If we had written the meta-narrative—the overarching plan of God through history—we probably would not have written it as God did, particularly relative to work. For most of us, if not virtually all of us, our script for the meta-narrative would be focused on fun not work. We view work is something we have to do; it is not something we necessarily enjoy, although a few of us do. The evidence for our view of work is the almost ubiquitous preoccupation with retirement, which is the state of not working. In reality most of us don’t find much value in work other than the utilitarian function of making money. This was not the case with Jesus.
The above text refers to Jesus as “the carpenter.” Anytime we put the definite article in front of a person’s moniker, we are intimating that the person is outstanding at whatever the moniker refers to. Jesus was a carpenter and he was clearly an exceptional carpenter.
Can we become exceptional at anything if we disdain work? If we disdain it, we do not value it and therefore we only do the minimum to get by and receive our paycheck. This is certainly not the recipe for excellence.
Jesus must had a different view of his work as a carpenter. He must have valued it and applied himself diligently. To become known as “the carpenter,” he would, most likely, have followed the Jewish custom of his day and apprenticed under his father. Furthermore, he must have applied himself to learn his trade well and deliver great value to his customers. Consequently, he built an exceptional reputation and must have been known as the best.
In Luke 5:1–11, there is indirect evidence for Jesus’ stellar reputation. This passage records the interaction between Jesus and the fishermen who would become his top three disciples—Peter, James, and John. After an early morning teaching session, Jesus, the carpenter turned itinerant teacher, facilitated a windfall profit for the fishermen. Then Jesus issued an invitation to come follow him and the three fishermen immediately responded. Apparently, they left everything—business, family, and friends—to follow Jesus. Why would they have responded so quickly without any hesitation? Would Peter, James, and John respond just because Jesus facilitated a windfall profit? Probably not. It seems more likely they were some convicted about following Jesus.
Perhaps as fishermen they were customers of Jesus and enjoyed the results of his superb carpentry. They probably knew him as “the carpenter” and were confident that whatever he did would be performed with excellence. Could it have been that they were compelled by Jesus’ reputation and their experience with him to want to imitate him? Scripture does not make this clear, but it seems plausible that they would be so motivated. To imitate Jesus, they had to view work as Jesus clearly did—as a divine assignment. Jesus’ reputation testified to the dignity and value that he placed on work and to his conviction that work was a divine assignment.
Here is your business tip. To build excellent organizations, management teams must instill in their workers a profound sense of the dignity and value of work. This means that everyone in the organization must view work as a divine assignment. Each person must be in the right place performing his or her work assignment. There must be a culture in the organization that facilitates the process of discovering and aligning each person with their divinely ordained work assignment. The right people in the right place doing the right things for the right reasons will produce excellent value and enable the organization to develop a stellar reputation. |
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