Chapter 28

Choosing a Career

The world is filled with many exciting career opportunities, but a greater work awaits us—If we
are led by the Spirit, our chosen career can become a launching board for great works of faith.

In describing James's transition to a new career, in no way does the author wish to
diminish basketball or athletics as a vocation. There is a place in life for all such things.

Our choice of career might be in athletics, in business, in law, in medicine, in education,
in government, in journalism, in agriculture, or in any of the other fields that exist in the world
today. There are many noteworthy career paths we can pursue in life that benefit humanity, that
improve our standard of living, and that create new technologies, products, and services for the
world’s consumption. Many of these professions are critical to our daily existence and, therefore,
important in supporting the growth of the Church itself.

The same can also be said of education. Never before have there been more choices and
opportunities for us to grow in knowledge. Today’s teachers and professors provide valuable
insight about the world around us. Great and exciting things can be learned through our high
school and university studies, providing us the opportunity to earn a living and be successful.

But we must decide to seek out our fortune only in and through the gospel. The more
important lessons of life, the ones that determine if we are happy or not, are learned outside of
school through our personal experiences. This is because great education, great knowledge, and
great career accomplishments obtained in this world will only make us all the more miserable if
they steer us away from our primary goals on earth and downward, ultimately, to a resurrection
in the terrestrial or telestial kingdoms. This was the very serious risk of free agency presented to
us in the preexistence––a risk that applies equally to Latter-day Saints and non-Latter-day Saints
both. The stakes in mortality are high. The pursuit of higher education and a successful career in
today’s sophisticated world can fill all of our waking hours, often competing with the gospel and
our families to become the keystone of our existence. It dominates our emotions, our time, our
choices, and can steer our passions away from that which is good.

Because, in reality, there is a greater work for us to do. As we shall see again and again
quite often in this book, the family is the primary means for accomplishing the work of the
Church. But it is also true that the family itself is sustained by, and is the chief beneficiary of the
vast array of blessings that come from the Church. The Church needs families and families need
the Church. A successful family, as measured by the world’s standards, is an extremely good

thing. But success of this kind is limited and temporary. A mirror image of Zion itself, a family
successful by the Lord’s standards, built solidly upon precepts of the restored gospel of Jesus
Christ, is the greatest achievement of mankind.

Consider the career and education goals of a lesser-known member of today’s world: a
humble fisherman—the head of a family in a poor, developing country.

The life of such a man might revolve around older technology and tools, such as the
small boat he uses to earn his living. He may have little or no formal education. His knowledge
of fishing might be adequate––like that had by the apostle Peter––but certainly not at the level of
many in other parts of the world who use modern fishing boats and other equipment.
Nevertheless, he strives to do the best he can with what he has been given in life, and he humbly
brings his products to market. He lives out his years working hard and picks up knowledge the
best he can along the way. Yet a man such as this becomes great if he has just one distinguishing
characteristic––he drinks deeply in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ brought to him by Latter-
day Saint missionaries, pictures of whom might be lovingly maintained by his wife in a photo
album alongside photos of their first trip to the nearest Latter-day Saint temple.

A humble and simple man like this in today’s world, who endures to the end, will receive
eternal increase and exaltation in the celestial kingdom. These are the greatest joys and
opportunities available to any of us. By the world’s standards, he is not a significant player; there
is no notoriety, no significant equity to be found in his home or business, and no impressive
career accomplishments to show off to friends and family. But in the Final Judgment, he receives
glory and blessings that exceed everything, that surpass everything. We surely wish this man the
opportunity to improve himself, and to educate his family as much as is in his power. But those
of us who have received substantial formal education, and who have exhausted ourselves year
after year in trying to improve our standing in the world, should really take a look again at what
we are doing and why.

Compare a man like this with the men and women of renowned professions, the careers
of whom we often seek after and admire: the CEO of a large company, a tenured professor with
advanced degrees, a skilled attorney, a successful politician, a doctor, or a great athlete. These
persons, if they are not careful, will miss out. The glory of the world whispers in their ears,
carefully leading them down diverse paths with earthly knowledge, riches, and accomplishments
as their guide. It may very well take them to an undesired destination—resurrection into a lower
kingdom. These professions offer greatness of a kind for a while, but no guarantee for the
eternities. If we allow this to happen, we will live out our existence in eternity, in the millennia
that lie ahead, with a perfect knowledge of that which we wish we could have had. There also,
we will probably see that we have been surpassed by others—like this poor fisherman—who
planned their lives wisely.

In the end, the difference between the celestial kingdom and all others is exponential in
nature, although it's near impossible for us to fully comprehend the differences. Can we even
compare the glory of the sun to the glory of the moon? Even using words and terms we know
and understand, we might say such persons (including perhaps ourselves) will receive

exponentially less in everything––less in new knowledge, less in opportunities, less in
resurrected glory, and less in happiness.

On the other hand, we do need CEOs, we need professors, we need great athletes, we
need good government leaders, we need doctors, and we need to pursue education in our lives.
And certainly, we need some kind of profession in life, for in today’s society, financial support
of our families can be a daunting challenge. In the case of James, he, too, realized the importance
of choosing a career that would provide financial support for his family, but he made the
decision to subordinate his choice of profession to the gospel. He did this first in the planning of
his career beforehand as a teenager, and then secondly, in the execution of that plan after his
mission. Thus, he had two professions in life––one, the gospel and his family; and two, a project
manager in the family’s landscaping business. We can do the same thing. We cannot reverse any
of our past decisions, but we can work up a new plan today that subordinates our current
profession to the gospel and our families for the rest of our lives.

The hours available for each of these two professions of ours might be dictated at times
by factors we can’t fully control––financial needs, health issues, employment options, education
background, marketable job skills, location, economic cycles, government instability, and age.
But ultimately, what we desire now and what we desire most is what counts. We can establish a
new vocational plan with a single goal––exaltation in the celestial kingdom for ourselves, our
families, and the large, extended community of neighbors that live with us on this earth.

What impact will a decision like this have in the way we go to work every day, or how
we think of our future careers while still learning things in school?

Even a humble job at low pay can be the greatest and most glorious of professions if your
purpose there is to honor God, to serve the basic needs of your family, and to have it become a
launching board for you to bless the lives of others––to feed the Lord's sheep that graze all
around us. Under such circumstances, you come to work every day inspired, empowered with
faith and energy, and looking for opportunities to accomplish great things.

You become like Joseph of Egypt. You may start at the bottom of the employment food
chain, but then find an extra gear, a sixth sense of things, an extra advantage that enables you to
make an impact on the business and on the lives of those who work around you. Like Ammon
rounding up the king’s sheep, the desire to show forth great works to increase your coworker's
faith in God can provide you with a series of powerful spiritual gifts to guide you in your
employment tasks. You start out faithful over a few things, but ultimately become faithful over
many things. Inevitably, with these special gifts and advantages, you will probably move up the
ladder of success—prosperity often being a natural consequence of such things. So almost
accidentally as it were, you become a leader among your peers at work and extremely valuable to
the organization to which you belong. This, also, is the best way to experience happiness and
fulfillment in your career.

The same is true if you are still in school. You come to school ready to learn, ready to
study, your mind ready to listen. You work hard in your studies with the right perspective,
having a true vision of what you are doing and where you are headed. You understand that

college degrees and career accomplishments have no value in and of themselves; they are only a
foundation from which to launch yourself into the greater things—to serve your fellow man from
within the context of your future employment and within the context of your family life.

Success in one’s career will inevitably come as a result of choosing this path. Under these
conditions, a career successful in the eyes of the world becomes successful in the eyes of the
Lord. For if a CEO or a professor of a university is humble, and bows himself before God,
surely, he can do great things in life, blessing countless lives through important discoveries,
valuable products for the world, and a lifetime of good works. A CEO can serve both God and
man through his business activities, and a professor can do the same in his teaching and research.
Once the gospel becomes our first profession in life, our efforts in any secondary profession of
choice will be more blessed than ever.

The mysteries of God and the universe—how great they are! These come first.

The knowledge, the riches, and the notoriety bestowed upon us by the world—these
come second, if at all.