The World's Best Employment Agent

When you're just starting out in the world, there's always a handful of dreamers who advise you to do what you love for a living. That sounds nice, but it often seems an impossible reality. Then there’s that Bible verse that says if you delight yourself in God, He will give you the desires of your heart. Well, I learned that one's absolutely true, even if you're somewhat uncertain about what your heart wants.

In all my 46 years, the hardest question for me was always what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think I may have finally figured it out; however, along the way, I've gotten some amazing jobs with the help of the world's best employment agent. One job in particular, I never would have imagined myself doing, especially not when I was young, growing up on Long Island, New York.

I'm told I was a mischievous little kid, not because I was bad per se, but because it was fun. So when I was six and saw my neighbor was outside, the one who worried when I climbed trees, I pretended not to notice her and climbed to the very top of our oak tree, hanging out on a little branch, swinging and laughing to myself as she ran panicked into her house to quickly phone my mom and alert her. Not horrible, but not exactly an angel either. Perhaps that's why my parents were so surprised when a Catholic bishop halted mid-procession at an ordination ceremony in Queens, putting his hand on my seven-year-old head and proclaiming, "He is one of us."

I didn't go on to become a priest, or attend seminary, or even sign up to be an altar boy. I stopped attending church when I was 18. And in my late thirties, while a Reiki volunteer at a hospice in Connecticut, I even laughed out loud when a minister suggested I consider becoming a chaplain. Sure I had a solid personal relationship with God by then, where He was actively guiding my life, but my relationship was still new, it was private, and I wasn't feeling moved to share it with everyone...yet.

When I relocated to Pennsylvania, switching hospices and positions, my office magically just happened to be next to the lead chaplain. Within a few days, I saw that my office job of managing people and things didn't seem nearly as interesting as his job of visiting patients and families in the community, mostly just being present with them, and occasionally talking about and to God. I decided then that I did indeed want to be a chaplain, and with zero training, I consulted with my employment agent to see what could be done.

According to the world, to be chaplain, you needed to meet a bunch of requirements, including but not limited to a masters of divinity, multiple units of clinical pastoral education (CPE), and an ordination and endorsement from a recognized faith group. I officially had none of those and calculated it would take 4-5 years to reach my goal if I followed man's way.

My employment agent steered me away from seminary, had me sign up for and got me enrolled in one unit of CPE (with the help of the lead hospice chaplain), and gave me the green light on an online ordination for "those who felt they were being called" (though I'll always feel my original ordination was when I was seven). During CPE I learned that a lot of other chaplain candidates were also seeking work and going about it the more accepted and traditional way, masters in divinity and all. But since I had prior experience with my employment agent getting me amazing positions, I moved faithfully forward until His plans for me played out.

I remember it was about a year later and I was in temporary career limbo substitute teaching. I learned that one of my coworkers from the PA hospice was now a volunteer coordinator at Heartland Hospice and that it would be very easy for me to start giving and teaching Reiki there as a volunteer, almost immediately. We made plans for me to talk to the staff and introduce the new program, then suddenly everything was put off for months because they were moving their office.

When I finally did get to give my talk, it magically just happened to be on the same week their chaplain had quit. The clinical director, clinical supervisor, and office manager were all fellow transplants from New York. They all thought a masters in counseling was as good as a masters in divinity, and with my unorthodox ordination and my one unit of CPE, they hired me as their new spiritual care counselor. Ayyyy ohhh, God truly does work in mysterious ways! And that job--that I never would have picked on my own had He not led me there in steps--filled the desires of my heart for the years I was blessed to have it.