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Would you choose faith over career?

vi edit

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
***First off, this is not a thread intended to ignite any flame wars. Please honor that request and keep it civil.***

My fiancee works at one of the largest hospital sites in the midwest in the Pharmacy department. One of the Pharmacists that she works with has recently(within the last year) been chosen as a mentor for a highly revered Cardiology teaching program. This position is very prestigious and the selection process was very rigourous. This pharmacist originally moved out to this area to help build a chapter of her church. I don't know what denomination she is, and I really don't think it's *that* relevant to the topic.

Well, now her church wants her to move back to where she orignally was because that chapter is hurting and needs help. She choose to move back and help her church.

I am not a man of faith, so this move left me completely speachless. I couldn't believe that a person would just up and leave a job as prestigious as hers, and that happened to pay probably close to 6 digits a year, for a calling of her church.

Can someone help a non-religious man understand this? Would any of you choose your faith over your career? I really admire her devotion, but I just have trouble rationalizing it.
 
well, i'm not a man of faith either (well, in anything but myself)... but i guess this is similar to family, to her. if my family asked me to do something like that, i would. some church communities are pretty closely knit, i guess.
 
My uncle left his job as an AF Officer (or whatever that would make him... I think that's what he was) to go through seminary & become a pastor. Years of schooling, training, etc - left it all behind.

Viper GTS
 
Hi vi_edit:

I'm afraid your request for civility won't last long as religion threads turn ugly fast, but here is my answer to your question:

I would indeed place my faith before career. I already place my family and health before my career, and my faith is as important to me as those are.

But it depends greatly. In this case, she left to help out a church that she helped start. If I were in the same boat, I'd weigh in my duties to family first (does my family need the money and stability from this new career move?) as to me my family obligation is integral to my faith.

It comes down to this - if one believes that there is more to our existance than this one life, money and career become less important in the long run.
 


<< Can someone help a non-religious man understand this? Would any of you choose your faith over your career? I really admire her devotion, but I just have trouble rationalizing it. >>


Well....it all depends on the situation, first off.
I'm going to assume that she wasn't "coerced" into giving up her job....religious groups (and I'm a Christian--I've observed this kind of behavior) have a tendency to guilt-trip people into helping them.

So assuming that....if it's what you truly love to do, you'd give up almost anything to be able to do it. Money's not so much an issue as personal satisfaction.
To put it in a more "secular" light, consider someone who could make 6 figures or more being a doctor, but instead they go run a clinic in a 3rd world country where they can barely scrape by.
Or....a lot of people who could be a lot "richer" working in the civilian world devote their lives to using their skills in the military world. For these people, the satisfaction of using your skills to serve your country is greater than the worth of the money....

I love my job, but I'd toss it in a second to be a kayak instructor, no matter what the pay. ANd I probably will one of these days.
 
That sounds to me more like loyalty to her Church as opposed to reasons of Faith itself. Perhaps she felt she could make more of a difference in her work with the Chuch than her pharmacy position, or perhaps since she was originally from that area, she had the added perk of old friends/family and that was incentive enough.

Possibly she didn't enjoy the 'prestigeous' position as much as one might imagine, etc., hard to 2nd guess a personal choice.
 
Vi- at the risk of being oversimplistic- her faith is part of what she perceives as her eternal salvation and she is doing what she thinks is the greatest good that she can do. She is following her beliefs. Her career is her job. From that perspective, which would you choose?
 


<< Vi- at the risk of being oversimplistic- her faith is part of what she perceives as her eternal salvation and she is doing what she thinks is the greatest good that she can do. She is following her beliefs. Her career is her job. From that perspective, which would you choose? >>



heh, didn't think about it that way 😛 guess i would choose moving over the flames of hell too 😀
 
It comes down I guess to how important your faith is. Would i choose faith over career? No, I wouldn't even choose it over a beer. To others it is far more important. Kinda sucks to be them but I undertand it.
 


<< Vi- at the risk of being oversimplistic- her faith is part of what she perceives as her eternal salvation and she is doing what she thinks is the greatest good that she can do. She is following her beliefs. Her career is her job. From that perspective, which would you choose? >>

That's a good point. A person's job is not necessarily their way of defining themselves. For her maybe a job is job and if she makes enough to live by, the rest is extraneous. If nothing else, it's an interesting question of how a person defines themselves. Are you defined by what you do or by what you believe?
 
Pastor at my church had his M.S. in electrical engineering before he decided to go back to school and study ministry.
 
I know of a number of professionals that left their careers for working in the mission field. Doctors, dentists, dairy farmers( they were doing quite well), and have al said that it was the best move that they ever made.
 
I guess what sort of makes it hard to rationalize for me is that my career IS my faith. I put my faith into myself to do the best job that I can. I've just been told since I was young that a solid work ethic is one of the best traits a person could have. I was raised catholic and the idea of "faith" never really rubbed off on me in a spiritual/religious sense. Church was more of a place to get forgiven for your sins every Sunday.

I dunno. Just that I had a very different upbringing and the idea of dumping your career for your church would have never been thought of. That's really why it's hard for me to comprehend ones decision to do that.

Another thing is that I guess I envy her some, in that she has as much "faith" in her faith that she'll just dump something that she spent 10 years acheiving.
 


<< I guess what sort of makes it hard to rationalize for me is that my career IS my faith. I put my faith into myself to do the best job that I can. I've just been told since I was young that a solid work ethic is one of the best traits a person could have. I was raised catholic and the idea of "faith" never really rubbed off on me in a spiritual/religious sense. Church was more of a place to get forgiven for your sins every Sunday.

I dunno. Just that I had a very different upbringing and the idea of dumping your career for your church would have never been thought of. That's really why it's hard for me to comprehend ones decision to do that.

Another thing is that I guess I envy her some, in that she has as much "faith" in her faith that she'll just dump something that she spent 10 years acheiving. >>

It's good to hear that you're not writing her off as crazy or an idiot for following what she believes. It says a lot about you.

I'd have to say that I envy people that have that kind of courage and conviction.

🙂
 
<< For her maybe a job is job and if she makes enough to live by, the rest is extraneous. >>

I think that's the answer. The problem is phrasing the question as "faith over career". For people like her, it's not an either/or. She does not see it as giving up a career. I have known quite a few people who have acted similarly.

My brother-in-law quit his nursing career and became a missionary in Kenya for 10 years. A guy in my church gave up a huge promotion because it would have meant relocating, and he believed he is meant to stay here. He doesn't believe he sacrificed his career - but if he had thought God was calling him to accept the promotion, he would have accepted. People like that don't put their career ahead of everything else. They believe that if they follow God's leading, then God will take care of them, and they find great satisfaction in that.
 
God is everywhere, I don't see the need to go to a particular place because of faith. So I don't think I would do the same thing. If family were involved, then, yes, I would.
 
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