By Tim Keller
My Personal Takeaways →Work can become either worship or slavery. Every Good Endeavor helps recover a meaningful view of vocation: your work is not only a paycheck or platform, but a way to love your neighbor, cultivate creation, and reflect God’s character. Keller dismantles two distortions — making work ultimate and treating work as meaningless.
He reframes ambition, success, failure, burnout, and service with both conviction and freedom. Read this if you want your career to matter without consuming your identity. Implement it by examining your motives every day: are you working for status and control, or from a secure identity that frees you to serve with excellence? Bring this lens into decisions about integrity, leadership, team culture, and rest. This book gives a theological and practical foundation for sustainable, high-impact work that stays grounded in purpose even when outcomes are uncertain.
By Timothy Keller
FOREWARD
The gospel assures me that God cares about everything I do and will listen to my prayers. He may not answer them the way I want, but if he doesn’t it is because he knows things I do not. My degree of success or failure is part of his good plan for me. God is my source of strength and perseverance.
The gospel reminds us that God cares about the products we make, the companies we work for, and the customers we serve. He not only loves us, but also loves the world and wants us to serve it well. My work is a critical way in which God is caring for human beings and renewing his world.
The gospel is good news. In the words of pastor and counselor Jack Miller, “Cheer up: You’re a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you’re more loved than you ever dared hope.” In other words, I will continually err and sin, and yet God will prevail in my life through his goodness and grace.
The gospel gives meaning to our work as leaders. We’re supposed to treat all people and their work with dignity. We’re to create an environment in which people can flourish and use their God-given gifts to contribute to society. We’re to embody grace, truth, hope, and love in the organizations we create.
We’re to express our relationship with God and his grace to us in the way we speak, work, and lead, not as perfect exemplars but as pointers to Christ.
This book captures some foundational ways of thinking about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit; who we are in relation to that Trinity; and how all this affects the work we were created to do. How we work—in the context of our particular culture, time in history, vocation, and organization—is something we all need to be thinking through in our own communities. But the answers will all hang on this essential theology: the knowledge of who God is, his relation to man, his plan for the world, and how the good news (or gospel) of Christ turns our lives and the way we work upside down.
INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF RECOVERING VOCATION
To make a real difference [there would have to be] a reappropriation of the idea of vocation or calling, a return in a new way to the idea of work as a contribution to the good of all and not merely as a means to one’s own advancement.
A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. As we shall see, thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person.
When we work, we are, as those in the Lutheran tradition often put it, the “fingers of God,” the agents of his providential love for others. This understanding elevates the purpose of work from making a living to loving our neighbor and at the same time releases us from the crushing burden of working primarily to prove ourselves.
Work not only cares for creation, but also directs and structures it. In this Reformed view, the purpose of work is to create a culture that honors God and enables people to thrive.
The way to serve God at work is to…
The Bible teems with wisdom, resources, and hope for anyone who is learning to work, looking for work, trying to work, or going to work. And when we say that the Christian Scriptures “give us hope” for work, we at once acknowledge both how deeply frustrating and difficult work can be and how profound the spiritual hope must be if we are going to face the challenge of pursuing vocation in this world.
God gives us talents and gifts so we can do for one another what he wants to do for us and through us. As a writer, for example, he could fill people’s lives with meaning through the telling of stories that convey the nature of reality.
Everyone wants to be successful rather than forgotten, and everyone wants to make a difference in life. But that is beyond the control of any of us. If this life is all there is, then everything will eventually burn up in the death of the sun and no one will even be around to remember anything that has ever happened. Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught. Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever. That is what the Christian faith promises. “In the Lord, your labor is not in vain,” writes Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 58.
I just said, “ If you know all this.” In order to work in this way—to get the consolation and freedom that Tolkien received from his Christian faith for his work—you need to know the Bible’s answers to three questions: Why do you want to work? (That is, why do we need to work in order to lead a fulfilled life?) Why is it so hard to work? (That is, why is it so often fruitless, pointless, and difficult?) How can we overcome the difficulties and find satisfaction in our work through the gospel? The rest of this book will seek to answer those three questions in its three sections, respectively.
ONE: THE DESIGN OF WORK
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation… . The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Genesis 2:1–3, 15. In the Beginning, There Was Work
The Bible begins talking about work as soon as it begins talking about anything—that is how important and basic it is. The author of the book of Genesis describes God’s creation of the world as work. In fact, he depicts the magnificent project of cosmos invention within a regular workweek of seven days.
God worked for the sheer joy of it. Work could not have a more exalted inauguration.
He stands back, takes in “all that he has made,” and says, in effect, “That’s good!”
The rest of the Bible tells us that God continues this work as Provider, caring for the world by watering and cultivating the ground (Psalm 104:10–22), giving food to all he has made, giving help to all who suffer, and caring for the needs of every living thing (Psalm 145:14–16). Finally, we see God not only working, but commissioning workers to carry on his work. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 28 he tells human beings to “fill the earth and subdue it.” The word “subdue” indicates that, though all God had made was good, it was still to a great degree undeveloped. God left creation with deep untapped potential for cultivation that people were to unlock through their labor.
The book of Genesis leaves us with a striking truth—work was part of paradise. One biblical scholar summed it up: “It is perfectly clear that God’s good plan always included human beings working, or, more specifically, living in the constant cycle of work and rest.”
Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer, and sexuality; it is not simply medicine but food for our soul. Without meaningful work we sense significant inner loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Also, work is also one of the ways we discover who we are, because it is through work that we come to understand our distinct abilities and gifts, a major component in our identities.
So the commandments of God in the Bible are a means of liberation, because through them God calls us to be what he built us to be. Cars work well when you follow the owner’s manual and honor the design of the car. If you fail to change the oil, no one will fine you or take you to jail; your car will simply break down because you violated its nature. You suffer a natural consequence. In the same way, human life works properly only when it is conducted in line with the “owner’s manual,” the commandments of God.
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:17–18). And so it is with work, which (in rhythm with rest) is one of the Ten Commandments. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Exodus 20:9). In the beginning God created us to work, and now he calls us and directs us unambiguously to live out that part of our design. This is not a burdensome command; it is an invitation to freedom.
Pieper argues that leisure is not the mere absence of work, but an attitude of mind or soul in which you are able to contemplate and enjoy things as they are in themselves, without regard to their value or their immediate utility. The work-obsessed mind—as in our Western culture—tends to look at everything in terms of efficiency, value, and speed. But there must also be an ability to enjoy the most simple and ordinary aspects of life, even ones that are not strictly useful, but just delightful.
“Of course work is important, and of course it isn’t the only thing in life.” But it is crucial to grasp these truths well. For in a fallen world, work is frustrating and exhausting; one can easily jump to the conclusion that work is to be avoided or simply endured. And because our disordered hearts crave affirmation and validation, it is just as tempting to be thrust in the opposite direction—making life all about career accomplishment and very little else. In fact, overwork is often a grim attempt to get our lifetime’s worth of work out of the way early, so we can put work behind us. These attitudes will only make work more stultifying and unsatisfying in the end.
TWO: THE DIGNITY OF WORK
We learn not only that work has dignity in itself, but also that all kinds of work have dignity. God’s own work in Genesis 1 and 2 is “manual” labor, as he shapes us out of the dust of the earth, deliberately putting a spirit in a physical body, and as he plants a garden (Genesis 2:8).
“If God came into the world, what would he be like? For the ancient Greeks, he might have been a philosopher-king. The ancient Romans might have looked for a just and noble statesman. But how does the God of the Hebrews come into the world? As a carpenter.”
We were built for work and the dignity it gives us as human beings, regardless of its status or pay.
THREE: WORK AS CULTIVATION
Human beings “filling the earth” means something far more than plants and animals filling the earth. It means civilization, not just procreation. We get the sense that God does not want merely more individuals of the human species; he also wants the world to be filled with a human society. He could have just spoken the word and created millions of people in thousands of human settlements, but he didn’t. He made it our job to develop and build this society.
And that is the pattern for all work. It is creative and assertive. It is rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish. This pattern is found in all kinds of work. Farming takes the physical material of soil and seed and produces food. Music takes the physics of sound and rearranges it into something beautiful and thrilling that brings meaning to life. When we take fabric and make a piece of clothing, when we push a broom and clean up a room, when we use technology to harness the forces of electricity, when we take an unformed, naïve human mind and teach it a subject, when we teach a couple how to resolve their relational disputes, when we take simple materials and turn them into a poignant work of art—we are continuing God’s work of forming, filling, and subduing. Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and “unfold” creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development.
The naming of the animals in chapter 2, verses 19–20 is an invitation to enter into his creativity. Why didn’t God just name the animals himself? After all, in Genesis 1, God names things, “calling” the light “Day” and the darkness “Night”—so he was clearly capable of naming the animals as well. Yet he invites us to continue his work of developing creation, to develop all the capacities of human and physical nature to build a civilization that glorifies him. Through our work we bring order out of chaos, create new entities, exploit the patterns of creation, and interweave the human community. So whether splicing a gene or doing brain surgery or collecting the rubbish or painting a picture, our work further develops, maintains, or repairs the fabric of the world. In this way, we connect our work to God’s work.
FOUR: WORK AS SERVICE
Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. 1 Corinthians 7:17
Let’s look at the biblical use of the term often translated as “calling.” In the letters of the New Testament the Greek word for “to call” (kaleo) usually describes God’s summons to men and women into saving faith and union with his Son (Romans 8:30; 1 Corinthians 1:9). It is also a call to serve him by reaching the world with his message (1 Peter 2:9–10). God’s calling has not only an individual aspect but also a communal one. It brings you into a relationship not only with him, but also with a body of believers (1 Corinthians 1:9; Ephesians 1:1–4; Colossians 3:15).
Paul uses these same two words here when he says that every Christian should remain in the work God has “assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” Yet Paul is not referring in this case to church ministries, but to common social and economic tasks—“secular jobs,” we might say—and naming them God’s callings and assignments.
Our daily work can be a calling only if it is reconceived as God’s assignment to serve others. And that is exactly how the Bible teaches us to view work.
“How, with my existing abilities and opportunities, can I be of greatest service to other people, knowing what I do of God’s will and of human need?”
How does God give a city security? Isn’t it through lawmakers, police officers, and those working in government and politics? So God cares for our civic needs through the work of others, whom he calls to that work. In Luther’s Large Catechism, when he addresses the petition in the Lord’s Prayer asking God to give us our “daily bread,” Luther says that “when you pray for ‘daily bread’ you are praying for everything that contributes to your having and enjoying your daily bread… . You must open up and expand your thinking, so that it reaches not only as far as the flour bin and baking oven but also out over the broad fields, the farmlands, and the entire country that produces, processes, and conveys to us our daily bread and all kinds of nourishment.” So how does God “feed every living thing” (Psalm 145:16) today? Isn’t it through the farmer, the baker, the retailer, the website programmer, the truck driver, and all who contribute to bring us food?
Parents want to give their children everything they need, but they also want them to become diligent, conscientious, and responsible people. So they give their children chores. They could obviously do the chores better themselves, but that would not help their children grow in maturity. So parents give their children what they need—character—through the diligence required for the chores they assign them.
Since we already have in Christ the things other people work for—salvation, self-worth, a good conscience, and peace—now we may work simply to love God and our neighbors.
This revolutionary way of looking at work gives all work a common and exalted purpose: to honor God by loving your neighbors and serving them through your work.
So how do we connect what we do on Sunday morning with what we do during the rest of the week? How can we “touch God in the world” through our work? Diehl answers that the very first way to be sure you are serving God in your work is to be competent.
In the liner notes to his masterpiece A Love Supreme, John Coltrane says it beautifully: This album is a humble offering to Him. An attempt to say “THANK YOU GOD” through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues.
FIVE: WORK BECOMES FRUITLESS
God had warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree, they would die. Most readers assume that God is speaking of immediate physical death, so it is surprising to us when Adam and Eve eat of the tree and they do not slump lifeless to the ground. But that would happen in due course, for eventual physical shutdown is one aspect of the comprehensive death and decay that now comes to every aspect of human life. Nothing works now as it should. Sin leads to the disintegration of every area of life: spiritual, physical, social, cultural, psychological, temporal, eternal.
Work is not itself a curse, but it now lies with all other aspects of human life under the curse of sin. “Thorns and thistles” will come up as we seek to grow food (verse 18). When we remember that gardening is representative of all kinds of human labor and culture building, this is a statement that all work and human effort will be marked by frustration and a lack of fulfillment. “Part of the curse of work in a fallen world is its frequent fruitlessness.”
In a world where people have on average three to four different careers in their work lives, it is perfectly natural that changing careers may be necessary to maximize fruitfulness. God can—and often does—change what he calls us to do.
Tolkien’s dream and the resulting story, “Leaf by Niggle,” are simply a depiction of this hope. Niggle imagined a beautiful tree that he never was able to produce in paint during his life, so he died weeping that his picture, the great work of his life, was not completed. No one would ever see it. And yet, when he got to the heavenly country—there was the tree! This was Tolkien’s way of saying, to us as well as to himself, that our deepest aspirations in work will come to complete fruition in God’s future.
SIX: WORK BECOMES POINTLESS
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:17
The quest of the Philosopher is to have a meaningful life based solely on what can be found within the confines of this material world—achievement, pleasure, and learning. Finally, the original writer speaks in his own voice again and does an evaluation in the epilogue (12:8–14). Thus the writer can dramatize his main themes by depicting the wisest, richest, most gifted man possible, who nonetheless could not find fulfillment in this life.
The author of Ecclesiastes is using the character of the Philosopher to push readers toward an understanding of the transcendent uniqueness and necessity of God. Nothing within this world is sufficient basis for a meaningful life here. If we base our lives on work and achievement, on love and pleasure, or on knowledge and learning, our existence becomes anxious and fragile—because circumstances in life are always threatening the very foundation of our lives, and death inevitably strips us of everything we hold dear.
The Philosopher makes his case in stages. The book begins with what has been called three “life projects,” each an effort to discover a meaningful life under the sun. The first is a quest to make sense of life through learning and wisdom (Ecclesiastes 1:12–18; 2:12–16). The second is an effort to make life fulfilling through the pursuit of pleasure (2:1–11). The third project that the Philosopher undertakes to chase away his sense of pointlessness is the pursuit of achievement through hard work (Ecclesiastes 2:17–26). Having tried to live for learning and for pleasure, he now tries to live for the accomplishment of concrete goals and the accrual of wealth and influence. But in the end he concludes that work cannot, all by itself, deliver a meaningful life. “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:17). Why does he draw this conclusion? When we work, we want to make an impact. That can mean getting personal recognition for our work, or making a difference in our field, or doing something to make the world a better place. Nothing is more satisfying than a sense that through our work we have accomplished some lasting achievement. But the Philosopher startles us by arguing that even if you are one of the few people who breaks through and accomplishes all you hope for, it’s all for nothing, for in the end there are no lasting achievements. “I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:18–20).
In short even if your work is not fruitless, it is ultimately pointless if life “under the sun” is all there is.
“What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 2:22–23). Grief and pain so great that he cannot rest: This is the experience of the person whose soul is resting wholly on the circumstances of their work.
Work can even isolate us from one another. “There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. ‘For whom am I toiling,’ he asked, ‘and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?’ This too is meaningless—a miserable business!” (Ecclesiastes 4:7–8). This man is “alone”—without friends or family—as a result of his work. Work can convince you that you are working hard for your family and friends while you are being seduced through ambition to neglect them. Work involves “depriving”—delayed gratification and sacrifice. But he asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of enjoyment?” In the end, he finds that working for his own sake is unrewarding.
Brooks’s first point is that so many college students do not choose work that actually fits their abilities, talents, and capacities, but rather choose work that fits within their limited imagination of how they can boost their own self-image. There were only three high-status kinds of jobs—those that paid well, those that directly worked on society’s needs, and those that had the cool factor. Because there is no longer an operative consensus on the dignity of all work, still less on the idea that in all work we are the hands and fingers of God serving the human community, in their minds they had an extremely limited range of career choices.
What wisdom, then, would the Bible give us in choosing our work? First, if we have the luxury of options, we would want to choose work that we can do well. It should fit our gifts and our capacities. To take up work that we can do well is like cultivating our selves as gardens filled with hidden potential; it is to make the greatest room for the ministry of competence. Second, because the main purpose of work is to serve the world, we would want to choose work that benefits others. We have to ask whether our work or organization or industry makes people better or appeals to the worst aspects of their characters. The answer will not always be black and white; in fact, the answer could differ from person to person.
“There is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot” (Ecclesiastes 3:22). Yes, work is our inescapable “lot,” and so satisfaction in that realm is essential to a satisfactory life. But how do we get that satisfaction in light of all that we have against us? The answer: “to find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:13). How can we secure this gift? Qoheleth provides a hint. Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:5–6 Qoheleth commends, literally, “one handful of quietness”—by contrast with two alternatives. One is the “two handfuls” of wealth that come from “toil and chasing after the wind”. The other is the “empty handful” of wealth that comes from the idleness of the fool who does not toil at all. Qoheleth concedes that satisfaction in work in a fallen world is always a miraculous gift of God—and yet we have a responsibility to pursue this gift through a particular balance. Tranquility without toil will not bring us satisfaction; neither will toil without tranquility. There will be both toil and tranquility. How we attain such a balanced life is one of the main themes of Scripture. First, it means recognizing and renouncing our tendency to make idols of money and power (see Ecclesiastes 4:4—“I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind”). Second, it means putting relationships in their proper place.
SEVEN: WORK BECOMES SELFISH
“Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:2–4. One of the reasons work is both fruitless and pointless is the powerful inclination of the human heart to make work, and its attendant benefits, the main basis of one’s meaning and identity. When this happens, work is no longer a way to create and bring out the wonders of the created order, as Calvin would say, or to be an instrument of God’s providence, serving the basic needs of our neighbor, as Luther would say. Instead it becomes a way to distinguish myself from my neighbor, to show the world and prove to myself that I’m special. It is a way to accumulate power and security, and to exercise control over my destiny.
“To make a name” in the language of the Bible is to construct an identity for ourselves. We either get our name—our defining essence, security, worth, and uniqueness—from what God has done for us and in us (Revelation 2:17), or we make a name through what we can do for ourselves.
While the first kind of identity-making comes from creating an idol of one’s individual talents and accomplishments, the second kind comes from making an idol of one’s group. This leads, of course, to snobbery, imperialism, colonialism, and various other forms of racism.
So a life of self-glorification makes unity and love between people impossible. It leaves us with the dreary choice between making the self an idol (which leads to the disunity of individualistic cultures) and making the group to an idol (which leads to the suppression of individual freedom in tribal or collective cultures). The two things we all want so desperately—glory and relationship—can coexist only with God.
The people of Shinar wanted to build the tallest building in the world. This peculiar project of humankind has shown no signs of abating for many millennia, and it seems that every year we hear of a building going up somewhere that will make a name for someone new and stand as the world’s tallest for a time. This is a vivid example of the spirit of competitive pride that drives the work in every field.
See how C.S. Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity: Now what I want you to get clear is that Pride is essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature… . Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others.
An extended case study on the themes of self-interest, power, and vocation can be found in the Old Testament book of Esther. The book recounts an incident when the Jews were dispersed throughout the Persian Empire. In the first chapter we are told how the Persian emperor, King Xerxes, has disposed of his queen Vashti because she was too bold and displeased him. He looks for another queen and discovers Esther, a beautiful young Jewish girl. He sleeps with her and she pleases him. Esther hides her Jewish identity as she is elevated to be his queen in the royal palace. Almost all readers of this story are offended by this early part of the book of Esther. Feminist interpreters are outraged at Esther’s subservience. Others are offended by the fact that unlike Daniel, who identified himself as a Jew and lived as one publicly in a pagan court, Esther keeps quiet. People of traditional moral views are bothered that she sleeps with a man to whom she is not married. Through all these moral compromises, she rises to a place near the center of power. So we are posed with a question: In such morally, culturally, and spiritually ambiguous situations, does God still work with us and through us? The answer of the book is yes.
The book of Esther parallels the biblical accounts of Daniel and Joseph. All three people were believers in the God of Israel. Each was an official in a pluralistic, nonbelieving government and culture. None were prophets, priests, elders, or teachers. They had reached the highest circles of power in their secular cultural institutions. And God used them mightily.
He said that if you were to go to a book table at a church and see a biography with the title ‘The Man God Uses’ or ‘The Woman God Uses’, you would immediately think it was the story of a missionary, teacher, church leader, or specialist in some sort of spiritual work. He points out that what you have in the story of Joseph is a highly successful secular official. Lucas says, “In the long term I think being a preacher, missionary, or leading a Bible study group in many ways is easier. There is a certain spiritual glamour in doing it, and what we should be doing each day is easier to discern more black and white, not so gray. It is often hard to get Christians to see that God is willing not just to use men and women in ministry, but in law, in medicine, in business, in the arts.”
God shows the diversity of the people he uses by giving us three different books in the Bible describing how he restores the nation of Israel back to its homeland. First, the book of Ezra is about a minister, a teacher of the word. The Jews needed to be reacquainted with the Bible so their lives could be shaped by what God said. Second, the book of Nehemiah is about an urban planner and developer who used his management skills to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and reinstate stability so that economic and civic life could begin to flourish again. Last, the book of Esther is about a woman with power in the civil government working against racial injustice. Here you have male and female, lay and clergy. You have people working for spiritual maturity, economic flourishing, and better public policy, in cultures that defined and valued these ideas differently from the Jews. And God is using them all. Don’t be too quick to miss the connection between Esther and us.
I have a friend who worked in private equity at a major financial services firm. We asked him to teach a class on character and integrity in our church. During the class he shared a recent dilemma in which the team who worked for him identified an excellent investment opportunity that would provide a good return for his team and the company. The only problem was that the business in my friend’s mind, not only didn’t make a positive contribution to society but damaged it. It wasn’t illegal, and the firm itself had no issue with investing in this business. He was torn between his obligation to create the highest value for his own company and staff, and his faith-based commitment to human flourishing. He could veto the investment, but that would only put the deal in the hands of a competing bank. He could agree to the investment and profit from something that he didn’t believe in. He wanted to at least take a stand and live out his convictions in some way. So he announced to his team that he would not veto the deal, but he would personally choose to not participate in any bonus that might result from their investment. That gave him the opportunity to explain his rationale and present a picture of God’s intentions for human flourishing. The deal closed, and the investment made the bank a lot of money. But what of my friend’s sacrifice? He took an opportunity, at a true cost to himself, to take a stand and point to his colleagues an alternate vision of life in the palace.
Unless you use your clout, your credentials, and your money in service to the people outside the palace, the palace is a prison.
Mordecai says to Esther, “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” The Hebrew word translated as “come” is a passive verb. It would be better translated: “Who knows but that you were not brought to your royal position because of this?” He is reminding Esther that she did not get to the palace except by grace. She did not develop or earn her beauty, nor did she produce this opportunity; they were given to her. Have you contemplated how much this is true of you too? If someone claims that your professional status is a result of grace, you immediately think they don’t know how hard you worked to get into your school, how hard you worked in school and at your internships, how you have performed better than your peers at work, and so on. However, you worked with talents you did not earn; they were given to you. You went through doors of opportunity you did not produce; they just opened for you. Therefore, everything you have is a matter of grace, and so you have the freedom to serve the world through your influence, just as you can through your competence.
The religions of the world disagree on the story and the reasons, but they all agree on something: There is a gap—or a chasm—between the divine and us. Some religions say we must cross that divide through sacrifice, rituals, transformation of consciousness, or ethical practice. But somehow we need something to bridge that gap between God and ourselves. How will we find it? Here’s the answer of the Bible, right from this story. Esther saved her people through identification and mediation. Her people were condemned, but she identified with them and came under that condemnation. She risked her life and said, “If I perish, I perish.” Because she identified, she could mediate before the throne of power as no one else could, and because she received favor there, that favor was transferred to her people. Saving people through identification and mediation—does that remind you of anyone? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived in the ultimate palace with ultimate beauty and glory, and he voluntarily left them behind. Philippians 2 says that he had equality with the Father, but he did not hold on to it; instead, he emptied himself, identified with us, and took on our condemnation.
Meditate on these things, and the truth will change your identity. It will convince you of your real, inestimable value. And ironically, when you see how much you are loved, your work will become far less selfish. Suddenly all the other things in your work life—your influence, your résumé, and the benefits they bring you—become just things. You can risk them, spend them, and even lose them.
Esther is called Queen Esther fourteen times; thirteen of those happen after she says, “If I perish, I perish.” She becomes a person of greatness not by trying to make a name for herself; and you will become a person of greatness not by trying to make yourself into one, but by serving the One who said to his Father, “For your sake, thy will be done.”
EIGHT: WORK REVEALS OUR IDOLS
Because we can set up idols in our hearts (Ezekiel 14:3–7), we recognize that “making an image” of something is not necessarily a physical process but is certainly a spiritual and psychological one. It means imagining and trusting anything to deliver the control, security, significance, satisfaction, and beauty that only the real God can give. It means turning a good thing into an ultimate thing.
Even nonreligious people serve “gods”—ideologies or abilities that they believe can justify their lives. French philosopher Luc Ferry, himself a nonbeliever in God, likewise argues that everyone seeks “some way to face life with confidence, and death without fear and regret.” All of us look to something to assure ourselves we have spent our lives well.
Why do the Ten Commandments begin with a prohibition of idolatry? It is, Luther argued, because we never break the other commandments without breaking the first.
We know that people develop “fatal attractions” for status and power, for approval and achievement, for romance and sexual pleasure, or for affluence and comfort. Personal idols profoundly drive and shape our behavior, including our work. Idols of comfort and pleasure can make it impossible for a person to work as hard as is necessary to have a faithful and fruitful career. Idols of power and approval, on the other hand, can lead us to overwork or to be ruthless and unbalanced in our work practices. Idols of control take several forms—including intense worry, lack of trust, and micromanagement. While we are usually blind to our own idols, it is not very hard to see them in others, and to see how others’ counterfeit gods fill them with anxiety, anger, and discouragement.
With the rise of modern science and the philosophical movement called the Enlightenment, modern society dethroned the idols of religion, tribe, and tradition—replacing them with reason, empiricism, and individual freedom as the ultimate values that overrule all others.
Rather, they insisted that there was no standard higher than the right of the individual to choose the life he or she wanted to live. The only moral wrong, in this view, was to keep other individuals from choosing to live as they found fulfilling. That meant that, ultimately, there was no moral authority or cause higher than the happiness of the self. As many have pointed out, this made “choice” and feelings into something sacred and holy. In the modern world, “now, the individual was the center of the universe, and the creature beyond all else entitled to absolute respect.” In other words, the human self had replaced God.
In the aristocratic traditional world-view, work was considered a defect, a servile activity—literally, reserved for slaves. In the modern world-view, it becomes an arena for self-realization, a means not only of educating oneself but also of fulfillment… . Work becomes the defining activity of man… . His aim is to create himself by remaking the world.
Long before the horrors of the world wars, Nietzsche declared that the idea that science will lead to inevitable human progress was an idol—a new quasi-religious faith—and that it had no grounding in reality. Science can tell us only what is, never how things ought to be. Human beings are capable of kindness and unselfishness but also of cruelty and violence, and science will simply serve the interests of whoever is in power. There is no particular reason, he pointed out, to think science will somehow lead us to a better world. It could just as easily lead us into a bleak future through armed conflict, or an ecological disaster, or the rise of tyrants who use technology for powerful social control.
And even in the most successful capitalist societies like that of the United States, many recognize the cultural contradiction that consumerism tends to undermine the very virtues of self-control and responsibility on which capitalism is founded.
We can begin to answer these questions only by first settling one sure fact: Nothing will be put perfectly right, as St. Paul says, until the “day of Christ” at the end of history (Philippians 1:6; 3:12). Until then all creation “groans” (Romans 8:22) and is subject to decay and weakness. So work will be put completely right only when heaven is reunited with earth and we find ourselves in our “true country.” To talk about fully redeeming work is sometimes naïvete, sometimes hubris.
Second, the Christian faith gives us a new and rich conception of work as partnering with God in his love and care for the world. This biblical conception helps us appreciate all work, from the most simple to the most complex, by both believers and nonbelievers.
Most books and programs that help people integrate their faith with their work tend to focus on only one or two of these factors. Some, for example, emphasize the first. They take a somewhat academic tack and constitute theological principles into a “Christian approach” to art, government, economics, and so on. Some concentrate almost completely on the second. They fear that an overemphasis on a biblical worldview in work leads to triumphalism and fails to appreciate God’s broad providential activity. Others take a more personal and experiential approach, inviting people to encounter Christ in a new way and emphasizing the inner power that comes from a gospel-transformed heart. Still others fear that focus on inner-heart transformation puts all the weight on personal peace and success and ignores the social-justice implications of the gospel, in which Christians are responsible to serve others through their work. But all of these emphases and concerns are correct—and in the final part of the book, we seek to show that they are ultimately complementary and very practical. Indeed one of the reasons the Bible’s view of work is so compelling and so helpful in all cultures, social settings, and vocations is because it is so rich and multidimensional.
NINE: A NEW STORY FOR WORK
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
People cannot make sense of anything without attaching it to a story line.
And if you get the story of the world wrong—if, for example, you see life here as mainly about self-actualization and self-fulfillment rather than the love of God—you will get your life responses wrong, including the way you go about your work.
While many stories are often no more than entertainment, narratives are actually so foundational to how we think that they determine how we understand and live life itself. The term “worldview,” from the German word Weltanschauung, means the comprehensive perspective from which we interpret all of reality. But a worldview is not merely a set of philosophical bullet points. It is essentially a master narrative, a fundamental story about (a) what human life in the world should be like, (b) what has knocked it off balance, and (c) what can be done to make it right.
The gospel, however, teaches that the meaning of life is to love God and love our neighbor, and that the operating principle is servanthood.
The Christian worker or business leader who has experienced God’s grace—who knows “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20), is free to honor God, love neighbors, and serve the common good through work. In fact, at Redeemer we believe this idea is so important for life in the city that we work with entrepreneurs and offer classes to help them think through how the story of the gospel shapes their vision for their new venture. Whether it’s a for-profit business, a nonprofit, or an arts venture, we point each entrepreneur to a vision of serving a need in a way that reflects God’s plan for the world.
He wrote that he often found that patients’ guilt and fears were factors in their illness and also that their faith in God was part of how they healed, but he felt completely unprepared by his training to address any of these realities. “Doctors,” he wrote, “understandably are leery of moving outside the strictly clinical and venturing into the spiritual realm.”
Horder responded that he reckoned only about a third of the problems that are brought to a physician are strictly medical—the rest are due to or aggravated by anxiety and stress, poor life choices, and unrealistic goals and beliefs about themselves.
So when we say that Christians work from a gospel worldview, it does not mean that they are constantly speaking about Christian teaching in their work. Some people think of the gospel as something we are principally to “look at” in our work. This would mean that Christian musicians should play Christian music, Christian writers should write stories about conversion, and Christian businessmen and -women should work for companies that make Christian-themed products and services for Christian customers. Yes, some Christians in those fields would sometimes do well to do those things, but it is a mistake to think that the Christian worldview is operating only when we are doing such overtly Christian activities. Instead, think of the gospel as a set of glasses through which you “look” at everything else in the world. Christian artists, when they do this faithfully, will not be completely beholden either to profit or to naked self-expression; and they will tell the widest variety of stories. Christians in business will see profit as only one of several bottom lines; and they will work passionately for any kind of enterprise that serves the common good. The Christian writer can constantly be showing the destructiveness of making something besides God into the central thing, even without mentioning God directly.
And while the Bible is not a comprehensive handbook for running a business, doing plumbing, or serving patients, it does speak to an enormous range of cultural, political, economic, and ethical issues that are very much part of how we all live.
Are you thinking about your work through the lenses of a Christian worldview? Are you asking questions such as: • What’s the story line of the culture in which I live and the field where I work? Who are the protagonists and antagonists? • What are the underlying assumptions about meaning, morality, origin, and destiny? • What are the idols? The hopes? The fears? • How does my particular profession retell this story line, and what part does the profession itself play in the story? • What parts of the dominant worldviews are basically in line with the gospel, so that I can agree with and align with them? • What parts of the dominant worldviews are irresolvable without Christ? Where, in other words, must I challenge my culture? How can Christ complete the story in a different way? • How do these stories affect both the form and the content of my work personally? How can I work not just with excellence but also with Christian distinctiveness in my work? • What opportunities are there in my profession for (a) serving individual people, (b) serving society at large, (c) serving my field of work, (d) modeling competence and excellence, and (e) witnessing to Christ?
TEN: A NEW CONCEPTION OF WORK
Whatever you do, do well. Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NLT)
Yet theologians speak not only of God’s creation but also of his providence. God does not simply create; he also loves, cares for, and nurtures his creation. He feeds and protects all he has made. But how does his providential care reach us? As we have seen in earlier chapters, especially in the teaching of Martin Luther, God’s loving care comes to us largely through the labor of others. Work is a major instrument of God’s providence; it is how he sustains the human world.
So a farmer or chef meets her neighbor’s need for food; a mechanic meets his neighbor’s need for technical help on a car. This aspect of work-as-provision is the reason that much work that Christians do is not done, at least not in its visible form, any differently from the way non-Christians do it. It is not so easy, for example, to identify the uniquely Christian way to fill a cavity.
Instead Christians should place a high value on all human work (especially excellent work), done by all people, as a channel of God’s love for his world.
James 1, verse 17 says that “every good and perfect gift is from above … from the Father of the heavenly lights.” This means that every act of goodness, wisdom, justice, and beauty—no matter who does it—is being enabled by God. It is a gift, and therefore a form of grace. • In Exodus 31, verses 1–4, we read how Bezalel was “filled … with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of crafts—to make artistic designs.” Here we see artistic skill coming from God. Salieri was right—Mozart’s music was the voice of God, regardless of the moral and spiritual condition of Mozart’s heart. • In Isaiah 45, verse 1, we read of Cyrus, a pagan king whom God anoints with his Spirit and chooses for world leadership. In Genesis 20, verses 6–7 we read how God prevents another pagan king from falling into sin. These are indications of how God’s Spirit functions both as a non-saving ennobling force in the world and as a non-saving restraining force in the world. This is not the Spirit working as a converting or a sanctifying agent. Rather he acts to give wisdom, courage, and insight and to restrain the effects of sin—even to those who would deny God’s existence.
Leonard Bernstein’s second-order beliefs were secular and naturalistic. But on a TV broadcast he famously said, “Listening to Beethoven’s Fifth, you get the feeling there’s something right with the world, something that checks throughout, something that follows its own laws consistently, something we can trust, that will never let us down.” He was saying that music gave him not simply emotion, but meaning. Despite the fact that his formal beliefs were that life was a cosmic accident, and therefore there could be no meaning to anything, music made him feel that there was meaning to it all, that it did matter how he lived! His first-order beliefs were bubbling up despite his second-order beliefs, as they do for everyone.
ELEVEN: A NEW COMPASS FOR WORK
On the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers… . Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him? Isaiah 58:3–7
Christians can take a stand against unethical behavior, even if it means great sacrifice on their part. Fortunately, the story line of the Christian faith gives believers an ethical bedrock—a much firmer foundation for acting with integrity than offered by the pragmatic approach of a cost-benefit analysis. We are to be honest, compassionate, and generous not because these things are rewarding (which they usually are, hence the cost-benefit approach to ethics), but because they are right in and of themselves—because to do so honors the will of God and his design for human life. Sometimes, of course, that will put us in the minority and even at a disadvantage. But indeed, as Bible scholar Bruce Waltke points out, the Bible says that the very definition of righteous people is that they disadvantage themselves to advantage others, while “the wicked … are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves.”
Christians understood that we were made by and for eternal love, which was the primary meaning of life.
For instance, are relationships a means to the end of accruing power, wealth, and comfort? Or is wealth creation a means to serve the end goal of loving others?
The pressures and practices of the marketplace increasingly cause us to rationalize every aspect of life by analyzing efficiencies. People become contacts who can help you; customers are eyeballs and wallets; employees are resources to execute a task. It’s so easy to measure the worth of customers, employees, and even congregants in financial terms. From a strictly economic perspective, shareholders, management, employees, suppliers, customers, and community residents have unequal financial value, and it is difficult not to treat them unequally in some respects. But while economically speaking some are more valuable than others, theologically speaking all of us are made in the image of God and are therefore equal in importance.
According to the Bible, wisdom is more than just obeying God’s ethical norms; it is knowing the right thing to do in the 80 percent of life’s situations in which the moral rules don’t provide the clear answer.
How can we become wise so that we make good decisions? The Bible teaches that wisdom accumulates from several sources. First, we must not merely believe in God, but know him personally. When God’s gracious love becomes not an abstract doctrine but a living reality, it means our heart is less controlled by anxiety and pride, two powerful forces that constantly lead us to unwisely over- or under-react to situations. Second, we must know ourselves. Many bad decisions stem from an inability to know what we are and are not capable of accomplishing. The gospel keeps us from over- or underestimating our own abilities, because it shows us both our sin and God’s love for us in Christ. Third, we learn wisdom through experience. The foolish heart—blinded from reality because of its idols—does not learn from experience. In fact, the ups and downs of life can lead us to many false inferences. The proud person blames all failures on others, while the self-hater takes full blame for them even when others are responsible. Without the knowledge of God and self that the gospel brings, experience may teach us precious little; but if we know God and self, then time deepens our understanding of human nature, of the times we live in, of the power and use of words, of how human relationships work. All this leads to wisdom in decision-making.
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free. And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him (Ephesians 6:5–9).
If slave owners are told they must not manage workers in pride and through fear, how much more should this be true of employers today? And if slaves are told it is possible to find satisfaction and meaning in their work, how much more should this be true of workers today?
Who is watching you work? Whom are you working for ? Whose opinion matters most in the end?
For employees. First, workers are told to be wholehearted in their work (“with sincerity of heart,” verse 5). They are not to do only the minimum work necessary to avoid penalty; they are not to work hard only when their supervisors can observe them; nor are they to work mindlessly or distractedly. Instead Christians are to be fully engaged at work as whole persons, giving their minds, hearts, and bodies fully to doing the best job possible on the task at hand.
Second, Christians are to work with “sincerity of heart,” which is literally singleness of heart, a term that connotes both focus and integrity. It means our work must be ethical, not dishonest or duplicitous in any regard. Third, we are to work “not only to win their favor when their eye is on you.” This means we do not work hard only when being watched; nor do we do only what is necessary to get by. Finally, the word “wholeheartedly” in verse 7 means Christians are to work with cheerfulness and joy.
For employers. Here Paul tells masters that they are slaves too—slaves of Christ (verse 9).
Christians should be known to not be ruthless. They should have a reputation for being fair, caring, and committed to others. They should be marked by sympathy and by an unusual willingness to forgive and reconcile.
Christians should be also known to be calm and poised in the face of difficulty or failure. This may be the most telling way to judge if a person is drawing on the resources of the gospel in the development of personal character. In Matthew 6, verses 19 and 21 Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal… . For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
If we get our main meaning from peer approval, or money in the bank, or our reputation for success—then these things are our treasures. But Jesus rightly points out how radically insecure we are if we treasure such things. They can be whisked away or stolen. And then our very lives can fall apart. This is why for so many people the prospect of career reversal or business failure is such a struggle. When our meaning in life and identity is at stake, we panic, often acting impulsively, sometimes finding ourselves able to lie and betray others in order to save ourselves, or we simply plunge into despair.
Finally, there is the trend of what sociologists call “commodification,” which is defined as ascribing monetary value and applying cost-benefit analysis to such things as relationships, family, and civic engagement. The values of the market inexorably intrude on all of life. For example, accidents and tragedies were once dealt with through community support and spiritual disciplines, but now in the age of litigation, “mental distress” must be assigned some kind of objective financial value. So pain gets a number; then in court the number is argued over.
As we have seen, the triune nature of God, and our being made in his image, means that human life is fundamentally relational. But contemporary capitalism increasingly has the power to eliminate the intimacy and accountability of human relationships. So in the marketplace, as in every field, there is an urgent need for those with a powerful compass.
TWELVE: NEW POWER FOR WORK
“For many of us, being productive and doing becomes an attempt at redemption. That is, through our work, we try to build our worth, security, and meaning.” Many people are trying to get a sense of self through productivity and success—but that burns them out. For others the motivation is to bring home a paycheck so they can enjoy “real life”—but that makes work into a pointless grind. These motivations are what we could call the “work beneath the work.” And they are what make work so physically and emotionally exhausting in the end.
Instead, what forever changed was the disciples’ relationship to their work. Jesus gave them the big picture; in fact, he was the big picture. He very deliberately called them to a kind of fishing beyond their fishing: “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people” (Luke 5:11). In other words, he was coming to redeem and heal the world, and he invited his disciples to be part of this project.
“I will still serve my nation, but I will no longer worship my nation.
One of the words we read and hear about often today is passion. Passion leads you to excel in whatever you do. But there are different sources and kinds of passion. Sometimes it generates frenetic activity more grounded in fear of failure than in pursuit of success. That kind of passion can produce a lot of energy, but from a Christian point of view it is a counterfeit. It is fueled by the work under the work. And it is unsustainable, like the extreme brightness of a dying lightbulb.
Without something bigger than yourself to work for, then all of your work energy is actually fueled by one of the other six deadly sins. You may work exceptionally hard because of envy to get ahead of somebody, or because of pride to prove yourself, or because of greed or even gluttony for pleasure. In short, acedia is the most subtle idolatry of all. It puts the cynical self at the center of your life. And when you do that you release all the worst vices and sins to be the main animating energies behind your work.
A main plot device of The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the corrupting effect of the Ring of Power. When you put on the Ring, it magnifies your own will to power; and in doing so, it turns you evil. In a number of places where one of the hobbits puts on the ring, the description says something to this effect: “When the Ring goes on, you become the only real thing.”
Romans 12:1 says, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifice.”
In fact, the term “living sacrifice” is deliberately paradoxical because sacrifices were dead. That’s part of what it meant to be a sacrifice. To say to God’s people, “I want you to be a living slain thing,” is meant to be a jolt; it’s a way of saying you have to continually be in the rhythm of dying to your own interest and living for God. That’s the passion God asks of you.
Since God rested after his creation, we must also rest after ours. This rhythm of work and rest is not only for believers; it is for everyone, as part of our created nature. Overwork or underwork violates that nature and leads to breakdown. To rest is actually a way to enjoy and honor the goodness of God’s creation and our own. To violate the rhythm of work and rest (in either direction) leads to chaos in our life and in the world around us. Sabbath is therefore a celebration of our design.
Anyone who cannot obey God’s command to observe the Sabbath is a slave, even a self-imposed one. Your own heart, or our materialistic culture, or an exploitative organization, or all of the above, will be abusing you if you don’t have the ability to be disciplined in your practice of Sabbath. Sabbath is therefore a declaration of our freedom. It means you are not a slave—not to your culture’s expectations, your family’s hopes, your medical school’s demands, not even to your own insecurities. It is important that you learn to speak this truth to yourself with a note of triumph—otherwise you will feel guilty for taking time off, or you will be unable to truly unplug.
To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward.
God also strengthens us through the fellowship of community with other Christians. So for example Paul calls Christians to “carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). And yet we are told that Jesus will relieve the burdened (Matthew 11:28-30) and that we are to cast all our cares and burdens on God (1 Peter 5:7) who bears them daily (Psalm 68:19). So which is it? Are we to look to God to support us under our work and burdens—or to other Christian brothers and sisters? Obviously the answer is both, because it is normally through the sympathy and encouragement of Christian friends that we experience God refreshing us and supporting us in our work.
In the Christian view, the way to find your calling is to look at the way you were created. Your gifts have not emerged by accident, but because the Creator gave them to you. But what if you’re not at the point of running in the Olympics or leading on a world stage? What if you’re struggling under an unfair boss or a tedious job that doesn’t take advantage of all your gifts? It’s liberating to accept that God is fully aware of where you are at any moment and that by serving the work you’ve been given you are serving him.
EPILOGUE: LEADING PEOPLE TO INTEGRATE FAITH AND WORK
Change
In our individualistic environment we have significant resistance to the biblical idea of community. Of course, everyone says they want community, friendship, and love. But mention the words “accountability” or “commitment” and people run the other way.
The last thing we want to imply is that a gospel-filled work life is one of ten key rules or ideas—that is the quickest way to become self-righteous and blunt the beauty of the gospel. But it has been helpful to us to have some of the ideas in this book boiled down to a few phrases so we can help coach people toward more theologically sound thinking about their lives at work. Instead our prayer is that, in wrestling with who God is and how to relate to him, our church will grow in humility, love, truth, grace, and justice; and that our neighbors in the city will flourish because we were here.