When God Changes Your Career Plan
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence do not rely; In all your ways be mindful of him, And he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Editor’s note: Read more about our Lent 2024 theme, “‘Not My Will, but Yours’: Surrendering to the Father During Lent,” here.
A Call to Pivot—and Surrender
I spent my 20s grinding and side-hustling to raise my profile as a magazine journalist, seeing each new byline as a step closer to an invisible goal post.
Then, cancel culture came for me—and I willingly accepted it. With little confidence and no community, I consented by pulling away from public life. I stopped writing, and I stopped posting on social media. At the time, the only option I saw was pushing through. I didn’t feel strong enough to do that, so I gave up and retreated instead. What would have been the perfect opportunity to lean into my passion project (my micro-charity) turned into a season of inaction, fear, and low motivation.
God was calling me to pivot—but how do you pivot from a 12-year career you’ve been dreaming of since childhood and cultivating since graduation?
Having left the publishing industry behind, I started trying to envision a new work dream for myself: CEO of a growing charity that I’d one day be able to take a salary from.
But God had another plan.
After years of working on the sidelines, I finally landed grant funding for my charity. It allowed me to bring in a freelance consultant for one day each week. I thought that consultant would be me, but I had a stirring in my heart that made me realize this gift I’d been saving up for wasn’t for myself after all. It was for somebody else. Enter the best woman for the job, whom I realized could take the charity much further than I ever could.
Still, my gratitude couldn’t fully cover this feeling I had that another of my “plans” had been taken out of my hands. Relinquishing ownership, self-reliance, and control over the charity has helped me to grow in the virtue of stewardship. I needed to stop seeing the organization as “mine” and, instead, look out for its best needs and how it could continue not only to serve its beneficiaries but to provide opportunities for other women who could nurture it better than I.
Career Plan: IDK
Ask me what my current work plan looks like, and I can’t answer you. I can, however, say that my understanding of work has changed immensely. Rather than chasing status or the biggest paycheck, I’m trying to pour my capacity into work that is truly life-giving to me, whether it’s paid or not.
In my own feminine genius, I know the ache I have to create, share, and build community and relationships with others. Despite the fact that my own plans do not always go as I expect, God has never failed in delivering opportunities for me to fulfill that goal.
So, here’s to redefining work as not merely a job but the work we do every day to grow closer to who God is calling us to be—and to the knowledge that it may take many different forms that aren’t part of our career plan but that have been part of God’s plan since the beginning.
Delphine Chui is a writer, speaker and charity founder. A Catholic revert and former magazine journalist who experienced cancel culture for being publicly pro-life, Delphine is passionate about learning and sharing how to be boldly Catholic in today’s world, as well as speaking about God’s design for men and women in the midst of modern dating culture. She currently leads the content team at Christian legal advocacy organization, ADF International, while heading up befriending charity CareDogs. Delphine can be found on YouTube sharing relatable reflections on dating and living out traditional Christian values today, and you can connect with Delphine and say hello on Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.