Do you prefer healing or helplessness?

There is an interesting story in the Bible about a man who had lived with some infirmity for 38 years. He spent time at the Pool of Bethesda which, according to Jewish legend, would heal the first person who stepped into it when an Angel stirred the water. Jesus met this man there one day and asked what appears to be a rather foolish question: Do you want to be made well?

Why would he not want to be made well? Why else did Jesus think he spent time at this pool? Anyone in their right mind would prefer well-being over illness, wouldn't they? What is really interesting is that the man never answered the question. Rather, he offered an excuse. He didn't have anyone to help him into the pool and someone always got in the water first. He was depending on someone else to help him become well. Frankly, it sounds like a lot of people today.

We live in a land of unbelievable opportunity. We have freedoms that people living in other country will never know. We have opportunities that do not exist anywhere else for people to do amazing things with their lives. But, we have a significant percentage of our population waiting on someone else to take care of them. They depend on a government check to provide them with the bare necessities of life instead of taking advantage of the opportunities available to them to rise about that.

The government is discussing another providing another check to Americans due to so many out of work while at the same time companies are trying hard to hire new workers. People are demanding that additional money be added to unemployment checks which, in many cases, provide more income than they were making when they were working. Exactly how does that provide any incentive for someone to look for a job when they can sit home and make more than they would working. Others are demanding that minimum wage be raised. Why does anyone want to remain in a minimum-wage job anyway? Minimum wage jobs are there to help people get work experience so they can go out and find better employment.

As a senior in high school I started a minimum wage job at .75 an hour. Before graduating I had asked for and received pay raises that increased my salary to 1.25 an hour. Just a few weeks before graduating I requested another .25 an hour which was refused, so I quit and went to work for another business the next week for 1.50 an hour. As soon as I turned 18 I went to work for another company at almost twice that salary. No one needs the government to guarantee them a living wage if they are willing to advance themselves and do what it takes to deserve a higher salary. To break the chains of helplessness one must break his dependence on others to provide for him. Becoming mature occurs when we begin to take responsibility for ourselves.

While many people are dependent on the government for their income, many more are dependent upon credit to maintain their lifestyle. There is a reason it's called Mastercard. As long as one is dependent on credit it will be your master. Talk about helplessness! Look how long it took for the pandemic to cost people their jobs before they began to scream that they couldn't pay their bills, they couldn't pay their mortgage or rent, they couldn't buy groceries. We were in the greatest economic boom in decades, and yet millions of people were living paycheck to paycheck with nothing in reserve. Why? I imagine it was because many of them had more money going out each month than they had coming, and they made up the difference with plastic.

Do you want to be made well? If financial distress is making you feel helpless maybe it's time for plastic surgery. Like a lot of physical healing that occurs, there might be some temporary discomfort, but it will be worth it when you begin to heal financially. If you need help getting out of debt and achieving financial security, check out the plan Dave Ramsey promotes in his best-selling book
The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. This plan works.

You can go through life feeling helpless or you can find healing for every aspect of your life. The choice is yours, but remember, choices have consequences.

You get to choose your life

One of the most life-giving lessons I've learned in my seven decades is that I have the opportunity to choose many of the things I experience in life. Obviously, there are some things we do not get to choose. There are persons who are born with handicaps who would never have chosen those handicaps, but they still get to choose how they will respond to those limitations. If you doubt that you need to read What's Your Excuse?: Making the Most of What You Have. It's the story of John Foppe, a man born with no arms who refused to let that handicap limit him. It's a powerful book about how each of us can choose how to respond to the challenges life presents to us.

Foppe could have chosen to be a "perpetual victim." You know those people. They are always blaming others for the bad things that have happened to them. They refuse to take any responsibility for themselves. It's the government's responsibility to provide for them, or the church's, or their family's.

There is no doubt that some people have had rough times. They may not have had the best childhood. They may have suffered abuse or neglect. They may have faced more struggles than most people. I would never discount that, but that is in the past. Maybe there was nothing they could do about their circumstances back then, but now they are adults. They can choose to live in the past and blame their problems on the things that happened back then or they can choose to live in the present and prepare themselves for a better future.

It's time that people begin to take responsibility for their lives. That's called maturity. It's being a grown-up. Instead of demanding that the government increase the minimum wage, do something that will entitle you to earn more. All raising the minimum wage does is cost people jobs. If you want to earn more money, be worth more.

During my senior year of high school I worked at a local supermarket. I was in a class that went to school a half-day and worked the other half. I bagged groceries for .75 cents an hour. I worked about 50 hours a week (You can't do that now while going to school!). In a few weeks I was promoted to a stocker and given responsibility for ordering stock for an entire aisle of products. I requested a raise and received it. A few months later I was given responsibility for a second aisle. Now I was ordering product and responsible for stocking two aisles in that store. I got another raise. Some of the other students in the class complained to the teacher because I was making more than they were. When he challenged me about that I explained if they wanted to make more money all they had to do was to be worth more. After that conversation I asked for another raise and got it, too!

No one can hold you back except you. No one can limit what you can achieve but you. People tell me they can't get a better job because they don't have the education and can't get it.  I earned my bachelor's degree at the age of 46 while working full-time in a factory and pastoring a church. I got my master's degree at 58 while working a full-time job and my doctorate at 62 while working that same job. Don't tell me you can't get the education you need. Besides, you can get a good job without a college education. There are employers who will train people who want to work. Why should anyone worry about a minimum wage job when there are good jobs out there for those willing to pursue them?

Your choices are not limited to jobs or salaries. You get to choose the kind of marriage you will have, the way you raise your children, your financial security, your character, your happiness and a host of other aspects of your life. Quit living in the past and begin making choices that will improve your life now and in the future. The choice is yours.

How can you stay employable?

I've done something that not many people entering the work force today will do. I worked 30 years for the same company before retiring. In fact, our company had a 30-and-out early retirement program, and I retired from there at 47 years of age. Very few will have the opportunity to work that long for any one company. In fact, we are told that people starting their careers today will average 11 different full-time jobs lasting two years or more, and that they will find themselves working in at least five different careers during their working life. There is no such thing today as job security. What we need to strive for in today's world is employment security.

As we come out of this pandemic, many businesses will not reopen. Their employees will need to find new jobs. This is not their fault; they did nothing wrong. But, it does demonstrate how tenuous our jobs are. No matter how good we were at our work, that job can be gone tomorrow. It might be that the business had financial problems. Your company might have been bought out by another company who already had people to do your job. Your job might have been replaced by robots. Any number of things can happen to cause your job to go away. How do you stay employable?

The first thing is to always understand that you are self-employed. You may have a boss who signs your check, but you are self-employed. You work for You, Inc. The most important person you will report to each day is yourself. You have only one employee, and he or she strives every day to do the very best work possible. You continually invest in that employee to make sure he or she is ready for any challenges that might come. I was talking with someone the other day about her job, and she told me she never worried about losing a job. She knew she would find another one quickly, and her attitude convinced me she was right. She worked for You, Inc., and she knew she was employable regardless of what might happen.

You have to continually increase your skills. Always remember: What got you here won't keep you here. If you are not continually growing personally and professionally you will get run over one day. It's critical that you are on the cutting edge of your profession learning as much as you can. Read. Attend conferences that will increase your skills. Cross train when possible so you can perform more tasks within your company.

Don't just increase your skills within your current job. Stretch yourself. Stay inquisitive about things. Learn about things outside your profession. This will help you watch for trends in the workplace and give you insights into other careers.

Maintain an outstanding work ethic. Arrive early and stay late. Be willing to take on new challenges. Don't settle for good enough, but strive for excellence in everything you do.

Network. This is more than passing out 100 business cards every week. Build relationships with people. Zig Ziglar used to say that if you helped enough other people get what they want, you will be able to get anything you want. Make it a goal to impress everyone you come in contact with because one day you may want to ask them to help you get a new job. I'm not talking about creating a false impression, but impress them with your personality, your work ethic and your genuine concern for other people.

Finally, stay flexible. Remember, you may be looking at five different careers in different fields. Just because you are an accountant today doesn't mean you will be one five years from now. This is why you need to stretch yourself.

Few people will enjoy job security in the 21st century, but each of us can have employment security if we follow these steps. There is always a job for the person who is prepared.