AboutMrs. Priscilla Lyons Expertise I have time for you. The Bible has been my guiding light for
most of the 56 years of my life. My missionary parents in Brazil kindled
a love for God`s Word by their example and their love for truth. The
Lord has blessed my husband and me with responsible, independent
children who love and serve the Lord and are our best friends. I would
enjoy discussing any subject or problem from a Biblical perspective.
I am lost and I dont know what to do. I wish you could shed some light for me.
I'm 28 years old and a degree holder in business studies. Currently working in the customer service dept for almost 3 years. Although the company that currently i'm working for is good, i dont like my role in customer service. i want a change. i know that if i continue working in my dept, the chances of getting a promotion and salary increase are there.
however, i feel that i dont learn much in my current position. apart from improving my communication skills, writing skills..there's nothing much. i'm afraid if i decide to resign later, i dont know what job that i can choose apart from customer service. and, of course, i might not get high salary if i decide to venture into another field other than customer service. i want to have a skill, just like those people in Human Resource, computer programming, accounting because i know they will surely get a job easily with higher pay if they decide to look for a new job. but, customer service? i dont think so...
anyway, fast forward...i always like to do event management, i.e. managing and coordinating the logistics of an event, get to travel to different countries for the events. although i've never worked in this industry, i really want to give it a try. God must be very kind to me and answered my prayers..cos today an event management company wanted to hire me as event coordinator for their conferences, seminars and workshops. I'm going to work with the event manager and manage & coordinate the conferences and workshop. It'll be almost 80% administrative work and I get to travel to different countries to coordinate the events. Plus, I'm also getting an increment of 30% from my current salary.
I am very happy that the company wanted to hire me. I mean, I should be happy, right?
But right now, I'm confused, worried and scared. I'm desparately looking for job now because i want a change. I want a change in career before its too late. but why am i so worried at the same time? is it bcos i've been working in this dept for 3 years, i know almost everything, i'm a senior executive/team leader in my dept. I'm familiar with the company, the people. I'm almost in my comfort zone. I'm afraid to change. what if i cant handle the new job? what if my new boss puts high expectation on me but i cant perform? what if i cant maintain in my new job for long? a lot of my colleagues have resigned because they know they wont have much future advancement in my dept. but..as much as i want to resign and do something that i like..did i make a wise decision? i have not tendered my resignation letter yet, bcos i'm uncertain. i keep telling myself not to simply accept a new job just bcos i want to get out of my company. i have a feeling that this new job is going to be good. but...
i just dont know wats wrong with me. my close friend said this is a good opportunity. with higher salary and a new challenge..something that i have the ability to do..they trust that i can do it..but why i have this weird feeling? this 'scared, afraid' feeling..
pls help!
Answer Dear Jess,
Being confused, worried and scared is a natural reaction to a big change. Some people hide it better than others, but I'd be more concerned if you didn't have such feelings in this situation.
The sooner you give your resignation letter, the better it will be for the customer service dept., which will give you a better reference for the future.
Even if you flopped on your new job, you should easily get another customer service job, right? So you don't have to worry about being out on the street with no income.
If you don't learn computer programming and accounting on your new job, and you want to add that to your skills in case you decide to end up in Human Resources if the new job doesn't pan out or last, you could study such skills online, from books, or even from community college night classes.
Emotional concerns seem to be the only downside to your job change, and those will no doubt resolve in a short time after learning your new job.
Anyway, the real blessing God may want for you is to recognize your present emotional needs as a wake-up call to your eternal needs. God loves you too much to want you to enjoy this life so much that you neglect to prepare for eternity.
Genesis 1:31 and James 1:17 make it clear that everything good is from God. Everything bad comes from being apart from God (disobedience, sin) which caused death and suffering as humans pulled away from their Source of life and everything good.
You no doubt know how God, the Son, took our sins upon Himself and paid the penalty of separation (death, both physical and the more real separation from the Source of physical and spiritual life), so that we can accept His perfection in place of our sins, in order to live forever. Most people would rather hang on to what little physical life they have, rather than give it up for eternal life. Luke 9:23 "If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for My sake, the same shall save it."
It is when we experience turmoil like your emotional stress, that we realize that we can't even handle this temporary physical life as we were created to live. How much worse will be an eternity separated completely from the Source of life and everything good forever! God didn't make robots programmed to obey Him. He wants us to trust Him and love Him for His goodness.
If you have entrusted your life to God, thanking Him for His payment of what you owe, then you have His presence and power in you to deal constructively with the turmoil that comes your way.
II Timothy 1:6-7 God has given you abilities which He would enjoy developing as you follow His Word (the Bible) by putting your trust in Him.
Shine for Him!
Priscilla
