18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”[a]20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-20 ESV)
I have had a long career in the same profession, my wife has as well. We have both been relatively successful at doing what we do. We have not made fortunes, but we have lived comfortably. But it has not come without its problems, its up’s and down’s. I still often wake up, as I did this morning, having bad work dreams. Luckily they were not about my current employer, but about past jobs and past lives.
I watch my children struggling to develop their own careers in their chosen profession, but I see how they struggle too. We all end up with a bit of corporate PTSD, even when we do not necessarily work for a corporation. My son struggles with some PTSD from his time in the military and I know many others who struggle with different forms of stress disorder.
Even the disciples were hounded with their own form of stress from those who were in power. They were continually set upon and if they did not suffer from a similar form of stress disorder it had to be because of Jesus and how He prepared them.
The Lord has ways of preparing us for the stress we are going to live under. He also calls us to, sometimes, work with areas where we are normally uncomfortable. This is so that we can grow where He will ultimately plant us. Even Christ cried tears of blood when he was dealing with the much more difficult stress of the coming cross. His Father saw Him through, and He will see us through.
