Week 3 Blog

            I was thinking about the article we were assigned to read this past week and I ‘d like to share some thoughts I had regarding spirituality being analogous to and attachment relationship. Research has suggested that a person forms an attachment with a higher power, which, if secure, can help that person feel supported and loved (Duffy, 2006).

            In class I shared the anecdote of an individual I know. To summarize briefly, he was an individual that was the product of forced intercourse and grew up without an earthly father figure. He went through the early part of his life not knowing how to deal with this and became a “problem child”. Eventually, he found his spirituality and Christianity and was “adopted” by God as his child. Currently, the person maintains that his father is God and that there is an intense attachment to him. He is currently a young adult pastor the church I attended and has working within the church ever since he came to Lancaster.

            This is one example of how spirituality and attachment has helped this individual. He was able to take an unfortunate event in his mother’s life and make the best out of it. He even took the relationship he built with his “father” and turned it into a career; a career that he is intensely passionate about and takes extremely seriously. He is also the father of four boys and he a devoted father to them as well. He is making sure his family has the father they need and raising them the best way he knows how.

             In our small discussion in class, I brought up the opposite idea. What if (due to our cultures inability to delay gratification) his heavenly father “forsake” him and was not the answer he wanted/needed in that point of his life? Could that have had an even greater impact on his life than not having a father to look up to?

            These questions are the reason I chose to sit on the fence of this argument because I think it could have gone either way. Perhaps his faith pushed him to make it happen. If that’s the case, what does that say about the faith or lack of faith that some people have in their career decisions? Leaving organized religion out of it, do some people have that learned helplessness that things will always be for not and never try while others harness their beliefs and make their future happen rather than take the backseat? I guess I posed more questions than answers this week.

Reference:

Duffy, R. (2006). Spirituality, religion, and career development: current status and future directions. The Career Development Quarterly, 55, 52-63.