Education that leads to thriving...what Gallup found

Reading a recent Gallup Business Journal article, I couldn't help but think about what we do here at the Charlotte Fellows and why it is so important to recent college graduates: 

The Gallup-Purdue Index surveyed more than 30,000 graduates to find out whether they are engaged in their work and thriving in their overall well-being. In simple terms, did they end up with great jobs and great lives? 

We learned some stunning things. But one of the most important is that where you went to college matters less to your work life and well-being after graduation than how you went to college. ...

Six critical elements during college jumped off the pages of our research as being strongly linked to long-term success in work and life after graduation. Three of these elements relate to experiential and deep learning: having an internship or job where students were able to apply what they were learning in the classroom, being actively involved in extracurricular activities and organizations, and working on projects that took a semester or more to complete.

[T]he three most potent elements linked to long-term success for college grads relate to emotional support: feeling that they had a professor who made them excited about learning, that the professors at their alma mater cared about them as a person, and that they had a mentor who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams. If graduates strongly agree with these three things, it doubles the odds that they are engaged in their work and thriving in their overall well-being. ...[but] about eight in 10 college graduates lacked a mentor in college.

Given how profound the impact of emotional support can be, it's thoroughly depressing to learn how few college graduates receive it. 

Sharing friendships with and learning from wise and caring mentors is vital. So is learning how to practically integrate what you believe/know into every area of life. If you are a college senior, then consider applying to our one-year graduate fellowship. There's not a better way to spend your first year out as a young professional. 

Loving the job you have today is possible...

Recently Fast Company published an article entitled "Do You Have the Best Job in the World?" in which Yale School of Management psychology professor Amy Wrzesniewski's findings on job satisfaction are summarized as follows:

Throughout numerous studies, Wrzesniewski has examined how the way we view our work impacts our satisfaction. Those who view their work as a “job” are only interested in the material benefits derived from their work. Daily work life is only a means to allow these individuals to acquire the resources needed to enjoy their time away from the job. Their major interests and ambitions are not exercised through their daily job tasks. Those who view their work as merely a “job” consistently have the lowest levels of job satisfaction and engagement.

Those who view their work as a “career,” on the other hand, have a deeper personal investment in their work and focus on advancement and increases in prestige and power that come from that advancement. But Wrzesniewski says those who have the highest levels of job satisfaction are those who see their work as a calling. These individuals don’t view their work as merely a means for financial gain or career advancement, but find the work itself personally fulfilling. “The work is an end in and of itself,” says Wrzesniewski. Those who viewed their work as a calling also reported fewer days of work missed than those who viewed their work as a job or a career.

...Wrzesniewski says within any occupation, you can find individuals with all three kinds of relations to their work. She found hospital janitors and groundskeepers who viewed their work as a calling, and physicians and nurses who viewed their work as merely a job.

Though a great reminder, Wrzesniewski's findings are neither new nor surprising given what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae over 2,000 years ago: 

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Col. 3:22-24)

All of our jobs are callings...yes, even yours** (Remember, Paul is addressing slaves here). Our work matters because we have been called to do it by the God of the universe for both our good and the good of our neighbor.  We are not slaves to validation from public praise or pay raises. We needn't fear others being promoted over us or receiving credit for our work.

Does this mean that it's wrong to look for another job? No, but it does mean that joy and satisfaction are possible in even the most menial jobs performed in even the harshest conditions...including yours! If you really believed that what Paul said is true, how would that change things at your current job? 

**Unless your job is somehow intrinsically illegal or otherwise contrary to God's character.

What We Habitually Do Changes Us

Below are excerpts from an article by philosopher/author/professor James K.A. Smith on having vocational liturgies. The full article can be found here. 

What are the rituals that start your day? Many of us have adopted daily habits without much reflection. Our morning rituals probably include a cycle of “checking in”—with email, with Facebook, with Twitter, with the Wall Street Journal. If Martian anthropologists landed in our offices or at our breakfast tables, they might read our hunched postures over our phones as a kind of religious devotion to some electronic talisman.

And what if those rituals aren’t just something that you do? What if they are also doing something to you? What if those rituals are veritable “liturgies” of a sort? What if pursuing God in our vocations requires immersion in rituals that direct our passions?

...

If we want to pursue God in our vocations, we need to immerse ourselves in rituals and rhythms and practices whereby the love of God seeps into our very character—is woven into, not just how we think, but who we are.

This is one of the reasons why worship is not some escape from “the work week.” To the contrary, our worship rituals train our hearts and aim our desires toward God and his kingdom so that when we are sent from worship to take up our work, we do so with a habituated orientation toward the Lover of our souls.

This is also why we need to think about habit-shaping practices—“vocational liturgies,” we might call them—that can sustain this love throughout the week. ...

Let’s think creatively about rhythms and rituals and routines that would let the good news sink into us throughout the week. I’m reminded of an investment banker in Manhattan who spearheaded the practice of listening to the public reading of Scripture with his colleagues on Wall Street. Or teachers who have committed to the practice of morning prayer as a way to frame their daily work. There are all kinds of ways to contextualize vocational liturgies that train us to love the God who pulls us and calls us. We must remember that anything we do repeatedly, all of our daily rituals—from habitually checking emails and Facebook, to intentionally praying and reading Scripture—shapes the kind of people we are.

Felt Needs vs. Deepest Need

"When Jesus saw the man lying there and knew that he had already been there [for 38 years], he said to him, 'Do you want to be made whole?' The sick man answered him, 'Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.'" (John 5:6-7)

The man in this account had been some sort of invalid for at least 38 years...probably his whole life. So for 38 years this man has sat by these waters that supposedly had healing powers, no better off than he was 38 years earlier when he arrived. In his response to Jesus' question of whether he wants to be made whole, the man wrongly assumes two things: 1) that being made whole has primarily to do with his life circumstances as opposed to his relationship with God, and 2) that Jesus is incapable of restoring him to wholeness. 

What life circumstances are you tempted to equate with wholeness? Career success? Financial security? Physical health? Appearance? Relationship status? How does your definition of wholeness impact your day-to-day life? 

The Book that Reads You

Author, editor, and teacher Gregory Wolfe had this to say in response to the question of whether Christians should read anything other than Scripture: 

"I think [the Bible is] saying the opposite: read me faithfully and you will be equipped to read everything. If scripture doesn’t send you out into the world with curiosity and compassion, then it’s not from God."