“Does Being Selfless Mean We Can’t Be Successful?” - J. B. Wood

J. B. makes a really valuable distinction here. He takes a fairly complicated subject—namely, how we as Christians reconcile our success in a market largely defined by individual achievement with Christ's call for us to be selfless—and gets to the heart of any number of debates we might have about it.

Our questions of "how" and "how much" don't matter as much as the "why" behind our actions. The bottom line is that our work—and our success—is not about us. Which, actually, may be all the more reason for us to strive to succeed.

Want to hear more? You can find this and dozens more videos over at the High Calling YouTube Channel.

Transcript

I think most people embarking on careers in the market place, in the professional world, are fed or kind of come from this assumption that, "It's all about me. I have to build my resume; I have to prove myself—my competence, my capability. I want to progress; I want to get promoted. I want to climb the ladder." For me, as I grappled with how does my faith and my spiritual life play out against this drive to succeed and do well and deliver results and performance and all of that … I came to another paradoxical type of conclusion, which is that it can't be. As a Christian, my work can't be all about me; it's not supposed to be all about me. I went through this fundamental shift and a realization that my work—my job, my career—is really about helping other people.