To The Shadows

I went to the dentist last week.

And every time I find myself laying on that dentist chair with my mouth wide open as the dental hygienist cleans my teeth, I can’t help but wonder how anyone in their right mind deliberately chose this as a career. These people devoted at least two years of their lives—some of them four—to learn how to scrape plaque off teeth all day.

I don’t get it.

Now, I know there’s more to being a dental hygienist than simply scraping plague off people’s teeth, and I am deeply grateful people do deliberately decide to pursue this career because I obviously benefit from their work.

But I still don’t get the appeal.

With March being National Social Work Month, I’ve been spending a fair amount of time reflecting on my chosen profession. And it’s got me wondering—

Do people look at me and wonder why I chose to enter into a field that is so synonymous with pain?

I wasn’t the kid who knew from a young age what I wanted to be when I grew up. While I’ve loved to write since learning how to read in first grade—a love that had me penning a shoebox full of the funniest picture books ever written (a shoebox I still have to this day!)—I didn’t feel a strong pull to do so as a career. I enjoyed working with kids as a nursery and Vacation Bible School volunteer while in high school, so for a while I considered majoring in education—but that probably had a lot more to do with the fact that my older sister, whom I absolutely adored, was planning to study education than an actual interest in the field. She was clearly passionate about teaching as a career, and I just…

Wasn’t.

What I did know is that I wanted a career where I could actively be the hands and feet of Jesus every single day. And while I knew I could take my faith into any career I chose, I wanted to do something every day to serve people in a very practical way.

The trouble was, I had no idea what kind of job would allow me to do so. A career in medicine—maybe as a nurse—could have been an excellent option if it weren’t for one tiny problem.

The Lord did not gift me intelligence in the fields of math or science.

Narrowing down my college major choices by what I didn’t want to study was only so helpful. Eventually I was going to have to declare a major because I wasn’t about to sink thousands of dollars into a “general studies” program at the private Christian school I’d decided to attend!

And then I took a Sociology class my senior year, and everything seemed to fall into place.

Prior to taking this class, the only other classes that got me truly excited about the material were literature classes.

Obviously, right?

But even then, my excitement over those classes couldn’t compare to the thrill I felt during that Sociology class. I was utterly fascinated with how absolutely weird humans are! And also shocked to learn that not everyone was given the same firm foundation to build their lives on that I was. Tucked into bed by two parents every night with a tummy still full from dinner and a bedtime snack, I could focus on pursuing hobbies and chasing after dreams as a child while across town, there were children tucking themselves into bed while their parents worked two jobs to barely keep the fridge stocked with milk. With their minds consumed with the thought of where their next meal would come from, or the fear of what dad might do to them if he had too much to drink that night, they didn’t have the luxury of dreams. For them, life was all about survival.

And that’s when it hit me.

People.

I wanted to work with people.

Not just study them, as a Sociologist would.

But to help them.

To serve them in very practical ways every single day.

Still not quite sure which career would allow me to do so, I turned to every teenager in the late 2010’s best friend.

An actual, physical copy of the Occupational Handbook that was housed in my school library.

Stumbling across the description of Social Work in that enormous book, I felt the last piece of the puzzle click into place.

This.

This is what I was going to study.

This is what I was going to spend the rest of my life doing.

I would come alongside those who hadn’t been given the same opportunities as I had as a kid as a social worker.

Almost immediately after declaring Social Work as my college major, I realized most people have no clue what social workers actually do. Heck, even my understanding was sorely lacking. I knew enough to know social workers do far more than just remove children from dysfunctional families, but I didn’t have a clear picture of what my daily life might look like as a social worker, not that that stopped me from moving forward with my new plan. I felt very sure that this is what God wanted me to do, and was thrilled to discover that, just like I had in that high school Sociology class, I connected very strongly with the course material. Studying it left me energized, if not a little scared, because I realized that, in a nutshell, social workers deliberately choose to walk into the shadows every day to help their clients. But, guided by my university’s motto of “culture for service,” as the years progressed I became more and more excited to do so.

I don’t think I truly understood the various roles that social workers fulfil until I was finally in the field and all those theories and practice models I’d discussed in class came to life in front of me. Boiling it down, social workers assess complex situations, identify problems, develop appropriate interventions to help clients solve those problems, and connect clients to the resources they need to carry out those interventions, all the while empowering them to solve their own problems and meet their own needs. This happens in all kinds of organizations—non-profits, medical settings, mental health settings, substance use treatment centers, and schools, just to name a few.

Chances are, a social worker has been in the shadows encouraging, supporting, and advocating for someone in your life without you ever even realizing it. Yes, at times it is incredibly painful. People often deliberately choose to make bad decisions and suffer greatly from those bad decisions. Nothing is more heartbreaking than offering someone a way out of a bad situation only to have them turn away and walk into an even worse one.

But Jesus left the light of heaven to enter into our darkness.

He leaves the ninety-nine to lovingly lead the one stray sheep back to the flock.

He wasn’t afraid of the shadows, and I know He’s with me every time I step into one to help a client.

Given the chance to go back in time and make the decision all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing. I still feel very called to this field, and every March I am so very thankful for how God led me here and the ways He’s sustained me through the difficult seasons of practice.

As I’ve reflected on how I got here, though, I’ve realized that not every young person feels the same peace about the daunting decisions our society requires us to make about our careers at such a young age. I watched many of my peers agonize over their choices, my Christian peers especially. There is tremendous pressure to “do what the Lord wants me to do,” and a real fear that God will be angry or disappointed if you choose the “wrong” path.

So here is my advice for any person facing a tough decision:

1)Seek the Lord’s will through prayer. Ask Him to clearly open and shut doors for you.

2)Understand the difference between the revealed will of God—which is what He’s chosen to make known to us through Scripture—and the secret will of God—which encompasses God’s sovereign plan that He has not made fully known to us. He tells us in His Word in many different places how we can live lives that honor Him! Here are just a few:

3)Discuss your decision with godly people you trust. If they raise red flags, stop and ponder them, then go back to the Lord in prayer and His Word for clarification

4)Choose! Don’t let the fear of going down the “wrong” road keep you from taking faithful steps of obedience. Rejoice in the fact that God has given us the freedom to make choices about our life and that He doesn’t require us to all travel down the same road. We can carry out the revealed will of God in many different ways.

5)Listen to His leading. If we truly want to honor God with our decision making and have expressed to Him in prayer that desire, He’ll make it clear if we’ve taken a wrong turn! We may have some painful lessons to learn on our wrong turn, but He’ll lead us back to Him if that’s truly our desire.

Happy Social Worker’s Month to all my fellow social workers out there. It’s a joy to serve those in the shadows with you!