I’ve always worked in the telecom domain. I started way back when mobile phones still ran on 2G. And now, as we inch closer to 6G, I feel like I’ve been caught in some kind of a time warp.
Why? Because I took two long career breaks, five years each, and completely missed out on 4G.
When I came back, my manager offered me a job without even an interview. Generous? Maybe. But he also paid me half my old salary. For the past seven years, I’ve been playing catch-up. Catching up on pay. Catching up on tech. Catching up on self-worth. Running behind 5G, chasing 6G, wondering what happened to me.
Eventually, I told myself:
“You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”
And then: “Fine. I’ll show up and pretend not to care.”
Honestly, it felt like a decent plan. A protective one.
But then, as always, the Word of God has this sneaky way of ambushing me.
Yesterday I read this:
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23–24 (NIV)
And just like that, my heart sank into my shoe.
This was a verse I grew up hearing at my Christian school. But back then, it was a good verse to me, Miss.Goody Two Shoes.
But yesterday? It felt like a death sentence. A reminder that I was failing not just my job, but maybe even God.
But then I heard another voice: Condemnation doesn’t come from Jesus. Hmmm….,
This morning in church, the message was from Matthew 20, the parable of the vineyard owner. You know the one where the landowner goes out five times looking for people to hire? And he pays the last workers the same as the ones who worked all day?
“Because no one has hired us,” they answered.
He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.”
“Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:7, 14–16 (NIV)
And suddenly, it hit me:
God’s economy does include the losers. The rejected. The slow workers.
The latecomers. The ones with gaps in their résumé.
The ones with lost years, silent tears, broken confidence, missed buses, and incomplete upgrades.
His economy is not based on performance reviews or package hikes.
It is based on grace.
Nothing is overlooked. Not one moment. Not one failure. Not one missed opportunity.
So in summary, as I think of starting this week, I will not be quitting my job tomorrow.
But more importantly, I will not be working from a place of failure anymore.
I am employed by the Lord. The One who knows my inadequacies and still finds me worthy.
I will work from the position of being chosen, valued, and sent into the vineyard, even in the eleventh hour.
Not to earn my place.
But because I already have it.
Victory doesn’t come from catching up.
It comes from knowing who you’re working for.
And I’m done pretending not to care.
Because He does.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Preethi Mathew
Mother of 2 & a working professional
I am Preethi Mathew, a wife and mother of two boys, born in India and now living in the UK. I am saved and held by Jesus. After years of carrying quiet pain, grace found me. Now I live anchored in freedom, not fear.
I began writing to find clarity in my own story, and now I write to make space for the silent stories, to remind weary hearts they are deeply known and held by God.
