Does Your Work Serve Your Mission or God's Mission?
In the Fall of 2019, I couldn’t contain my excitement when I received a speaking invitation from one of the heads of state in Europe. As an author and researcher, this was like hitting the jackpot.
Several months earlier, my book, The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty, co-authored with the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, and former Harvard Business Review editor Karen Dillon, had just been published and it seemed to be resonating with people. The fact that the government of one of the wealthiest countries in the world wanted to discuss how the ideas in this book might shape some of its development strategy was the definition of success.
But there was a problem. This meeting was scheduled to happen in November and I promised my wife that I would not travel in November.
Since January, when our book was published, I had traveled almost every month–sometimes more than twice a month–and often to other countries. I needed a break from traveling. At home we looked forward to No Travel November.
What was I to do?
“This was important work… The impact could be great… An opportunity like this may never come again…” These were just a sampling of some of the things I told myself to rationalize breaking my promise.
Ultimately, after some prayer and reflection, and with much reluctance, I decided not to go.
That experience gave me an opportunity to place my commitment to work in its rightful place–below my commitment to God and my family. It was painful to miss out on such a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. But I am thankful. What I lost in not going on that trip, I gained in faith in my relationship with God and a deeper love for and commitment to my wife.
Through that experience, God, in many ways, showed me “the path of life.”
Your mission or His Mission?
As entrepreneurs–especially faith driven entrepreneurs who want to honor God by solving a problem and serving their customers, employees, and investors–it’s too easy to justify working the extra hour(s), going on one more business trip, or missing yet another Bible study, quiet time, or Sunday service. Our work after all is important to the Lord.
True. Our work is important. Incredibly important. But not at the expense of our faith or our family.
In every decision we make, we have an opportunity to advance our mission or God’s Mission. Sometimes the two missions are aligned. For example, when a Biotech expert uses his God-given gifts to start a company that provides a cure for a disease he is honoring God as well as pursuing his passion. In a case like that, both missions align.
But when the work becomes all consuming and he begins to forsake the very things the Lord has entrusted in his care–family, relationships, serving the poor, and so on–then a misalignment has occurred.
In that circumstance, whose mission will he pursue? His or God’s?
When we choose our mission over God’s, regardless of how “good” our mission seems, we are inviting a world of anxiety, stress, and sorrow into our lives. Perhaps no better story illustrates this than that of Mary and Martha in the Bible.
After Martha opened her home to Jesus, she became preoccupied with the “preparations that had to be made,” while Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and just enjoyed him. When Martha asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her, the Lord replied, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
As King David reminds us in Psalm 16 about God’s presence, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures evermore.”
In the midst of the ups and downs of life, especially as it relates to building and sustaining a company, the Lord wants nothing more than “fullness of joy” for his children.
He wants us to work. But he wants us to not worship work.
As you build your life, commit certain things to the Lord. And when work–or anything else that’s good–tries to take them, remember who you worship.