Peter or Paul?

Most people will agree that you are where you are for a purpose. There is a reason God placed you in the circumstances that you are in. The problem is that those reasons aren't necessarily clear at all. Peter and Paul were both placed in prison for the crime of speaking of Christ. Both prisons were the stage for a mass break. The outcome of both similar situations were vastly different. Paul was supposed to stay in prison to have an effect on the jailors life, whereas Peter was supposed to leave to continue to preach the gospel.

How does this relate to me? I think the analogy is simple (though somewhat extreme). I find my job to be stressful. My question is, have I been placed here as a trial for myself or to be here for someone else, or is my purpose for being here to leave?

Recently I have come across 2 interesting articles related to my quest for career nirvana. Article #1 went on about how to go about leaving your job for a more desirable career. It pointed out many of the same things I have said about deciding on what you love and figuring out how to do it. Article #2 however was about finding your passion in the career you are in. It was about how to discover how to love your current job. Having read both of these articles in rapid sucession I have been left with more questions than answers, but at least I don't feel alone in my quest.

Has anyone else approached these same intersections and posed similar questions?

Skills?

One more hurdle standing between me and some "ideal" job is my skill set. I have relatively none. I know a little about the printing and bookbinding industry, but my love as far as manufacturing goes all falls under precision machine work or skillful woodworking. Thoughts of Paintball Airsmithing or production of Custom Flashlights comes to mind as something I occasionally think I would like to do. Or so many times I might look at someones handiwork with wood furniture as nigh unto magical and think about how that would be a fulfilling line of work. To be able to actually point to a well crafted product and be able to say "I made that." Right now my best days allow me to sit back and say "Nothing fell apart." That just doesn't speak to me quite the same way.

How am I to go about figuring a job that plays to my strengths if I don't even know what my strengths are to begin with? How should I go about developing my skills to where they could be used to make a living? The biggest problem there once again comes back to not knowing which direction I should go. Which one of my desired pursuits would I be able to develop enough to bring in money? I guess I need to start off by just purely listing what things I enjoy doing. Maybe that has to be the first step.