Listen to the audio version here: https://youtu.be/EREPP6niE2U
I want to talk today about how we often feel our work isn’t as important if we’re not at the forefront, leading and doing impactful, “important” work.
My pink flamingo friend, let me tell you some truth right out of the gate. Your work matters, whether you are at the forefront or not. We don’t have to be firefighters fighting fires and pulling people from buildings to be doing important work. We don’t have to be doctors doing life-saving surgeries to be doing important work. You are impactful here and now.
Let’s unpack this.
When Staying Behind Becomes Front-Line Work
I was having a conversation with a friend who shared that when her husband decided to volunteer during a disaster event, she felt guilty about staying home. Staying home didn’t feel like it was worth anything when compared to the front-line work her husband was doing.
Her perspective changed when she mentioned her guilt to her husband. Her husband shared, “You know, the only reason why I’m able to be out here and be so effective is because I know that you have things taken care of at home.” He did the work he felt called to in that season without worry due to the behind-the-scenes role his wife played.
He’s able to do the work he feels called to in that season without having to worry about anything. The impact of the work he did was multiplied because she worked behind the scenes.
I share all of this to say that the work we do behind the scenes is as important as the work people are called to do on the front lines. Oftentimes, our work behind the scenes makes the impactful work possible.
The NASA Janitor Principle: Every Role Serves a Higher Purpose
During a visit to NASA in 1962, President Kennedy reportedly stopped and asked a janitor what he was doing. The janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
That janitor saw the importance of his work. He saw that his role served a higher purpose. While many would look on and probably cringe at the idea of becoming a janitor, he looked on and saw the bigger mission. His role was critical to putting a man on the moon. This wasn’t just about wiping corridors or cleaning rooms. This was about putting the man on the moon. Oh, to be someone with that kind of attitude and perspective. To feel no shame about the place that God placed you or the role God assigned you to, because your work is “helping to put a man on the moon.”
And even if your work isn’t as literal as that janitor, you still help to put men and women on the moon of their lives every day. I recently heard a story about a janitor who served at an elementary school for decades. His wonderful singing voice, kindness, and manner of being have inspired thousands of children and their parents throughout the years. Imagine being a janitor who impacts lives and changes legacies so deeply that kids and their parents remember you decades later! I believe this is a part of what Peter means in 1 Peter 5:2 when he says, “Care for the flock that God entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly – not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.”
Sometimes caring for the flock is the most boring and least impressive thing you will ever do by the world’s standards. But there are still so many extraordinary moments to be discovered every day. Many moments when God uses situations to teach you things. Many moments when God uses situations to refine you and bless others. It would be a pity to miss all that because you feel like what you are doing and who you are isn’t important.
The Body Principle: Why Every Role Matters
You are important, no matter if your work is visible or invisible. That’s straight from the bible!
That’s what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12:22-27:
“In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”
God looked down and saw it fit to create you to be a member of this world. You are needed in His plan. You are needed to make the body function properly. The body has many members, and no member is more important than the other. Each member’s work is equally important! If one member stops doing its work, the whole body stops functioning properly.
I’ve never heard anybody say they want to be intestines, but if the intestines stop working, somebody dies. I’ve never heard anybody say, ‘I want to be the butt.'” Intestine work is grunt work for a lot of people. Butt work is icky work. It gets people uncomfortable if you dare to mention it in public. And yet, if the butthole closes up forever, organs start to fail. Suddenly, we are on the point of death. That is how important our behind-the-scenes, not “important” work is.
It doesn’t matter if you are a janitor, garbage collector, waiter, secretary, or a stay-at-home mom; you’re all helping to “put some man on the moon”. You’re all playing your part for God’s will to be done on the earth.
Just think about it, a stay-at-home mom stabilizes the family. You help to stabilize the children and keep the home in order. You ensure that daddy functions well as he goes out to work. That is hard and important work. (sidenote: and that’s why you have to love and pour into you so you can flow – but this is a conversation for another day). My point stands, it doesn’t matter if you or society looks down on the work you do or doesn’t give value to it. The work you do. The work God assigned you to do is important work, whether it is visible or not.
Shifting From the Front Lines to Behind the Scenes
It would be irresponsible of me to end without touching on one thing. Some people choose behind-the-scenes work, but some people have behind-the-scenes work foisted upon them. Sometimes, due to obedience to God. Sometimes, because of external circumstances.
So, how do we deal with that? What happens when you are unwillingly shifted from front-line work and placed behind the scenes? What happens when it feels like you were headed to the mountaintop of your choice, and now it feels like you slid backwards into behind-the-scenes work that you didn’t choose willingly? How do you deal with the shame and other emotions that are attached to that?
Let me share a story.
The Corporate Dreams I Had to Release
I spent 10 years in corporate chasing a dream. I put so much energy and money into getting degrees and chasing titles and accomplishments. I had hopes and dreams about becoming an executive leader and sitting on corporate and nonprofit boards. Not necessarily because of the impact that came with it, but because of the prestige and recognition that came with it. I pursued my mountain of success, and people affirmed that vision, not realizing the destructive motives that drove me. They would tell me, “You’re smart. You’re meant for great things. You’re exactly who I want to be like.” And I believed it. I soaked it up because it was evidence that I was on the right track.
After my second burnout, God told me to walk away from corporate. I obeyed, but it was hard. I held onto my dreams and hopes, hoping I could still have them. I never saw or acknowledged the destructive motivations that drove me. So, a part of me grew aggrieved as time went by, thinking I had lost access to fulfilling those desires and accessing the prestige and external approval that came with it.
The Shame of “Going Backward”
When I left corporate, God told me not to accept any of the job offers that came my way. I see now that they would have kept me on the path I still had in my mind as the way to success.
Instead, the only door I could see that was open for me was to become a virtual executive assistant (V-EA). That was fine because I was burnt out and just needed a break. But there’s a huge difference between being a V-EA and actually telling people that you’re a V-EA, especially when those people expect so much of you.
Though in the business world, an EA is a highly respected position because they are the right hand of the CEO, to me, that role felt demeaning. I felt like I had taken a step backward instead of continuing on the successful path I was on before. It was important work, but it didn’t feel as important as the work I did before. It felt like I had left the important work on the front lines—where I was impacting millions, if not billions of people, where I had the respect of high-level peers—to go work behind the scenes alongside a leader who got all the visible credit for my behind-the-scenes work.
I carried a lot of shame about leaving the “important frontlines” to go “backward” into something that was behind the scenes. I quivered in my boots when I thought of what people would say. I felt like people were going to say, “She left her good, good work to go do what?” I felt like I had left a path where others looked at me and praised my success, to become someone who people would look at and think, “Yeah, she’s wasting her potential.”
I felt like I was a failure and was ashamed of failing. So, I wore a mask for years around that, pretending that I had a plan and that I was more successful than I was. Then my need for control stepped in to “turn things around for me”. I started to push to do things that I thought would bring me success. I started doing all the things other people told me would bring me success. Except it didn’t work the way I expected because I had stepped out of alignment with what God was telling me and where God was showing me to go.
Missing What God Was Actually Doing
As I am writing this post, I had an epiphany: God gave me my corporate hopes and dreams, but for years, I missed that blessing because of my destructive motivations and shame.
You see, as a V-EA, I was the right hand and chief advisor to business leaders. I had the ear of leaders and the leaders around those leaders. My behind-the-scenes work and words carried weight. They put more men on the moon of their lives than I will ever know. They helped 1000s of business owners build and scale their businesses and nonprofits. They impacted 1000s of people and their families through non-profits. But I missed that God gave me my desires because I was so focused on the package I expected them to come in.
The David Principle: Behind the Scenes IS Hidden Preparation Work
Here is another blessing that I missed in my behind-the-scenes work because I was so busy waiting for my moment to go back to the “more important” frontline work. God used that season to shape and refine me. Can you imagine being ashamed of the very season that He used to show me who I am in Him? The Pink Flamingo Way was born in that season. I learned what it looked like to love God, love me, and love my neighbor in that season. I shifted out of a lot of grey flamingo behaviors in that season. He used that season to show me the years I spent people-pleasing and trying to live life by what others expected of me. He used that season to call me to a higher version of myself, to call me into who He created me to be.
And this reminds me so much of King David. David was called from the behind-the-scenes work of being a shepherd. Then he was anointed king and sent back to the field. Can you imagine the questions he may have had? Why would he be anointed for such “important” frontline work only to be sent back to do behind-the-scenes work that didn’t feel important? I hope he didn’t have the mindset I had. I hope he realized that God was teaching him about shepherding others as he would one day be a shepherd of people. I hoped he realized that if it was revealed that he was anointed to be king, then King Saul and his family would have probably killed him. His behind-the-scenes work was important. It was also preparation and protection work.
And so, my pink flamingo friend, I can’t stress enough to you how important your work behind the scenes is. So, do not let shame about your transition and your focus on your past front-line duty hopes, and dreams cause you to miss the blessing. Stop you from seeing the blessing that God has given you and the importance of the work that God is doing, not just in you, but through you to impact people.
The Truth I Need to Tell You About This Journey
Matthew 23:1-12 talks about the importance of not just telling people about the word but also giving them an accurate picture of what it’s like to live it out.
I shared this story, but I did not share that it took me years to recognize my mistakes. In fact, I had accepted God’s vision for me. I was walking alongside Him even though it was hard. And yet there was a part of me that took the measuring sticks of success that I had from my corporate days and put them onto the vision God gave me. I took what I thought the manifestation of my hopes and dreams would look like, in terms of impacting a lot of people and being a leader, and put that all onto the vision God gave me. I was still heavily influenced by my prior destructive motivations. I still expected Him to fulfill my unrefined hopes and desires in the package I had expected. And a part of me resented that it had not yet come to pass.
Eventually, as parts of His vision for me came to pass, but not the pieces I expected, that part began to feel betrayed by God. Let me give you a glimpse into my prayer time. I’d say things like:
“You know, Lord, You’ve promised me this for a while. I am walking with You. I am not always obedient, but I’m learning to be consistent around my obedience where You’re concerned and the things that concern You. And yet, I feel like I am still a failure. I feel like I have not yet achieved the success that You have promised me, or even see a hint of it coming.”
It took me a while to get here, but eventually it hit me: I never grieved, and submitted the package that I thought my hopes and dreams would come in. I never submitted my hopes and dreams to Him.
Spiritual, Emotional, and Control Work You Can’t Skip
You probably know a person or two who can relate to what I just shared. People who believe and walk with God. But they carry a deep sense of disappointment about what things look like now behind the scenes after God took them off the front line. And they haven’t grieved the release of the unrefined hopes and the dreams they had while on the front line. So that disappointment builds and builds until resentment rears its ugly head. It feels like God is keeping them behind the scenes. It feels like God has forgotten them. There is that sense of betrayal. There is that struggle to keep hoping and believing.
And this is where the spiritual, emotional, and control work comes in around the expectations you have. Because at some point, you released something. You walked away from the package you thought things would happen through. You walked away from the timeline and pthe lan you had in mind. And sometimes it feels like you walked away from the hopes and dreams you had. You released something, and sometimes that brings with it a sense of loss.
And that sense of loss brings with it emotions that you need to handle. Unhandled, those emotions will fester and choke you alive. They will block your ability to see what God is doing in your life. They will stop you from seeing when God gives you the very thing you hoped for. They will block you from seeing when God refines and fulfills your hopes and dreams. They will cause you to resent seasons that the Lord used to bless you and others. They will cause you to reject your preparation season. To reject God’s version of success for you. You’ll find yourself in a season that God is literally showing you, “Hey, you are walking in my version of success for you” but you are unable to see it because your heart is stuck on the package you expected it to come in and what you hoped it would look and feel like.
Obediently moving from the “front lines” is not just about embracing God’s version of success for you and allowing Him to refine your hopes and dreams. It’s also about permitting yourself to deal with that sense of loss. To grieve what your heart felt you lost as you submit your version of success to God. To mourn how you thought it would be, what you thought it would look like, and when you thought it would happen. God is not afraid of your feelings, and until you release that pain, your perspective of God is doing through your “behind the scenes” work will be skewed.
I submitted my will to God AND I had to deal with the pain associated with the fact that my view of success for me, and other people’s view of success for me, was not necessarily God’s view of success for me. It took me years to learn this lesson. I hope you receive it today so you don’t spend years missing the joy and blessings that God has for you and others as He shifts you from what seems to be the important frontlines to the not-as-important behind-the-scenes. Your behind-the-scenes are as important as your front lines.
The Truth About God’s Assignments
We miss out on the value of the important work God calls us to do when we minimize the seasons we’re meant to learn things, grow, and serve others. It is important, essential work even if it doesn’t seem heroic. Even if it is not high profile. Even if it’s behind the scenes, it is necessary work.
Here’s what I learned: Your work is important! It doesn’t matter what hat you wear in your personal life—whether you’re a brother, whether you’re a sister, whether you have kids, whether you’re working a job, whether you’re a business owner, whether you’re a husband, whether you’re a wife, whether you’re a child. It doesn’t matter the role. It doesn’t matter the professional hat that you wear.
What is most important is to ensure that we are in the role and operating fully in the role that God has assigned us to in that season. That you are being your pink flamingo self. That you are taking up the space that He created you to dominate, because your work matters. No matter what that work looks like, it is as important as the work the person on the visible front line does.
No work that we will do in any other area would be as important as the work that we do in the area, in the field that God has assigned us to. When I say “behind-the-scenes” work, I use that phrase very lightly. I believe that everybody is operating on the front line somewhere. Every single work that we do is a front line of some sort.
Your Pink Flamingo Moment
So, my pink flamingo friend, here is my invitation for you: Just pause and learn from the Lord who you are in Him. Get a picture of who He created you to be. You don’t even have to go down the road of “Lord, show me all.” Ask Him today, “What is the one step that You want me to take today?” And that’s the one step of work you do.
It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t matter if it seems inconsequential. If God says you’re supposed to do it… If God says that’s a role that you should fill…, it is very, very, very important in the grand scheme of His plan.
Your behind-the-scenes work is important to God.
Your behind-the-scenes work is important to God’s plan for this work.
So, be your pink flamingo self today and recognize the importance of your work.
You are valuable. Your work is valuable. And it is needed whether you’re on the front lines or you’re behind the scenes.
So my pink flamingo friend, today, I want to encourage you that birds bird, and Chanel Chanels.
🦩So What’s Next? Choose Your Path To Pink Flamingo Food
Enjoy reading? Read my book, “In Search of the Pink Flamingo”, my journey to discovering how God sees and loves me and choosing to walk that path.
Prefer listening? Listen to this 5-minute episode “Birds bird. Chañel Chañel” on the Pink Flamingo Podcast. This episode hits if you have ever held back who you are because you’re scared no one will like the real you.
Want to support our work? Our mission is to help Caribbean families and communities heal from the psychological wounds of slavery and people-pleasing patterns passed down through generations. Want to be a part of that healing? Forward this email to a Caribbean friend. OR Sow a seed here.
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P.S. Your stories encourage me the same way I hope mine encourage you. Send me yours, even if it’s just a two-line email! [email protected].
