Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 736 ｜ How to Love Your Job & Find Your Calling ｜ Guest： Jordan Raynor

00:00:00.000 Work. Can't live without it, but sometimes you feel like you can't live with it. Maybe you're

00:00:06.380 discontent in your job. You don't know what God is calling you to do, or you just don't know how

00:00:12.180 to honor God and find true and deep fulfillment in your job. Whether you're a stay-at-home mom,

00:00:18.640 a publicist, a podcaster, we all as Christians are trying to figure out how to work well

00:00:24.780 in a way that glorifies God. Jordan Rayner, author of the books Called to Create and The Word Before

00:00:32.160 Work, is an expert on this subject. He has an incredible, refreshing perspective on the theology

00:00:38.100 of work and how we actually apply it to our lives, apply it to our work for the good of others,

00:00:44.220 ourselves, and for the glory of God. Wow. I was so encouraged by this conversation. I know this is

00:00:51.720 going to be a popular episode. Listen to it multiple times. Share it with your friends.

00:00:56.340 This is a great one for the new year. Without further ado, here's our new friend, Jordan Rayner.

00:01:10.200 Jordan, thanks so much for taking the time to join us. For those who may not know,

00:01:14.720 can you tell us who you are and what you do? Yeah. So, hey, Allie, it's great to be with you.

00:01:19.120 My name is Jordan Rayner. I live in Tampa, Florida, and my mission in life is to help

00:01:24.440 Christians connect their faith with the work that they do 40, 50 hours a week, whether that's as an

00:01:32.160 entrepreneur, a barista, an accountant, a stay-at-home parent, whatever that work is.

00:01:37.700 Because when we read the scriptures, it's clear that work is of great importance, both now and for

00:01:45.380 eternity to the God of the Bible. And what inspired you to start writing about this? I mean, work has

00:01:51.580 been a fact of life for all of human existence. And so you decided to kind of approach it, though,

00:01:57.540 in a new way. Why'd you do that? Yes, this is really rooted in my personal story. So before I was

00:02:04.640 creating content like this full-time, I spent 10 years as a tech entrepreneur. And about halfway

00:02:11.500 through that journey, I was in the process of selling my second company, trying to figure out

00:02:16.540 what I was going to do next with my life. And when you sell two companies, like the natural thing is

00:02:21.260 you go, you know, you start a third, right? So that was the plan. But for a hot minute there,

00:02:26.540 my wife and I were very seriously considering planning a church because, and I think a lot of

00:02:32.540 our listeners will resonate with this, I was just overcome with guilt of how dare I want to go start

00:02:39.480 another business. When there is a need for people to move into mud huts, 5,000 miles away from home

00:02:45.660 to make disciples and plant churches. And so we were really seriously considering planning a church

00:02:50.880 for a little bit. And by the grace of God alone, I had this godly mentor pull me aside after church

00:02:55.860 one Sunday. He's like, Hey, I hear you're thinking about planning a church. And I'm like, yeah. And I'm

00:03:00.300 thinking this guy's going to like pat me on the back, maybe write me my first check. And I'll never

00:03:05.200 forget. He just looked me like square in the eyes. He's like, Jordan, yeah, that just sounds like

00:03:08.620 really dumb for you personally. He's like, Jordan, you're a talented entrepreneur. You have served 0.95

00:03:15.500 your investors and your teams through the ministry of excellence. Why do you think you have to go

00:03:20.740 plan a church in order to do ministry? Don't you get that your work is ministry? I was like, I have

00:03:25.320 no idea what you're talking about. And so he told me, he's like, Hey, listen, in light of this

00:03:30.380 conversation, go back to your Bible, read Genesis one and two that you probably read a hundred times

00:03:35.320 in light of this conversation and tell me what you find. And what I found changed my life forever.

00:03:42.200 I found that before God tells us that he is loving or holy or omnipotent, he tells us that he is a God

00:03:50.760 who works created as the first verb in the Bible. And pretty much the only thing we know about God

00:03:57.140 through this first couple of chapters of Genesis. And then I saw that long before the great commission

00:04:03.080 comes onto the scene where Jesus tells us to make disciples of all nations right there in Genesis one

00:04:07.820 is the first commission to humankind to fill the earth, to subdue it, to rule it in line with God's 0.99

00:04:17.820 character and his law. And that transformed my perspective about work. Work is not a means to an end.

00:04:26.600 Work is not the curse of sin. Work is God's first gift to humanity. And it's the only gift that never

00:04:35.320 really ends because we're going to be working forever in eternity with Jesus by our side. So

00:04:40.320 that message changed my life. I was like, I got to go all in on this.

00:04:43.740 Yes. I remember hearing a few years ago, the truth that work is not a result of the fall, but as you

00:04:51.460 said, it predates the fall, that Adam was placed in the garden to what? To sit there and enjoy the

00:04:57.300 fruit? No, to work and to keep it. And so that was before sin entered the world. So that does disrupt

00:05:04.960 kind of our idea of work being a necessary evil, just something that you do to get to Friday.

00:05:12.760 So how does that tangibly change then how we work as an accountant, as a barista, as a stay-at-home mom?

00:05:21.320 Because I mean, a lot of people feel like their work is just kind of purposeless outside of making

00:05:27.240 themselves and maybe making their boss money. Maybe they don't like it. Maybe it's really

00:05:33.200 mundane. But how does that reality that work predates the fall, that it's not a necessary evil,

00:05:38.340 how does that tangibly change how we work on a day-to-day basis?

00:05:41.700 Yeah, it's a great question. So number one, I think it helps us look for the inherent goodness

00:05:47.260 of our work, right? As you pointed out, Allie, paradise, contrary to what we think about the

00:05:51.900 Garden of Eden, paradise wasn't a vacation. It was a vocation that human beings had, right?

00:05:57.080 And so that allows us to see, okay, yes, my work is difficult today because we live on the other

00:06:01.340 side of Genesis 3, but there's something inherently good about this thing because this is the very thing

00:06:06.220 that God made me to do in this world, right? So that's number one. Number two, I think practically,

00:06:10.940 I think we can lament over what's hard about our work, what's difficult about our work,

00:06:16.820 right? And just cry out to God. We forget the Exodus, second book of the Bible. The whole impetus

00:06:22.440 for the Exodus was slavish labor, was people crying out to God and saying, hey, this work is too hard,

00:06:29.180 and he came and saved the people. So I think we can lament over the hard things about our work.

00:06:33.180 Third, we can look forward expectantly to the day in which work will be perfect once again.

00:06:41.060 And I think we can get glimpses of that now, but we're not going to see it in full until Jesus brings

00:06:46.300 heaven to earth where heaven will ultimately be. And man, we have such distorted theology around

00:06:53.100 heaven. We think of it as this glorified retirement home in the clouds. That is an unbiblical 1.00

00:06:58.640 lie from the pit of hell that steals our hope and anticipation for the future. Isaiah 65 says,

00:07:04.480 God's chosen people will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain. On the new

00:07:11.800 earth, we will have good, perfect work to do. And if that doesn't fuel your hope and anticipation

00:07:17.020 for eternity, man, I don't know what does. That gets me fired up.

00:07:20.360 So the curse of work is not the work itself or even that it's strenuous. The curse came that

00:07:37.200 you will work and sometimes produce nothing. That's exactly right. Sometimes our work will

00:07:41.520 be futile. That's right. Yes. And the redeemed in the renewed world, though, that curse is reversed

00:07:47.300 and we are no longer laboring in vain. So tell me about that because, you know, we were talking

00:07:55.580 about work on yesterday's episode and I almost said, you know, we are going to be working and

00:08:02.860 the new heaven and the new earth. But I wasn't sure that I was exactly right. I knew that work

00:08:07.820 came before the fall, but I hadn't thought about it quite enough. And then I heard you say on another

00:08:12.220 podcast that that's true. So tell me, tell me about that because honestly, like I like working

00:08:16.640 that, that excites me. So like, tell me the scriptural basis for that and what that looks

00:08:22.160 like. Yeah. So there's a couple of scriptures I would point you to. Number one, we already

00:08:26.820 talked about Genesis one and two, right? Because work existed prior to the fall of Genesis three,

00:08:32.320 we can know that work and not just our physical bodies and souls will be redeemed. Jesus came to

00:08:38.040 make all things new, not just human beings. He came to win back everything Satan stole in Genesis

00:08:45.760 three. So if Jesus's victory is going to be total and complete, we believe it will be.

00:08:50.980 That's got to include the world of war. That's number one. Number two, Revelation 22, five,

00:08:56.280 right? We think of Revelation as kind of the end of this narrative. Heaven is the end.

00:08:59.940 Revelation 22 is just the beginning because Revelation 22, five tells us that we, you and

00:09:05.780 me as human beings will reign forever and ever with Christ on the new earth, which makes sense

00:09:13.360 because that's exactly what we were created to do in Genesis one. God's never wanted to do his work

00:09:18.400 in this world on his own. He's always wanted to do it in partnership with other human beings.

00:09:24.460 And the third passage I would point you to is what I just mentioned. Isaiah 65, go read the whole

00:09:29.280 chapter. It's incredible. This incredible vision. It says that we are going to build houses

00:09:33.920 on the new earth. We're going to plant vineyards and long enjoy the work of our hands. Our labor

00:09:40.020 will not be in vain, right? So here's the deal. This is what's exciting to me in the present.

00:09:45.500 We can get a taste of that right now, that not in vain language that might sound familiar to a lot of

00:09:50.360 our listeners. It's from a very famous verse in first Corinthians, first Corinthians 1558, where Paul

00:09:55.220 says that any labor we do in the Lord today in the Lord, basically meaning for his purposes and his

00:10:02.340 glory and not our own is not in vain. Somehow making a latte, not for my glory, but for the glory of God

00:10:10.000 and the good of others is somehow not in vain. Somehow is going to contribute and shape our eternal

00:10:16.760 future with God. That's mind boggling. Yes. Let's talk about that a little more because I've heard you

00:10:21.880 say that one of the reasons why the seemingly mundane and the seemingly meaningless, so the diaper

00:10:29.020 changes or the crunchy numbers for a client or the waiting tables, one of the reasons that that is

00:10:36.820 eternal, that that shapes eternity, that that matters in eternity is because it brings pleasure to God

00:10:43.220 and God's pleasure is eternal. So talk a little bit more about that. Oh man, I would love to. Thank you

00:10:49.900 for giving me a chance to see. So one of my favorite verses in all scripture, because I, let me back up for a

00:10:54.960 second. I think a lot of times in our modern context, Christians think that the only way we can bring

00:11:00.900 pleasure to God is by going on a mission trip. We're sharing the gospel with our coworkers. We're giving

00:11:06.900 money to our church. Psalm 37, 23 says that's a lie. It says that God delights in quote, every detail

00:11:15.200 end quote of the lives of the godly. It goes on to say, right? Every single detail, right? So now I can,

00:11:24.140 I can bring God pleasure when I'm making a latte or changing a diaper. Five quick ways we can bring

00:11:30.000 God eternal pleasure in the mundane alley. Number one, we bring him pleasure when we obey his commands,

00:11:35.680 right? It's exactly what first John three 22 says. We keep his commands and give him pleasure when he

00:11:41.040 sees what we are doing. So if you make that latte without trying to exploit a customer, change that

00:11:45.900 diaper, not begrudgingly, but thankfully that God has given you this child that contributes to God's

00:11:51.620 eternal pleasure. Number two, we bring him pleasure when we pursue excellence in all things. This is the

00:11:56.460 whole point of the parable of the talents, right? Come and share the master's happiness. Number three,

00:12:01.420 we bring him pleasure. I think by doing work that brings us pleasure, because remember Genesis one work

00:12:07.300 was a gift he gave to us, right? And when I give gifts to my kids, I don't want them to play with

00:12:12.700 them begrudgingly. I want them to enjoy them. So Ali, you love your work when you do your work and find

00:12:18.540 joy in it and give praise to God for giving you that work that brings him eternal pleasure. Two more quick

00:12:23.760 ones. Number four, we bring him eternal pleasure by working with him and not just for him, right? Not being

00:12:31.120 so obsessed with God's mission in the world that we forget God himself and praying to him and being with

00:12:36.280 him throughout the day. And then finally, I think we bring God eternal pleasure by just taking time to

00:12:41.340 wonder at his work while we work. Wonder at the coincidences that helped us to land that deal.

00:12:49.600 Wonder at the creative connections that God is making for us. Wonder at the raw materials he's

00:12:54.500 given us. Like, I keep coming back to a latte. I don't know why, right? Like the almonds that he's

00:12:59.140 given me to make that latte. As we take time to wonder at those things, it brings him pleasure because he

00:13:04.020 sees every detail of our lives and delights in the lives of the godly.

00:13:19.360 So doing your job, no matter what that job is, as long as it is not sin, with joy, with excellence,

00:13:27.960 with gratitude, with integrity, all of these things bring God pleasure. God's pleasure is eternal and

00:13:36.400 therefore doing our job well and in a way that honors the Lord is somehow in some kind of mysterious

00:13:45.200 way eternal. It shapes eternity. So every little thing we do, as you mentioned, every detail of the

00:13:52.720 lives of the godly actually matters, not just in the here and the now, but forever. That's really

00:13:58.200 significant. That's mind-boggling. I can summarize it real tightly like this. Anything you do with

00:14:05.100 excellence and love and in accordance with God's commands will shape the eternal pleasure of God.

00:14:13.620 And what does that look like practically? I don't know. Here's one guess. We already talked about we

00:14:17.920 know there's going to be work on the new earth, right? We're going to be with Jesus literally on

00:14:21.880 the new earth. I don't think it's crazy that one of the ways this will manifest itself physically is

00:14:27.980 you're going to be working at your vocation on the new earth. Allie, what do you want to do in the

00:14:31.780 new earth? You want to be podcasting? Oh, I don't know about that. I don't know if I want to be

00:14:36.560 podcasting. You know, I don't know because I don't know exactly what it'll be like. Will I have a

00:14:42.100 different gift? Will I finally be able to sing? Who knows? Who knows? All right. So let's say you're

00:14:46.720 singing on the new earth, right? And Jesus comes up to you. Hebrews 6, 10 tells us he remembers

00:14:51.700 everything that we do, right? Jesus comes up and he said, Hey, Allie, I remember in the former age

00:14:58.380 when you had an opportunity to embellish the truth in order to achieve goal X, Y, or Z, and you didn't

00:15:07.100 do that. I saw that. I remember that act of faithfulness and that brought the father great

00:15:13.080 pleasure, right? Like that's, that's not out of the realm of possibility. I think we could use our

00:15:17.700 biblically formed imaginations to assume that that's one of the ways that this will literally

00:15:22.240 shape eternity in our interactions with the risen Christ, right? Like that should motivate us

00:15:28.840 in the present to store up as many of those moments, those eternal moments as we possibly can,

00:15:35.120 just by being faithful and excellent and loving in the present.

00:15:38.620 And, you know, one thing we have a lot on this podcast, or one thing we talk about a lot is

00:15:43.960 testimony. So we have people who used to be atheists, used to have all different kinds of

00:15:47.880 faith backgrounds, and they come to Christ. And one commonality that I find is that there was some

00:15:53.920 moment that they interacted with someone and the other person who was a Christian or who played a

00:16:00.580 role in this, it was a very commonplace or mundane thing for them to do. They placed a C.S. Lewis book on a

00:16:07.680 table and left it there and didn't think about it. They looked in someone's eyes and said their name.

00:16:13.820 There's all kinds of these examples that I can think of that that person was simply doing the next

00:16:20.980 right thing. And typically it was a part of their job or being a student or something like that. And so

00:16:26.940 I do also think biblically informed imagination that when we get to heaven, we will get to see

00:16:32.240 all of those things that we did that we don't remember. Typically, we just talked to a stranger.

00:16:37.980 We just asked someone how their day was going. We just took the time to like really listen to them

00:16:42.680 in our job or whatever it was. And we will be able to see how God used that in the constellation of

00:16:50.460 someone's testimony to be a step towards them coming to Christ. And so, I mean, and our work is a part of

00:16:59.340 that. Every detail is a part of that. I would argue our work is one of the primary ways that

00:17:04.560 that happens. So we already talked, I think, you know, Christians can assume the only way that 0.99

00:17:08.460 work matters for eternity is when they make disciples. That's not true. We just saw that

00:17:12.180 our work in and of itself brings God pleasure, but it certainly does matter to make disciples of all

00:17:16.760 nations, to contribute to who is in heaven with us for eternity. I just read this fascinating study

00:17:23.980 by Dr. Michael Green that found that in the first three centuries of church history, when Christianity

00:17:32.200 was exploding throughout the world, 80% of conversions to Christianity were not driven by a

00:17:40.900 pastor, were not driven by a full-time missionary. 80% were led by what I call near Christians going to

00:17:51.200 work as tent makers and shepherds and mothers talking around the drinking well in their towns.

00:17:57.560 That's how it happens. And that was true in the first three centuries. It's even more true today,

00:18:02.280 I would argue, when we are living in this increasingly quote unquote post-Christian cultural moment,

00:18:08.680 right? Our unbelieving friends are not going to walk into the four walls of a church to learn about 1.00

00:18:13.520 Jesus for the first time. So where are they going to hear about him? By working shoulder to shoulder

00:18:17.860 with you, listener, as you go to work and just faithfully represent your king. And that doesn't

00:18:25.240 mean leaving Bible tracts all over your office necessarily, right? It's just doing your work

00:18:30.240 with excellence and love. So excellent and so loving that people have to ask the question,

00:18:36.420 what makes you different? To which the only answer is Jesus Christ.

00:18:40.380 Yeah. You know, these days with so many options on the table, especially if you're graduating from

00:18:45.460 college and you think that you have to have a high paying job that also fulfills all of your goals

00:18:52.560 and your passions and also what you are uniquely good at. And that's kind of how we define calling.

00:19:00.200 And if we don't find something that meets that, we constantly feel like we're settling and we feel

00:19:05.480 like, well, we can't truly glorify God. We can't truly be happy until we find that one unique thing.

00:19:11.640 And it breeds, I think, a lot of discontentment, a lot of anxiety in people when they haven't found

00:19:17.440 that calling and they feel like they're just constantly in the waiting room of their own life.

00:19:22.200 Talk to us about that, about what calling is vocationally from a biblical perspective.

00:19:29.400 Yeah, this is a great question. I don't see a whole lot of evidence that calling is a noun.

00:19:34.160 I think it's more of an adjective. Let me explain what I mean by that. I think we have turned

00:19:37.840 calling. The church treats calling the way Hollywood treats marriage, right? Mr. Right, 0.99

00:19:45.720 as if we are in a wild goose chase to find the one thing that God designed us to do. Here's the deal.

00:19:51.360 I don't think God particularly cares what you choose to do for work in this life, so long as it's not out

00:19:56.140 of line with his commands. I think he cares a lot about your heart as you discern what that thing is,

00:20:01.920 right? But I don't think he's too concerned about the choice itself because guess what? Regardless of

00:20:07.400 what you choose, his purposes will not be thwarted, see Job 42 too. He doesn't need you to take any

00:20:14.220 particular job. He will find whoever he can to do whatever work needs to get done for the building

00:20:20.180 of his kingdom. You and I just get to be grateful participants, right? I think that's incredibly

00:20:26.700 freeing, right? Now, I could just make a choice, and I would argue, you know, the barometer for that

00:20:33.040 shouldn't be our short-term happiness and our passions, quote-unquote, before we start the work,

00:20:38.320 but our giftings, right? Because the entire Christian life isn't about my happiness. It's about 1.00

00:20:44.540 bringing happiness to others, and how do you do that? You do that through the ministry of excellence,

00:20:50.460 right? We have fallen. Ali, you and I are millennials. Every well-intentioned adult in our lives told us

00:20:56.540 growing up. Do whatever makes you happy. Follow your passions. Follow your dreams. And we had more

00:21:02.780 opportunity to do that than any generation before us, and yet Gallup tells us we're the least happy

00:21:07.260 generation at work. It's almost as if Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said, hey, serve first.

00:21:13.240 Don't seek to be served. Prioritize others' happiness above your own. And when we do, when we get really,

00:21:20.320 really, really good at something, that's when I think that we find sustainable vocational joy for

00:21:26.260 ourselves.

00:21:38.660 And just because there are so many words today that have been misconstrued and not in alignment with

00:21:45.940 how Scripture defines things, of course, when we say happiness, we don't necessarily just mean

00:21:50.740 making people feel good. Although that can be good, but sometimes people feel good in a way that

00:21:56.240 is not honoring to the Lord. So when we say bring others happiness, we are talking about seeking

00:22:01.320 their well-being as God defines it. And very often that does involve happiness. But of course, we as

00:22:07.060 Christians are concerned about wholeness and holiness even before happiness. But your point 1.00

00:22:13.540 absolutely stands. I talk about this a lot, how in this age of self-love, we're constantly told to find

00:22:19.260 yourself, to seek yourself, and to seek only your own happiness, and everything else will fall into place.

00:22:24.240 We seem really miserable. We seem to be wallowing in anxiety. And like you said, it's almost like

00:22:30.620 God knew that actually we're not good gods for ourselves. When we worship ourselves, we actually

00:22:35.920 end up really sad. Check this out. There's this brilliant researcher out of Yale, no idea whether

00:22:41.640 or not she's a Christian. Her name is Amy Resnesky. She spent her whole career trying to understand what

00:22:48.260 leads people to describe their work as a calling as opposed to a career or merely a job. And she

00:22:55.400 studied it with doctors, computer programmers, administrative assistants, a bunch of different

00:23:00.340 populations. And consistently, the number one predictor of someone describing their work as a

00:23:06.460 calling is not whether or not they were excited about the work and passionate about the work before

00:23:10.600 they started it. It's the number of years they have spent practicing the craft, right? In other

00:23:17.740 words, you get to love what you do by getting really, really good at it and serving other people

00:23:24.980 first. And again, this should not come as a surprise to Christ followers who model our lives after the

00:23:30.980 one who came to serve and not to be served. But to your point, Allie, thank you for drawing out that nuance.

00:23:34.880 It's not happiness necessarily that we're cultivating in others, right? Because that could

00:23:39.440 be shallow. It could be unbiblical. It is service. The guiding principle is what work can I do best

00:23:47.940 in order to love my neighbor as myself? That's the guiding principle.

00:23:53.980 Yes, I think that's absolutely true. And what if someone is a part of a job where they're the only

00:24:01.160 Christian there and they're just in an unfair, inequitable workspace and their boss, their 1.00

00:24:09.220 coworkers are constantly making things difficult, but say, you know, they don't, they don't have

00:24:13.280 another option. It's not a simple job. It's just a really difficult job to do with joy. How, how does

00:24:20.440 a Christian navigate that? If that's where God has placed them right there? I mean, how did they do that 1.00

00:24:25.540 to the glory of God? Oh man, this is a phenomenal question. I would encourage you. Now, listen,

00:24:35.140 as you pointed out, if the job's causing you to sin, non-starter, you gotta leave. I think those

00:24:39.780 are like, those instances are very few and far between, right? And we kind of know them. Yeah.

00:24:43.960 We kind of know them. Those are pretty easy, right? But man, if you're working in a dark place,

00:24:49.180 I would encourage you to stay there, right? Because Jesus called us to be light. And where does light

00:24:53.540 shine brightest in really, really dark places? It's why we need more Christians in politics, 1.00

00:24:59.120 more Christians in Hollywood, not retreating to build our own Christian subcultures. Although I

00:25:05.620 like some of that content, I'm not condemning all that content, but we need to be running into the

00:25:10.380 dark places because this is exactly what Jesus did, right? Hebrews 13 says that Jesus also suffered

00:25:18.320 outside the city gate. And he's talking about the temple, right? So outside of the temple,

00:25:23.540 outside the city gate. And there's a number of interpretations of this. Here's one that I think

00:25:28.040 is really interesting. I think part of the application of this is Jesus could have had a

00:25:34.820 quote unquote, holy job when he came to earth. It's perfectly within God's power to choose for Jesus to

00:25:42.200 grow up as a priest, maybe a Pharisee, but instead Jesus worked outside the city gate as a carpenter

00:25:51.380 working a regular J-O-B where I am sure he had more opportunities to be tempted, more opportunities

00:25:59.080 to cheat out customers. We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses

00:26:03.660 because Jesus worked in dark places outside the city gate. That should lead us to rush into those dark 0.88

00:26:10.560 places to be a faithful presence, right? The one source of light and truth and imperfect holiness

00:26:20.060 within that office. Yeah. And wow, it's getting really hard for Christians and always has been,

00:26:26.560 of course, to a certain degree. And there are some instances in, especially when we're talking about

00:26:30.980 gender and a lot of these issues that have come into the workplace where Christians are basically 0.95

00:26:35.380 being called to lie. And of course, I would never condone a Christian lying or doing anything that 1.00

00:26:41.960 is opposed to God's word. And I don't think, and you can tell me what you think about this. I don't

00:26:47.100 think it's wrong for Christians to look for new opportunities. But the point is that while you're 1.00

00:26:52.260 there, you need to be there. Wherever you are, be all there. That's what Jim Elliott said. And to seek

00:26:59.180 the glory of God there, because he might actually have you there, maybe for longer than you would

00:27:05.900 want. And it's not just a waiting period. It's a period in which he is asking you to do work.

00:27:11.140 That's exactly right. And all throughout scripture, we see examples of this, of God choosing people to

00:27:17.040 go work in dark places. Obadiah, essentially chief of staff to this evil king. Why was he there? To save

00:27:22.340 the prophets, right? Joseph going to work for this, what will become a very evil regime in Egypt. Why? To do 0.89

00:27:30.200 God's work of saving the people from famine, right? So time and time again, we see God choosing not to

00:27:37.620 choosing people not to go into safe spaces, right? But to go into dangerous places where his presence is most

00:27:43.840 desperately needed. But you're right, Allie, you, if you're listening to this, and you're working in a really

00:27:48.600 tough situation, God may be calling you to leave, right? That is a very real possibility. And if he

00:27:52.660 does, you got to go. But he might just as well be calling you to stay and just serve as a faithful,

00:27:58.800 a faithful ambassador for your king.

00:28:01.920 Okay, we only have a few minutes left. You've got a devotional word before work. Tell us what it

00:28:19.480 looks like in the morning for a Christian to prioritize the word before work and how that 0.59

00:28:25.640 can shape what we do. Yeah, so we've explored like a whole lot of truths real quickly in just a few

00:28:32.100 minutes on this podcast. But it's not enough to learn these truths one time, right? We live at a

00:28:38.600 time where every message is telling us that work is about our happiness and our joy, telling us to

00:28:44.260 build our kingdoms rather than God's, right? And so we have got to be regularly steeping ourselves,

00:28:49.840 renewing our minds with what God's word says about our lives in general. But I would argue our work

00:28:55.380 really specifically. So that's why I wrote the word before work. It's the first Monday through

00:29:00.000 Friday devotional I know of that's narrowly focused on how God's word shapes your work.

00:29:06.600 These are like uber short devotionals, right? You can read each of them in two minutes or listen to

00:29:11.620 the audio book in about two minutes in your car on your way to work or in your lunch break.

00:29:16.120 And the whole purpose is to renew your mind with what God said about your work and give you something

00:29:20.380 bite-sized and actionable that you can do in a few minutes to help you make a greater eternal

00:29:26.900 impact with the work you're doing today. Wow. That's so good. We did pack a lot into just a few

00:29:33.080 minutes, but you are excellent at explaining all of this and I can tell it's your passion. So

00:29:36.960 I appreciate that. I want to end with this quote from Elizabeth Elliott. You can tell me what you think

00:29:44.060 about it, but I think about it from time to time just in the mundane or when I just don't feel like

00:29:48.380 quirky, don't feel like doing my job, whether it's my home job, my most important job as a wife and a

00:29:53.280 mom or whether it's this job. She said, this job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift.

00:29:59.960 Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be

00:30:05.220 done gladly. If it is to be done for him here, not somewhere else, I may learn God's way in this job,

00:30:12.640 not in some other God looks for faithfulness. I just love that. And I mean, that's exactly what

00:30:18.120 you're saying. Exactly. I would never try to say something better than Elizabeth Elliott.

00:30:23.440 Well, I would say you're right out there. You articulated this so well. Where can people find

00:30:28.880 you? How can they buy your many awesome books? Oh, let me say, actually, before I answer this,

00:30:33.680 let me say, I don't know if my producer Bree told you this, but the reason that you were booked is

00:30:39.240 because she said that your book called to create changed her life. And so you've had an impact on her.

00:30:46.500 And then consequently, on this show and on lots of people. So tell everyone where they can find those

00:30:53.000 books. Yeah, absolutely. So lots of books and lots of free content as well at jordanrainer.com,

00:30:59.340 J-O-R-D-A-N-R-A-Y-N-O-R.com. And by the way, I know there's a lot of parents listening.

00:31:04.460 Yes.

00:31:04.820 We didn't talk about this book today, maybe some other time, but

00:31:07.220 we are developing a whole series of children's books to embed these ideas in kids' minds at a very

00:31:13.380 early age. We just launched an award-winning one last year called The Creator in You,

00:31:18.780 which helps kids see that the sixth day of Genesis 1 was not the end of creation,

00:31:24.720 contrary to how we typically preach it. It was the beginning because it's when God passed the baton

00:31:28.780 to us and told us to create and work like him. It's been an incredible resource for families that,

00:31:35.880 frankly, I think has impacted a lot more parents than it has kids in its 387 words.

00:31:41.820 That's another resource. And you can find all that at jordanrainer.com.

00:31:46.220 Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Jordan. And yes, we'll have to have you on again. Lots of other

00:31:49.520 things we could talk about, but encourage people to go to jordanrainer.com, check out all your books

00:31:54.120 and all the resources you provide. Thank you so much.

00:31:56.780 Thanks, Allie.

00:31:57.260 Allie.

00:31:58.960 Allie.

00:31:59.600 Allie.

00:32:01.060 Take care.

00:32:01.960 Allie.

00:32:02.240 Allie.

00:32:02.900 Allie.

00:32:04.720 Allie.

00:32:05.340 Allie.

00:32:05.960 Allie.

00:32:06.020 Allie.

00:32:06.900 You.

00:32:20.060 Allie.

00:32:21.020 Allie.

00:32:21.720 Allie.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - January 10, 2023

Ep 736 ｜ How to Love Your Job & Find Your Calling ｜ Guest： Jordan Raynor

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