What is Reddit's opinion of Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work?

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hey there. i've idolized my work, thinking my performance in my job determined my identity. like, if i was getting lots of praise and hitting metrics that I deemed were indicators of high performance, i felt pride. if i was getting harsh or gentle or neutral criticism, that i was failing and it was a reflection of my worth. this was after coming back to Christ as well. it's been a long journey of learning how to serve earthly masters as if I'm serving Jesus Himself. and how to assess what is "good enough" rather than "unassailably perfect," (which is impossible and doesn't really exist on this side of heaven lol).

one book that helped was Tim Keller's "Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work."

In terms of "destroying your idols," in your situation, it may be more of a heart-motive identifying thing, that you do in the Lord's presence as you let Him search your heart and show you, and as it is revealed to you, you say no to those motives and goals in your heart and put them to death, and say yes to working from a different heart motive that you ask the Lord to give to you (FOR HIS GLORY! WOOP!).

May take some time! But everyone's journey is different in the Lord. Hope it's a season of deeper freedom from lesser motives that are anything other than God's glory and God's Kingdom! And that you experience His abundant favor in your life, including in work, but especially in intimacy with Him about all things on your heart. In Jesus' name: amen!

I read Tim Keller's <em>Every Good Endeavor</em> a few years ago and it completely changed my perspective on work and my own career, and it made me consider why I had hardly ever heard the church talk about something we spend 40+ hours a week doing. Thanks for sharing this, I look forward to reading it.

This book might be helpful. It's from Tim Keller, called Every Good Endeavor.

I've known buddies who have had trouble keeping jobs because they felt it wasn't directly and immediately about God's Kingdom. And so in some ways, they'd end up sabotaging their livelihoods, and then finding themselves in a financial pickle and having to ask for assistance from friends and families.

I've also known buddies who have idolized work, and made productivity, promotions, status seeking, and money, their everything, while God was slightly lower in terms of priorities.

I've suffered from both as well.

I do like what Colossians 3: 23 says (NIV):

>Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

This isn't to equate earthly bosses and higher-ups as if they are to be worshipped and obeyed at all costs, but the One whom we actually serve is Jesus. So that even when we experience hardships at work, we can learn to discern the mind of Christ and see how to respond to workplace challenges, difficulties, and even bad situations.

There's another book that was very encouraging. The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence. Basically, the author was a dishwasher, I believe. But doing this seemingly unglamorous job, he continually conversed with the Lord intimately, and felt the presence, joy, delight, union of the Lord, even in dishwashing. A seemingly "dead end job" according to the world was absolutely recontextualized to be a time of worship, intimacy, and incredible significance with the Lord Jesus Himself. A holy and wonderful thing.

I pray Jesus encourages you, to explore what things you enjoy doing, and would like to grow in, even in terms of work and caretaking/ maintaining/ building/ cleaning-up His Kingdom here on earth, that He calls us to participate in, and that He will come to fully restore on that day when He returns in full glory. I pray that this journey, most of all, will be one where you grow closer in intimacy with King Jesus, and experience how much He cares about you, specifically in the ways the Father created you to be. And that even in seemingly mundane things with little impact according to appearances and the world, that if the Father has created you for it, that you would find union with the Lord and great joy in doing what the Father purposed for you specifically. In Jesus' name: amen.

Pray and thank God for work. Or if you're not religious, take a moment to appreciate that we have jobs and can contribute to our families and society.

Thanks! I didn’t think of it on my own—I was reading this book, and it powerfully impacted my approach to work:

https://www.amazon.com/Every-Good-Endeavor-Connecting-Your/dp/1594632820

I want to tell you that if you build your identity on anything other that Christ, it will fail you, and you will fail it.

I've made my work an idol, and I'm amazed to say that for the first time in my life I'm starting to see things and myself differently. Please take a look at this book I'm going through right now as it has helped me a great deal: http://www.amazon.com/Every-Good-Endeavor-Connecting-Your/dp/1594632820/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1453911053&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=every+good+endeavour

For starters on the subject of God and work, you might benefit from this sermon. I loved it: http://www.gospelinlife.com/work-and-rest-5312

Tim Keller's "Every Good Endeavor" was very helpful to me when I was floundering and despairing in my career decisions.