The Question

I am two days into my senior year at Dordt and I have already begun to hear the question, “Do you know what you want to do when you graduate in May?” To be honest, the idea of looking for a job and leaving Dordt scares me. While I think I am ready to be done with school and begin work, I do not know what I want to do yet. I am not sure what population I want to work with or even which state I will move to.
Here is the biggest issue: I am not sure I want to do “professional” social work. When I began college, I chose social work because I love people and want to serve them. More than anything, I want to live out my faith and share Christ’s love and hope with those who are hurting. I feel like social work is the most practical way I can live out my faith and follow God’s commands to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27) and “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.” (Micah 6:8) (Not that you can’t do those things in other careers; you certainly can. I just felt that this was the field I personally could best live them out.) The very core values of social work fit perfectly with what Scripture call us to: service, social justice, dignity and worth of human beings, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence.
That being said, I am terrified of having the “stigma” of being a professional. Next semester, I will be doing the “Professional Semester” in Chicago. Though I am excited about it, I am also not looking forward to it. I don’t necessarily want to act (and dress) like a professional. But more than that, I also do not want the relationships I have with the people I serve to be “I am the professional and you are the client.” So I took four years of college and will have a degree—big whoop. I don’t want people to think I think I am somehow better than them because of that. Of course, I am thankful for the knowledge I have learned and the education I have received, I just am not sure how to use it in a way that does not cause a division between me and the people I work with.
This summer I really learned that what I want to do with my life is incarnational ministry—living among those I serve and being on their level. I remember how some of the family advocates at Joshua Station would talk in frustration about the way some of the social workers acted towards the residents. It seems like many of the social workers viewed the residents more like cases to be handled than beautiful, individual human beings with stories and strengths and families. My biggest fear in social work is that I will begin to see human beings—created in the image of God—as cases to be handled.
If, as a Christian, I am called to “walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6), how do I do that as a professional? Jesus was not a professional in a place of power (though He had immeasurable power as God’s Son); rather, he served and loved the people around Him in a very humble way. He ate with them, got dirty with them, and died with them. He did not have a 9-5 schedule and certain professional boundaries with the people. He did not dress in slacks and nice shirts and make appointments and refer to the people as “cases.” His service and love was a lifestyle, not a career. I guess that is what I am getting at. I don’t want social work to be my career; I want it to be my lifestyle. I do not want it to be a 9-5 job, I want it to be a 24/7 job. I don’t want to be professional; I want to be passionate.
So where will I be in 9 months? Only God knows. What do I want to do when I grow up? Love my God and serve the people He puts in my life. As for the details, I will trust God and wait.