The Power of Meaningful Work
This is a guest post from Dave Arnold who is a writer and speaker living in Michigan. He has worked in a variety of church and ministry roles for the last fifteen years. Dave also works with new immigrants in the Detroit-area, helping them to adjust to their new life. Dave is passionate about helping people belong and discover God’s best for their lives. His first book, Pilgrims of the Alley: Living out Faith in Displacement, comes out Feb. 18, 2013.
Have you ever felt frustrated in your job? As if you were spinning your wheels or tirelessly attempting to please your boss?
I think we’ve all be there, right?
For years, I attempted to fit into a mold others wanted me to fit in, namely, my supervisor or superior. And although I was engaged in work that mattered (working as a pastor in churches) something was missing.
Seth Godin in his groundbreaking book, Linchpin, says it this way:
“Some artists think they need a boss. Someone who will not only pay them, but also tell them what to do. The moment this happens, the artist is no longer an artist. But the moment you treat that person like a boss, like someone in charge of your movements and your output, you are a cog, not an artist.”
That was me: a cog, wanting someone to tell me what to do and attempting to measure up to their standards.
Godin defines artists not necessarily as painters or sculptures; but someone who engages in something meaningful that touches another human being.
With that said, we are all artists! And as such, we need to engage in meaningful work. How?
Let me suggest these two ways:
1. Know the difference between calling and drivenness. When you are called to something, it’s much bigger than a paycheck or a position.
Pastor and author, Gordon MacDonald, in his book, Ordering Your Private World, says, a driven person is “the kind of person who sees life only in terms of results. As such he has little appreciation for the process leading to results.” A called person, on the other hand, is someone who knows who they are and has, according to MacDonald, “an unwavering sense of purpose.”
When we have an unwavering sense of purpose, it gives us peace and allows us to rest our heads on our pillows each night believing what we do matters.
Drivenness, however, leads to stress and that uneasy sense that we’re not doing enough and thus, not good enough.
2. Seek to benefit and serve others through your work. Our work becomes meaningful and full of purpose when it flows out of us and impacts others.
Drivenness, on the other hand, is all about getting ahead and moving upward, oftentimes at the expense of others.
This is not to say we should seek to be “starving artists.” There’s nothing wrong with making a profit from doing what we love. But the moment our work moves from what we can give and how we can bless to what we “deserve” and what is our “right” is the moment we’re off track.
And if we consistently listen to those voices we’re doomed and our work moves away from meaningfulness and becomes self-focused.
With that said, I am convinced God places us in different, and oftentimes, challenging circumstances to force us to face our fears and do meaningful work that really impacts people.
We may think “I could never do this.” But God says, “You can… and you will if you take the step and believe.”
In my upcoming book, Pilgrims of the Alley, I tell the story of the Jewish Holocaust survivors who lived in Displacement Camps in Europe after World War II. Many of them lost relatives; others, while in the camp, hoped to locate missing ones.
But what strikes me most is how these survivors learned to thrive in the Displacement Camps. They reinstated the arts, started newspapers, schools, religious holidays, weddings took place, and children were born.
We have one life to live. We are called to thrive and not waste what’s been given to us.
So let’s thrive. Let’s tap into the power of meaningful work!
What type of work makes you feel alive? What is one thing you can do to move toward meaningful work?
