Tag: Vocation

book quote of the week
How Do You Think About Your Job?

How Do You Think About Your Job?

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How you think about your job will directly affect how you work day to day. Sadly, many people have a very wrong perspective about their vocation. There is good reason for this: modern culture finds much of it’s identity in their 9 to 5 job. Additionally, countless books have been written on how to improve your work, how to land your dream job, and a host of other work-related topics.

For Christians, the primary source for how you think about your job is Scripture. Proverbs in particular is incredibly instructive when it comes to how to perform your vocation. But recently I read a book that I think helpfully deals with this question of how you view your work: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport. Of the different secular books I have read on the topic of work, I find Cal Newport’s analysis both the most helpful and the most consistent with Biblical principles.

Today, I want to look at a quote from “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” that summarizes the thesis of the book. The quote deals with two mindsets: the “passion mindset” which most people in our culture adopts and the “craftsman mindset” which is the mindset Newport argues for. As we will see, it is also the mindset which best lines of with Biblical teaching.

The craftsman mindset focuses on what value you are producing in your job while the passion mindset focuses on what value your job offers you.

“So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport

What the quote means

This quote summarizes the entirety of Newport’s book. Newport wants to correct the common modern mindset that the key to enjoying your job is to find a job you are passionate about. He calls this the “passion mindset.” I am sure you have often heard this mindset expounded by those around you in various forms:

  • “Do what you love”
  • “Follow your dreams”
  • “If you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life”
  • “Why waste time in a job you don’t like?”

And so on. The entire book Newport writes is spent exposing the flaws with this mindset and offering an alternative: the “craftsman” mindset. In the quote above, Newport says the fundamental issue with the passion mindset is it focuses on what your job offers you instead of what value you are producing for your job.

The reason Newport uses the word “craftsman” to describe the alternative mindset is craftsmen focus on how they do their work. The focus is on creating an excellent product, not primarily on personal enjoyment. Certainly craftsmen get enjoyment from their work, but this enjoyment is an organic outcome of doing their work well. In short, the craftsman mindset focuses on the work itself and how to do it well while the passion mindset’s primary question is “do I enjoy this work?”

Why it is important

Newport gives two very helpful categories, and most people I know (including myself) have fallen into the trap of the passion mindset. When all of your focus is on how much you enjoy or do not enjoy your job, your perspective is on yourself rather than on the work. Certainly some jobs are “better” than others but it is a dangerous cultural assumption that your job is primarily about your fulfillment or enjoyment.

Christians can take further issue with the passion mindset: God is ultimately in control of what job you end up in. Therefore, the Christian is less concerned with the question “do I enjoy this job” and more concerned with answering “how can I glorify God in the job He has given me?”

Christians find fulfillment in the Lord. Therefore, they should be less susceptible to the modern worldview that makes one’s job the end-all-be-all of one’s life.

Furthermore, Christians should be concerned with how they do their job. The “craftsman” mindset is just a new name Newport puts on an old Biblical concept: what your job is matters far less than why you do your job and how you do your job. The “why” of Christian work is tied to a theology of God’s glory in all things:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

“How” Christians work is tied very closely to Newport’s “focus on the value you are producing” mindset. Where do I find this? Scripture consistently praises skillful work. Proverbs 22:29 has the most explicit statement on the topic:

Do you see a man skillful in his work?

    He will stand before kings;

    he will not stand before obscure men.

Proverbs 22:29, ESV

In the Old Testament, the Lord also used skilled workers to build the tabernacle and the temple:

And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.

Exodus 36:2, ESV

You have an abundance of workmen: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and all kinds of craftsmen without number, skilled in working gold, silver, bronze, and iron. Arise and work! The Lord be with you!”

1 Chronicles 22:15-16, ESV

Finally, in the Psalms musicians are called to worship the Lord skillfully:

Sing to him a new song;

    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

Psalm 33:3, ESV

“Skillful” work is focused on the quality of the work, not on the amount of pleasure the work brings you.

Takeaways

1. Ask yourself “how can I do my job better? How can I increase the quality of my work? How can I make my work more valuable?”

If you want to wake up and go to your job excited, you need to change the way you think about your job. Focus on what value you will add to your place of employment that day, or think about what you can do to increase the quality of your work. Pray the Lord would show you ways to perform your job excellently. Go to work with an eagerness to improve how well you do your job.

There will certainly be bad days along the way and days you don’t want to go into work. But once you accept this is the job God has provided for you currently, you are free to do that work excellently. Accept God’s will, then work for God’s glory. If Christians are constantly complaining about their job, if they are always seeking a different or “better” job, what does that say about the Christian worldview?

If you want a better visible testimony at work, “do all things without complaining or disputing” and work unto the Lord in all you do at your job.

Most people complain about their job and don’t do their job particularly well. Christians can stand out by joyfully serving well in the job the Lord provides. What does that practically look like? Develop a craftsman mindset, focus on doing valuable work, and improve each day how you do your job.

2. Derive pleasure from the quality of the work you do, not the job in which you are currently employed

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,

Ecclesiastes 2:24, ESV

Enjoying your work is a gracious gift from the Lord. But in 21st century America, enjoyment and fulfillment at work is demanded as a right rather than received as a gift. The result? If you find yourself not enjoying what you are doing, you either complain about your job to no end or you leave it to find greener grass elsewhere. But notice what the author of Ecclesiastes says: “There is nothing better for a person…(to) find enjoyment in his toil.”

You aren’t just to find enjoyment in your perfect dream job. Biblically, you can enjoy toil, hard labor, wearing effort. This is good news for the Christian: you don’t have to make a big career change to enjoy your job. The Bible says God graciously gives people enjoyment even in toilsome labor. How is this perspective lived out?

When God created the world, He spoke, saw what He had made, and then pronounced it “good.” In other words, God enjoyed the goodness of what He had created after He created it. This is the same pattern you see in Newport’s “craftsman” mindset: you derive pleasure from the quality of the work you do. Don’t get stuck wishing for a better job. Do your work excellently every day so that when you leave, you can say that day’s work was “good”. Then pray that God would grant you enjoyment in your labor.

There is much more that could be said. Newport’s contrast between the craftsman and the passion mindset is helpful for Christians to think through in light of Scripture. In the end, the most important mindset a Christian needs to have with regards to their work is a God-glorifying mindset.

Click here to read previous “Book Quote of the Week” posts. For more of my thoughts on Christians and work, click here. If you found this post helpful, share on social media and subscribe below. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram for more content.
I Didn’t Switch My College Major

I Didn’t Switch My College Major

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I graduated in May 2019. My college major was Mechanical Engineering. If you had asked me in the middle of getting my degree, I would have told you that I wanted desperately to change my major to Biblical studies. Engineering was tough. It took a lot of time. I wanted to be a pastor. Technology didn’t excite me. But I didn’t switch my college major.

Why didn’t I change to a major I would enjoy better? The immediate reason was the advice I got from the Elders at my Church. They said I should finish my degree. I could get a MDiv later if needed. Not everyone could get an engineering degree. Finish what I started. The advice frustrated me at the time, but it kept me in Mechanical engineering.

But the ultimate reason I didn’t switch my college major was God’s sovereign will in my life. Looking back now, I can see several reasons why He led me to stick with engineering. I know a lot of people who struggle with whether they should switch their college major or not. I hope some of the lessons I personally learned will help you or help you counsel those in your Church who are having to make tough decisions about college degrees and future career choices.

God has purposes beyond what you can see in the moment

A question I asked myself often in college was “why am I in engineering? Why did God lead me to choose this major starting out?” After all, when you are a new high school graduate, you barely know what the world is like, much less knowing what career you want to pursue. I chose engineering initially because it paid well and I was good at math. That was it. Nothing overly spiritual at all.

Then as I went through college, the Lord grew me through local Church involvement. I read rich theological books. My passion was for the Church, for teaching, for studying Scripture. I met one of my best friends who was getting his Biblical studies degree. And let me tell you, our conversations about the Word were far more engaging than anything I was doing or learning in engineering.

I asked God “Why would you have me in a degree I’m not passionate about?” I came to realize this was the wrong question to ask. God’s will, not my passion, is the ultimate driver in my life.

Looking back now, the question I should have asked was simply “Lord, how can I glorify you in my degree I am currently in?” I could have switched my college major at any time. But I didn’t. And it is only now, two years after graduation, that I begin to see God’s purposes for keeping me in engineering. Purposes which were invisible to me at the time. An engineering degree:

  • Allowed me to get a job out near my local Church so I could serve as a deacon there
  • Gave me an income to support a wife and family right out of college. Which is good, because I got married a year after graduating and my wife is having our first child this coming fall.
  • Enabled me to get a job I do, in fact, love. I never ever dreamed in a hundred years I would find an engineering job I would like. God proved me wrong.

There are more reasons, but these three serve to illustrate a principle.

Don’t judge where God has you based on what you know now or feel now. God has plans and purposes for your current circumstances beyond what you understand right now. Trust Him.

Serving God is a present-tense activity. And you can serve God no matter where you are at.

I was almost certain in college that the best way I could serve the Lord is by becoming a pastor as soon as humanly possible. Of course, I wasn’t really certain of God’s will. I was just certain of what I wanted. And what I wanted was to “do big things for Jesus” by becoming a pastor. It was so simple! If God would just let me get a bible degree, I would go off to seminary, then serve Him.

Serve God on His terms, not your own terms.

What God has taught me looking back is I can’t put conditions or timelines on when and how I would serve Him. Serving God is a present tense activity. Saying you will serve God tomorrow or sometime in the future isn’t obedience. Today, with what opportunities God has given you now, you must obey Scripture, follow Christ, and preach the gospel.

I thought I had to have a certain degree to serve the Lord well. That wasn’t true. All I needed was to wake up each day and say “Lord, how would you have me glorify you with this day?”

I know a lot of people who switched their majors based on some abstract idea that a certain major would equip them to serve God better. Maybe that was true. But having graduated, I find that the thing you need most for serving God is present-tense obedience. Specific skills might help you to be sure.

But at the end of the day don’t switch your college major because you feel that you need a certain one thing you desire to serve God. When I look at my local Church, I see a combination of dozens of people who have different vocations, callings, family situations and backgrounds. Each one can serve the Lord. Today. Why? Because God has already given us everything we need to serve Him.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence

2 Peter 1:3, ESV

So don’t stress out about what major your are currently in or which one you want to change to. Focus on serving God in the present and He will direct you.

The Church benefits from all kinds of skills, not just teaching and preaching

As I said before, the local Church is filled with people from different backgrounds. I didn’t switch my college major to Biblical studies, so now my local Church has a member who is trained as an engineer. Is that type of training a waste? Is it a purely “secular” vocation? Are my skills inapplicable to the Church?

No. I would argue the local Church benefits from a large collection of skills, vocations, and backgrounds. The Bible presents both unity and diversity as glorifying to the Lord.

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Ephesians 4:4-7, ESV

Christianity does not erase your individuality, but nor does it make your individuality the most important thing.

Let me give an example. A couple months ago, the deacons at my Church decided to fix a ramp at my Church. Now, none of the deacons have any background in construction or painting. But the Lord brought several skilled men to our Church who do have those skills. And those skills were leveraged to bless the body.

So the question is: what if those men had not spent the time to develop those skills? What if everyone in the body only had MDiv’s and nothing else? I would argue that would be a disservice to the Church body. The individual skills God gives to each believer are for building up His Church. And those skills include “secular” ones.

Ask yourself “How might the skills from this degree bless the body? How can I do the most good to the most amount of people, believers and nonbelievers?”

I have learned that mechanical engineers can bless the Church, serve the Lord, and worship Christ just as much as any other college degree. God does not call all of us to the same thing. And praise God for it! It creates a beautiful diversity in the Church!

Conclusion

There are more lessons I learned when I look back on my college experience. But ultimately, I am glad I didn’t switch my college major. God used the struggle, the perseverance, and the (often) disappointment of engineering to shape me into who I am today. I realize now God had larger purposes than I could see in college. Sticking with engineering forced me to focus on serving the Lord with what I had, not with what I wanted. And finally, I see now God has given me unique skills to serve the local body. Skills I wouldn’t have if I didn’t complete an engineering degree.

Whether you end up sticking with or changing you college major, whether you stay in your current job or leave it, just remember what Paul told the Church in Corinth:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31, ESV

Glorify God, pursue Christ, and love the local Body where you are at. God will take care of the rest.

Click here to read some of my other reflections on experiences I have had. Follow The Average Churchman on Instagram to get updated whenever a new post comes out.