In Acts, the Apostle Paul (derived from the Greek, Paulos) is mentioned living and working alongside tentmakers while in Corinth. This was not his main job, as anyone who has even glanced at a Bible knows. His job is his title, an Apostle, formally a Pharisee, a Jewish religious scholar known as Saul (Sha’ul).
I wonder when he learned how to make tents.
Growing up, I was convinced from a young age that if you did not end up working at your ‘dream job’, that you were somehow a failure. This was not something that was impressed upon me by family, but by the presentation of working and achieving your dreams among society, on TV and movies, and even in books.
Having a job that provides you money to live used to be seen as a just a matter of course, what other choice did you have, but you must strive for something else always. Nowadays, I think the pressure is slightly less, the economy full of more obstacles to where being able to make rent and pay bills is not only a dream, but an accomplishment in and of itself.
This is a hard lesson to learn when going from childhood into adulthood. The emphasis of the ‘career’ and the ‘dream job’ is pounded into children all throughout school.
Some of the dream jobs would actually make money and provide for a household. Mine would not. I wanted to write novels. I still do, but I’m no longer naive enough to assume I can make a living out of it. If I could, that would be amazing. If I can’t, I would be starving.
It’s not because it’s not possible. It’s because it’s a numbers game. There’s only so many authors who are going to make it that big, to be at a level where they could sustain themselves. It’s one thing to sell a couple thousand books, it’s another thing to be a household name like Nora Roberts or James Patterson. There are authors who are in between who are perfectly content and financially stable. But it’s a gladiator arena, of the most genteel sort, authors striving for visibility to the audience.
Using those two names above may age me somewhat, but they are a good example of outliers. The authors who have the same household name power as these two are much fewer than the authors who sells thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, and still must have other sources of income.
This is why I bring up Paul, and his tentmaking. He had a passion as well and was driven by that passion, but he was often still able to make his own way around the world. While he did have benefactors (many of them the wealthy women of the time), he also paid his way by working menial jobs and making tents.
I have a tentmaker job now. It’s solid hours, provides a steady paycheck, and does not change too much (which to me is an important factor). It is not my dream. I did not spend one second as a child hoping I would one day do this job.
But I am grateful for it nonetheless, and I am finding that it works more for me than I work for it.
The Tentmaker Job is the concept of having a job while working on your true passion, or working on a passion project, or working toward having your dream job. There are variations: some have a side hustle to supplement their income to work towards a dream. Some are making money from their passion, though perhaps not in the way they thought.
Overall, The Tentmaker Job is a way to take care of the everyday matters (bills, gas, rent, etc.) while being able to do your passion.
It can be hard to work a Tentmaker Job and then go home and write. I am failing at it more often than not. But then I am also — somewhat — financially stable. I know where my next meal is coming from. I know where I lay my head at night.
One of the things that adulthood taught me is that stability can be a cornerstone to the ability to create. It siphons off some of the stress of knowing where your next meal, paycheck, means to do something, will come from and leaves you with more room to breathe.
It also enables you to create with less restrictions. If I write a terrible novel, I won’t lose my home. I don’t want to write a terrible novel, of course, but the quality of my novel is not going to make or break my ability to pay my bills. Which in a way, eases the burden and allows me to create with less tension, stress, and impending pressure.
I could write a brilliant novel and still struggle financially as no one buys it. Half of being a successful published author today is marketing. No one can read your novel if they don’t know it exists. So, I could write a brilliant, groundbreaking novel and still struggle to feed myself.
It’s the reality of being an artist of any kind. Sometimes, your success is at the whim of your audience.
This is another reason why I appreciate my Tentmaker Job. I can write 100 novels and perhaps 1000 people read them and love them, which would still be fantastic, and I still would not struggle to eat or pay my rent.
My Tentmaker Job allows me to create as I will. Do I want to please my audience? Sure, but I do not have to kowtow to their every whim in order for them to sustain my living. I have a living. It’s taken care of.
For those looking to spend their days doing their dream job, a Tentmaker Job is not an end of that dream. It can be a frame to build upon, a foundation to begin from to build that dream or passion that you so desire to achieve. It’s a way to save before taking a risk. It’s a way to take care of yourself and your loved ones as you build something behind the scenes.
Tentmaker Jobs are not failures. Why could Paul make money making tents? Because they were needed. There were a market and need for them, and he had the skill to provide the product. It helped him to afford food and a place to stay and to not be a drain on other people who did not have the resources enough to help him.
Maybe using Paul as an example seems excessive. Some of you might say, “Paul had a mission from God.” And you would be correct. But, I wonder, just because you are not walking around being an Apostle, why you think your passions are not also a mission, a directive, a passion project made to glorify the Lord.
We all have our passions, skills, natural talents, and internal drives. Some of them are flesh driven. Some of them are God-given.
Or, perhaps, you may think nothing of the spiritual aspect of the comparison. You may not believe it. Then look at the logic of it all. “One cannot pour from an empty cup”, is how the saying goes. You cannot create when all your energy is gone worrying over money. You cannot build when your stomach is empty. You cannot be productive when your bills are screaming your name.
Well, you can. Because people have. And even with a Tentmaker Job there are times of instability. But there are degrees to it, and some environments are easier to work in than others. “The Starving Artist” aesthetic of it all is just that — aesthetic. It’s not a requirement.
Perhaps having a Tentmaker Job will give you less time to create. Better less time to create than to create in an energy vacuum, where your creations are half-done and made in blood and you end up with nothing left to even attempt to create again.
I could utilize the freedom and stability my Tentmaker Job gives me a little more, with a little more intention. Oddly, what has recently brought this to my mind was the long holiday. That extra day, while appreciated for the time being, brought to mind what it would feel like to really have the ability to stay at home and not leave, to simply live off of my writing and go where I wanted to when I wanted to, if I wanted to.
Perhaps I’ll do that one day, who knows. I would need to cultivate a lot of different habits. But for now, my Tentmaker Job provides the stability I need, and my job, in return, is to utilize the time and energy I have in the most effective way possible.
Whether I’ll have a Tentmaker Job for the rest of my life or not, I no longer care. My goal is to achieve my dreams either way, to find contentment in the life I lead. I am not ashamed of my Tentmaker Job, even with a degree hovering over my head or things I used to say when I was younger echoing in people’s ears.
I’m proud of myself. I’m proud I made it here.
I’m proud of what I will accomplish, Tentmaker Job or no.
What is your passion? What is your Tentmaker Job? Let me know in the comments!