning in the world. For the former leads to life, whereas the latter leads to death, burn-out, and chasing wind.