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Sep 02, 2026 06:00am

It’s In The Job Description

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“I don’t remember this being in the job description.”

It was the end of May. We were preparing for our big summer camp that would immerse students in the world of healthcare. And yet, I was driving to pick up supplies from a slaughterhouse.

Yes, you read that right. A slaughterhouse.

I walked in the door, and immediately my breath caught as I inhaled a big gulp of air filled with the smell of the processing taking place.

With my cooler in hand, I said, “I’m here for the hearts.”

Pig hearts. Our students were going to dissect them.

But this isn’t the part I was referring to when I said it wasn’t in the job description.

It was day three of the camp, and the heart dissection was on the schedule for that afternoon. The kids were shadowing that morning, and my assistant and I were prepping for the activity. But when we checked the hearts, they were still frozen.

Anyone else might have seen this as a problem. They might have tried to rearrange the schedule and move the dissection to a different day.

But not me.

I started grabbing bags of hearts, placing them in disposable containers, and putting them in the break room microwave on defrost.

If you are a nurse who worked there during that time and this is the first you’ve heard about that… well, the statute of limitations has already expired. But also, sorry. And I did thoroughly bleach it!

But again, this isn’t the part where I said, “This wasn’t in my job description.”

The students returned from lunch after shadowing and found their places at the table. They each put on their aprons for the dissection, which were really just black trash bags with holes cut out for their heads and arms, and took their places. My assistant passed out the hearts, and the cardiologist arrived for the dissection.

And then, the power went out.

Yes. This is all very true.

We had been watching a storm develop all day, and it had finally hit. At first, we thought it was just a quick power glitch and would come back on. But after waiting several minutes, and because we were in a room with no windows and the students were all holding very sharp instruments, I told my assistant and our medical students to grab their phones and use their flashlights to illuminate the work area.

I was problem-solving like a pro!

But with no power, in the hot part of June, and again, in a room with no windows, it started to get warm. The kids were getting hot in those trash bags, the hearts were beginning to smell, and the students were getting a little squeamish.

Remembering a little trick a doctor once told me about smells, I said, “I’ll be right back.”

When I returned, I went to every student and wiped a little dab of Vicks VapoRub under each nostril.

And this was the moment when I said, “I don’t remember this being in the job description.”

One of the staff said, “I think it’s the ‘other duties as assigned’ line.”

**1 Thessalonians 4:1–2**

*“Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus.”*

These men and women had become followers of Jesus Christ. They knew the job description. Paul and his missionary companions had taught them what it looked like to follow Jesus. When they accepted His salvation, they knew what their lives should look like.

What was that description? Look at verse 3.

He begins with:

*“For this is the will of God, your sanctification…”*

In other words, this is what God expects of you: holiness.

Sanctification is literally that. It is to be set apart from the world around you.

And what was the world around them like? It was full of pagan religions, traditions, idol worship, and false doctrine. It was an anything-goes kind of society. And that’s why Paul specifically told them in the rest of verse 3:

*“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.”*

Sexual immorality was prevalent in their area and culture. But Paul reminded them that they, as Christians, should be different.

*“That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.”*
**1 Thessalonians 4:4–7**

They knew the job description. To be pleasing to the Lord, they were to live holy lives. And if they didn’t like the job, well… they could take it up with God.

*“Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”*
**1 Thessalonians 4:8**

When we ask Jesus to save us, we aren’t just getting something for free. Our forgiveness was bought with a price. Christ gave His life so that we could be free from our sins.

When we accept His offer of forgiveness, we enter into an agreement: my life for Yours.

We surrender our lives under the Lordship of Jesus. And He has a set of standards by which we are to live. Those standards are for holiness—to be set apart from the world around us.

What does the world say is okay or no big deal, but God defines as sin?

Just as Paul instructed the Thessalonians, we are to abstain. That life is not for us. Our lives should be pleasing to the Lord.

The job description is there.

Are we willing to follow what’s required of us?