Kruse's Keys: Read "Every Good Endeavor" to Understand that Changing the World Starts With One Cubicle: Yours

“Cheer up: you’re a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you’re more loved that you ever dared hope.” -Jack Miller

Pastor Tim Keller’s Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work is not a beach read. It’s a hunker-down-with-a-highlighter-and-pen-philosophically-deep examination of what work means to God and what it should mean to anyone following God. Against a backdrop of much dense and completely thorough analysis, Keller seeks to lay out the Bible’s answer to three central questions:

1. Why do you want to work?
2. Why is it so hard to work? 
3. How can the story of Jesus’ life lead us to find satisfaction in our work? 

It’s in Keller’s examination of this last question that the reader will find the utility of this book. It’s evident from reading the New Testament that Jesus lived a life devoted to changing the culture he was in (i.e., one obsessed with a showy, outward following the letter of the law) through service and love. So in the example of his life’s “work” we see a template for how Christians must also approach work. And indeed, regardless of our station in life, we must seek out how we can serve others in our workplace.

This is obviously easier said than done but it’s a lot easier when we have a true appreciation for God’s love. You see, God made us because he loved us and he even more importantly, he made us for eternal love. In the Bible we have the Trinity as an example of eternal love: that is, three persons who have loved one another from all eternity. We are created to share love and joy. Practically, understanding the magnitude of this should lead us to not discard work’s importance for that of our personal relationships and leisure, but instead it should drive us to make the most of our time at work.  While at work it should cause us to pour ourselves into pursuits that help people give and receive more love.

Ultimately, Keller points out that how we approach work from a non-religious socio-cultural aspect can model the Bible’s version of of these things. That is, how we handle adversity, how we handle difficult decisions, how we incorporate our family, how we incorporate colleagues into our own family where possible, can point our coworkers towards Jesus’ examples. More than any marches, protests, online petitions, or Facebook rantings, our work is our greatest opportunity to shape culture. It’s Keller’s hope that readers of Every Good Endeavor will leave it understanding that “We must think persistently and deeply about the shape of work in our field and whether (in biblical terms) it accords as well as possible with human well-being and with justice.”

Here's a cheat sheet of questions you can use in your job if you want to start approaching your work differently:

• 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? 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 serving individual people, society at large, my field of work, modeling competence and excellence, and witness to Christ? (182)

EXTRA NOTE: I’d be remiss not to make note of a chapter in the book that addresses something called “common grace.” The idea of it is something that I’ve sensed in my own Christian faith but which I’d never heard defined as Keller does. Evidently common grace is a doctrine that John Calvin came up with (or at least popularized) which is widely held in the “Reformed” denominations. This book is a worthwhile read if for nothing more than Keller’s cogent explanation of common grace in the context of how Christians should view and appreciate work across the spectrum of humanity. The basic takeaway of common grace though is that every good thing in the world comes from God and He (luckily) hands out grace in an unmerited fashion--gifting believers and non-believers indiscriminately with the ability to create beautiful things in the world. This should lead believers to a winsome but discerning appreciation all the beauty that exists outside “Christian” culture, whether that be music, art, film, literature, fashion, etc. An understanding of common grace should also lead Christians to a place of humility in our understanding of work--there is no tiered dignity in work--all work is worthy. Jesus was a carpenter, God was a gardener--no one is better because they are a Pastor or a CEO.

EXTRA EXTRA NOTE: The album liner notes from John Coltrane's seminal "A Love Supreme" inspired the "every good endeavor" title of the book.  Coltrane was able to tap into the genius of this album in an epiphany of sorts that he had in his faith with God. 

Check Out My 2018 Reading List Here.

Key Quotes:

• “Cheer up: you’re a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you’re more loved that you ever dared hope.” -Jack Miller (xix)
• “My father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working” Jesus in the Book of John (23)
• “What is the Christian understanding of work? It is that work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties...the medium in which he offers himself to God.” -Dorothy Sayers (25)
• “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. May he help and strengthen all men in every good endeavor.” -John Coltrane, in A Love Supreme liner notes. (71)
• “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” -W.B. Yeats (77)
• “An idol is a good thing turned into an ultimate thing.” (134)
• “The more serious danger associated with an under-emphasis on work as the vehicle of God’s providence is that it leads Christians to undervalue the good work done by nonbelievers...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 the world.” (188)
• “God gives out gifts of wisdom, talent, beauty, and skill according to his grace--that is, in a completely unmerited way. (194)
• “Because Christians are never as good as their right beliefs should make them and non-Christians are never as bad as their wrong beliefs should make them, we will adopt a stance of critical enjoyment of human culture and its expressions in every field of work.” (201)
• “Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do in the 80% of life’s situations in which the moral rules don’t provide the clear answer. (215)
• “Many bad decisions stem from an inability to know what we are and are not capable of accomplishing.” (216)
• “We must think persistently and deeply about the shape of work in their field and whether (in biblical terms) it accords as well as possible with human well-being and with justice.” (232)
• “Nunc dimittis.” -John Coltrane after one performance of A Love Supreme. It means “I could die happy now” and echoes Simeon’s words in Luke after seeing Jesus. (249) For more on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunc_dimittis

Key References (For Further Study):

• Kruse's Keys for Deep Work
• Kruse's Keys for Shop Class as Soulcraft
• Redeemer Church's Center for Faith and Work

Key Takeaways:

• Unless God really exists, then life is pointless. All our work here on earth is for nothing. (14)
• What is the Bible’s answers to the following three questions:
• Why do you want to work?
• Why is it so hard to work?
• How can the story of Jesus lead us to find satisfaction in our work? (15)

• Work has existed since ‘the beginning’--it wasn’t a result of sin or evil. Before there was anything, in creating the world, God “worked for the sheer joy of it” in creating the world. (21)
• Freedom is not a lack of constraints, for a Christian it is finding the right ones that sync with our own weaknesses and with those of the world. (25)
• Rest is an integral and necessary part of work. God sets the example for us in his rest on the 7th day where he “saw that it was good.” Taking deliberate rest from work is our opportunity to take in God’s goodness in the world. (29)
• Jesus’ example MUST drive us to resist the urge to assign a tiered dignity to different types of work. Jesus worked most of his life as a carpenter, God as a gardener of sorts in creating the world. Physical labor is not to be looked down upon but respected on equal footing. (37)
• Understanding the Bible’s view of work should drive us to excellence. (49)
• How we approach work from a social/cultural aspect can model the Bible’s version of it. That is, how we handle adversity, how we incorporate our family, how we incorporate colleagues into our family where possible. Our work is an opportunity to shape culture. (52)
• Work as a calling or vocation can only emerge if in our work, we work to serve others. (55)
• In understanding that we are saved by grace--not through our own merit--we must embrace the knowledge that we are not better as workers or people than those who don’t hold our same beliefs. (64)
• Obstacles or lack of desired success in the workplace does not mean that you are in the wrong profession or field--you still are contributing at your own ability or station. (87)
• In Chapter 6, “Work Becomes Pointless,” Keller offers a mini-sermon/exposition on Ecclesiastes. In decrying the meaningless of life (Ecc. 2:17), the author of the book seeks to drive the reader towards fulfillment in God. You will indeed be forgotten, no matter how great your achievement. Ultimately, the point of Ecclesiastes is to drive us toward the New Testament story of Jesus “toiling for us on the cross.” (91-107)
• There’s a default view in Christianity today that God most values or uses people employed in overt ministry like churches, missions etc. Instead, the Bible provides numerous examples to the contrary. God can use you anywhere--to be more clear--God can use you exactly where you are. (115)
• In many respects, God may have placed you in a non-traditional place to use you in specific and powerful way--think of the example of Queen Esther. (117)
• What is the biblical calling for us in our work: To identify and mediate. This is what Esther did in the Old Testament, and what Jesus does on the cross for everyone. “Greatness in life stems from serving God in your service to those around you. (123)
• Martin Luther defined idolatry as pursuing and expecting a created thing to give you what old God can provide. I’ve also always liked the definition of idolatry as making a good thing a God thing (i.e., making something good like money or sex, the most important thing in your life) (128, 134).
• Every bad thing that we do stems from our soul clinging to the belief that something else is more important than God’s love.(130)
• Modern culture links happiness to a life that’s going well (full of pleasure) while “then ancients” viewed happiness as a life that’s lived well (147)
• Unique part of the Christianity is that it argues that the world’s problem don’t come from the world itself, but from sin itself. (161)
• To be a Christian ‘worker’ means applying the gospel to your whole worklife and using that knowledge to serve throughout the organization.(168)
• A New Approach to Your Work--ask yourself these questions:
• 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? 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 serving individual people, society at large, my field of work, modeling competence and excellence, and witness to Christ? (182)
• Roman’s 2: 14-15 notes that God’s law is written on every human heart--whether they know it’s God law giving them a sense of right or wrong...or not(189)
• The idea of common grace is found throughout the scripture. God acts as a nonsaving ennobling force and a nonsaving restraining force in the world.
• James 1:17 Every good thing, every beautiful thing, every just thing, is enabled by God as a gift (of grace).
• Exodus 31:1-4 The unbelieving King Bezalel is noted as being filled with the spirit of God to make beautiful things. Artistic beauty is from God, and is not contingent upon the moral state of someone’s soul.
• Isaiah 45:1 God annoints a pagan king for leadership. 
• Genesis 20:6-7 God prevents another pagan king from sinning.

***Just because you deny God doesn’t mean he won’t gift you!***(190-1)

• Everyone has an innate first order belief in what is good that is there completely apart or despite any second order denial (193)
• In the Bible’s story is not the non--Christian but is instead sin and its reality. (195)
• A thin view of sin means that you try to remove sin from your life through discipline and separation (i.e, a less sinful environment). This lack of understanding of God’s grace means that one tries to remove any temptations like profanity, sex etc.(196)
• A thing view of common grace means that we see the things that aren’t straight from and in keeping with the Bible as deficient. Instead, we should note that all culture is a conversation or struggle between God’s revelation of knowledge/art/justice and a human rebellion against it. That means in culture we should look for pieces of that revelation. (197-8)
• This thin view of common grace results in dualism, where a wall is put between the sacred and the secular. This can distort and devalue one’s work if only one believes that only overt work for God is worthy. The other wise of dualism is the assignment of Christian life to a specific day and/or location. This ignores the fact that the gospel--that is the story of Jesus affects EVERYTHING (200-1)
• Post-modernism in business tells us that if the practice is legal and if everyone is doing it, the only question is ‘can money be made.’ (203)
• Faith, hope and love are unique Christian virtues that stand apart from Platos cardinal virtues of justice, courage, temperance, and prudence. (209)
• Love-God made us because he loved us and he made us for eternal love. The Trinity is an example of love in three persons who have loved one another from all eternity. We are created to share love and joy. Practically, this should lead us to not eschew work for only our personal relationships but instead while at work, it should cause us to pour ourselves into pursuits that help people give and receive more love. (210)
• God teaches that because of his unmerited grace, all have inviolable rights and worth apart from race, gender, morality etc. (212)
• “Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do in the 80% of life’s situations in which the moral rules don’t provide the clear answer.” (215)
• How to become wise in decision-making:
• Knowing God personally (hearts not controlled by anxiety and pride)
• Know yourself in humility
• Experience and learning from it
• 3 keys to wisdom (215-6)
• The Holy Spirit makes us wise by reminding us of the reality of Jesus in transforming our character, giving inner poise, clarity, humility, boldness, contentment and courage. (218)
• Christian should never be known as ruthless. They should be known as committed to others and with an unusual capacity for forgiveness. (224)
• “We must think persistently and deeply about the shape of work in their field and whether (in biblical terms) it accords as well as possible with human well-being and with justice.” (232)
• Change chart (254)