DREAM JOB

At a recent job interview, the human resources director asked me, "Camille, what is your dream job?"

I thought a moment, then finally admitted: "I don't have a dream job."

Probably not the answer she was looking for.

I thought about that question for days afterward. It seemed like a reasonable question. Surely, I could come up with a reasonable answer!

If I had been asked "What is your dream job?" when I was seventeen, as I was heading off to college and the big, wide world, I could have answered in a heartbeat: "I want to be a large-animal veterinarian." I had wanted to be a vet ever since I was little girl, riding with my feet on top of Daddy's mud boots as he headed to the barn to milk our jersey cow.

If I had been asked "What is your dream job?" when I was twenty-two, I could have answered in a heartbeat: "I want to be a mom." There was nothing in the world I wanted more than to have a child of my own to love and care for.

I never became a vet. No regrets there, however. Somewhere between seventeen and twenty-two, I fell out of love with cow poop and dog vomit.

I did get to be a mom, though! Being mom to my seven amazing children has been the richest, most rewarding job imaginable.

But my children are all grown up now. Now what? I don't have a great burning desire to pursue a particular job or career, to be a veterinarian or a teacher or a nuclear physicist.

"Camille, what is your dream job?"

I've been thinking hard about that question. Today, I have an answer.

Camille's dream job: I want to be a person who gives hope to other people.

I don't know where God is going to put me to work - in a nursery greenhouse, or a hospital lab, or behind a computer screen at home - but wherever He places me, I know what I want to do: I want to be a conduit of the gospel.

That is my dream job.