Last updated on September 24, 2020
Question:
I’m currently in an online high school, and I’m not doing too well. I work on it and am getting good grades in some classes, but bad grades in others. I’m sure I’ll never get a job when I grow up, and not having a job is a sin. So I basically feel that I’m not going to heaven when I die. It’s really depressing me, and I don’t know how to calm myself.
Answer:
What you are doing is looking at a problem and turning it into an impossible situation. To do that you take everything to the worse extremes and ignore all alternatives. No wonder you are depressed.
Few people are good at everything. Almost everyone specializes. So what are your best subjects? What are your worse subjects? By looking at them objectively we can then discuss what careers would best fit your personal talents.
There are jobs out there that almost anyone can do. They don’t pay much, but some pay is always better than no pay. They aren’t exciting jobs, but then no one expects a person to remain in that job. They are just jobs to tide you over until you can land a real job. So you can flip hamburgers, mow lawns, pack boxes, etc. Eventually, you’ll get a better job or start your own business. Therefore, this idea that you can’t go to heaven because you can’t get a job is false. Everyone can work at something. The problem is that a lot of people just don’t want to work. Here, then, is where you have an advantage. Any person who wants to work makes a better employee than the person who rather not work.
Question:
OK. Thank you. I have a bad habit of taking situations with no real problem, and then somehow finding one and then thinking about it too much, It must be my mild autism, though. If I could somehow stop doing that, then I could feel better. But I’m not sure.
Answer:
Autism would make you more prone to focus on a topic and makes it harder to move on to something else. One thing to remember is that imagination is wilder than reality. So when you are going in these sorts of directions, ask yourself what is real — where are the facts. Don’t confuse your feelings for facts.
And as you did, ask someone to verify that you are seeing the situation correctly. “Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory” (Proverbs 11:14).