A friend of mine posted a question on Facebook: “Would you rather do what you love and barely make ends meet or do what you tolerate for abundance?”

Good question. I think most people would say they would rather do what they love. After all, who wants to be chained to a mundane job day after day for forty years if they had a chance to do what they love?

The problem is, I think people view the whole “do what you love and be poor” idea with rose-tinted glasses. Sure, they would live in a smaller house and drive a cheaper car if they could just do what they wanted. However, sometimes being poor doesn’t mean having less, it means not having at all.

Dan and I are both currently doing what we love and what we believe we have been called to do. Dan is a pastor and I am a writer. We wouldn’t trade what we do for the world. But love for our work is not always enough to sustain us:

-When medical bills come in.

-When your doctor says you need a procedure done and the insurance doesn’t cover it.

-When a family member is facing death and you can’t go to be with them because you can’t afford the plane ticket.

-When the car breaks down and you don’t know how you’re going to fix it.

-When you wonder how you’re going to feed your family.

The reality is there are times when you get tired of scraping by and wondering how you are going to provide for your family every month. Sometimes the stress out weighs the love. That’s when love is not enough to sustain you.

So how do we do it?

Honestly? I cry. I pray. And God meets me where I am. He has always taken care of us. We have never went hungry, never went without a roof over our heads. Each and every need He has provided for. And I have learned to be content with what I have in the process.

Love alone doesn’t keep us going. I’m not sure if it could keep anyone going in the long run. But doing what we love and placing our love in God’s hands, trusting Him to take care of us, that is what helps us during the rough patches.

How about you? Would you rather do what you love or be secure financially even if that meant doing something you don’t necessarily enjoy?