As I randomly perused through the wonderful little Facebook memories section known as On This Day, I discovered that I started my current job three years ago today.

Technically, I was a temp until I officially started in December of that same year, but it’s close enough for me.

I’ve slept a few times since August 12, 2015, but I believe that originally the job was a two-week assignment. I had interviewed earlier that year for a full-time position, but hadn’t been hired.

For me, even that was a blessing. I had been downsized from Affinion Group in May 2012 and had spent three long years searching, hoping, praying, and working on a number of temp assignments. A couple of them looked promising and even held the potential to become permanent, but it never quite worked out until this one.

I’d like to say that I had a strategy and worked out my plan, but really what I did was this: I trusted in God and I waited. I didn’t define myself by the career I didn’t have but went about the rest of my life and still lived it.

I learned that my true identity doesn’t come from my job title (or lack of it). It comes from being my Abba’s beloved. That identity won’t ever change. No downturn in the economy or major shakeup in the work force can alter the fact that I am a child of God.

I hope and pray that you love your job, but I also hope and pray that you have a balance, that you have a strong and vibrant life outside of your career. I hope that your identity isn’t in your title or salary or promotions or awards but in who God says you are. At the end of your life, that’s what will really and truly matter.