Thursday, December 9, 2010

What's a Job Worth to You?

Would you even leave something more comfortable and less strenuous for the less comfortable/more strenuous job?

I've heard it said that if you find a job you love, you never work another day in your life. While I certainly sympathize with the sentiment behind that, I don't agree fully. Work is a privilege given from the Creator God to partner with him in his creation. It was quite ideal and even worshipful before this world got all jacked up. Then it became toil, painful, bloody and death-hastening, but it wasn't devoid of significance. Vocation in this broken world is still significant. It groans for something better; something more enduring--yes. But, it and the paycheck are to be enjoyed, wisely managed and dispersed justly.

Malcom Gladwell said, "Hard work is a prison sentence only if it does not have meaning." See more from my post about his book Outliers.

Work is not only a privilege, but it is also significant. It is very much a part of human identity. All humans were created to work, and all humans have the opportunities to rest both physically and spiritually-eternally.

How important is your work to you? Would you leave a higher-paying job for a more-fulfilling job? Let me know your thoughts.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Why Charities Should Die

From the Clouds of Common Grace...

Nancy Lublin of Fast Company magazine dares to propose that some not-for-profits should just shut down. Not that an external force should come and force them to close their doors but to so clearly envision their mission from the beginning that they know when it has been accomplished. Kind of like knowing when to pull out the troops. That is a noble business model.

Here are a couple notable quotables from her brief article:

"A not-for-profit exists to cure something, address an issue, or elevate the status of a group of people; if and when that's achieved, we should be done."

"The broader principle here is that companies and organizations don't exist simply to exist. A not-for-profit should ideally be not-for-perpetuity. We should not be donor-funded jobs programs. People give not b/c they believe in us as employable human beings but b/c they believe in what we do."