Monthly Archives: August 2019
Day jobs are the devil
Hey everyone,
I probably don’t have to tell you that day jobs are awful. Except for the lucky few who get to do what they love for the living, the rest of us suffer to make ends meet. Thankfully the internet has made it so the hobbies we enjoy can (lord willing) become our new income source.
It’s no secret that most of us don’t enjoy our jobs, or at least don’t enjoy them anymore. Whether its due to the repetitive nature of the job, a series of poor management decisions, poor managers, conflict with coworkers, poor working conditions, or any combination of those or more reasons. We only seem to stick around due to some level of insanity keeping us there (plus the fear of not having a paycheck next week).
I’m proposing that day jobs are not just bad, but literally tools of the Devil. (notice the capital there, yeah I mentioned that guy).
What do you enjoy? Is it working out? Coaching little league, writing, painting, sketching, flying, hunting, watching sports, playing sports, martial arts, etc. Odds are you don’t do any of those for a living, instead they are likely your hobbies. Why is that? Well at some point you probably decided you needed money, so you got a job. How is it that made these things you enjoy a hobby instead of your source of income?
Ease perhaps? Most things we enjoy are difficult to make a living off of. Don’t get me wrong some lucky people out there manage to do what they love, and I have nothing but respect for them… well that and perhaps a small dose of envy.
Your day job makes your hobby possible though right? Maybe yes, maybe no. Lets go to writing since this is an author blog of course.
My job makes it so I can self publish, grants me the ability to fund the process, and all that. But what is the cost?
The single biggest reason day jobs are the devil is they suck out your “prime time” in exchange for money. You likely adjust your sleeping schedule, and probably many parts of your life around your work schedule. This makes it so you tend to be alert and at your highest cognitive capacity while on the job. In the creative world its an expression that your job taking this time away from you can “suck out the soul” of your creativity.
On top of that, jobs take up time, emotional endurance, and energy. That is why most of us are quite busy if and when we are able to take a vacation. We are so used to using all our energy for work that when we have it available we can’t seem to actually relax anymore.
Work is a good thing. It gives you structure, a value to your efforts, and results in the long term. When you are only working at a “day job” you tend to be working a second job too (even if you don’t really get paid for that work).
So what is the point of this rant? Well, when your job gets you down, and you don’t feel like you have the time or energy to do the things you enjoy anymore; its time to look up. God created work, so work is good for you. The “day job” is a tool made by the Devil to drain you so you don’t feel like worshiping God anymore. A twisted version that makes us feel like work is a curse and not a blessing.
God knows you, like seriously knows you, your secrets, thoughts, emotions, the things you like and the things you hate. He also knows what will bring you joy, which is far deeper of an emotion than happiness. Joy doesn’t leave when things get hard, it has roots like a tree that run deep into your soul. Happiness is like the icing on the cake, it tastes sweet but can easily be scraped off. Often when we are miserable we don’t remember that God has our best interests in mind, after all he sees the end of the book before our lives are written.
I don’t normally do this on here, but this feels like the right time. You see, if you want joy you won’t find it in your hobbies, work, day job, family, friends, food, or whatever else you try to fill that void in your heart with. That hole is left by your dead spirit. When we were born, it was without the spirit we were meant to have. We have a body and a soul, but the spirit is where we were connected to God. Sin, which is just rebellion against God nothing more, tore out that spirit from us long before anyone could write.
That is why God sent his son Jesus. To teach us, to show us how to live, not for ourselves but for God first and others second. Then he did something that we could never do. He paid for our sins. The payment for sins is death, and so while he was without sin he died so that we might live sinless through him. This is a payment, on our behalf. Which is why you have to accept it, and choose to follow Jesus. When you accept him as your savior, and choose to serve him the Holy Spirit (aka the Holy Ghost) comes to dwell inside you. It fills that hole, and connects you back to God the way we were meant to be. So Joy is back in your life once you have done this, and it is awesome.
That is what salvation is. It isn’t a list of rules, in fact Jesus only gave us two “commandments”. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul. The second commandment was to treat others the way you want to be treated, well actually more like to love others like you wish to be loved. Those are the basis of all those old rules and laws in the beginning chapters of the bible. They are not meant to take good things away from you, but rather to remove unnecessary pain from your life. God doesn’t promise us an easy life, but rather a life filled with Joy and one where we will never be truly alone again.
Well that is all the ranting I can do today. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.
August Update and Announcements!
Hey everyone!
So good news, I will be setting up a booth at the local street fair in Peebles Ohio once again! The festival is called Old timers days, and takes place Sept. 12th through the 15th this year. This is only the second time for me to setup a booth at OTD and I will be available to both sign physical books, and will have a supply of paperbacks you can buy there as well.
I am hoping to have some related merchandise of some kind to sell/give out at the festival as well. More details on those once I have them more solidified. At the very least I will have a new set of bookmarks to give out to anyone who wants them (maybe this time without the typos the first set I gave out had haha).
Also quick update on the newest novel. As the book has begun to really take shape I’ve been wondering if I am ready to really move it forward much more. I probably shared information on the book too soon, luckily I was also somewhat vague. I have been running into major issues with flow, and structure for the novel and have realized that to tell this story well I’ll have to rewrite everything I have written so far… This is frustrating, and I do apologize sincerely about not getting this story out there this summer.
This delay will probably push that book out a ways too, because I have been making plans for next year’s 5 year anniversary of The Sage of Hytrae Book 1 (The Crystal Seal) being released. More news on that as well at a later date, but you can expect some new writing in that world as a mininum from me. What form the new stories will take is still being worked on, I wouldn’t expect a new Novel, nothing quite that extensive to announce haha.
I feel the weekly blog posts have been going well, so those aren’t going anywhere so no worries there, the next one should be wrapping up the basics of writing series sometime next week.
I would also like to thank everyone again who snagged my trilogy for free back during the first week in July this year. Please if you have had a chance to read them by now drop a review on amazon, it really helps (that goes double if you enjoyed the books haha).
I think that’s all I have to share today. I’ll keep everyone posted if I am able to cook up some extra Sage of Hytrae goodies, or really anything of the sort. With only a month left to really get things ordered I have to be moving quick, so stay tuned.
Until next time, and don’t feed the Jacobs!