“Does My Work Honor God?” - Contractor Kimberly Renner

KIMBERLY'S HUSBAND: Get up! Eggs are ready.

KIMBERLY: Do you have any tests today?

KIMBERLY'S SON: Latin.

KIMBERLY VOICEOVER: We're given twenty-four hours a day. We sleep one-third of it. We spend part of the time with family and friends, and the rest of the time is at work. We spend more time at work than we do doing any other single thing. I just can't believe that God doesn't have a higher purpose for us.

I own a design intensive construction company, and most of our work focuses on older residential buildings, mostly from the 1920s, in our neighborhood. There are properties that have been completely neglected for many, many years. We love this neighborhood, and where there's the potential to restore a house, rather than tear it down, we're going to pursue that. When I go to work each day, I just pray that God will help me to do my very best. The closer in relationship I am with God, the better able I am to be my best at work.

KIMBERLY: Do you have your tape? Tell me how deep it is again, this wall. Ooh, that's tight. Did this wall get shorter?

KIMBERLY VOICEOVER: As the person in charge of the site, I want to exemplify high quality relationships, and I want to do excellent work. When I meet a new sub-contractor at work, I want to be in an authentic relationship with that person.

KIMBERLY: Hey Enoch, how are you?

ENOCH: Good! How are you?

KIMBERLY: I'm well. You okay?

KIMBERLY VOICEOVER: I don't see my very best friends as often as I see the people with whom I work on the job site, so I take those relationships very seriously.

SUB-CONTRACTOR: Is this window the way you wanted it?

KIMBERLY: It looks great! Thank you so much for doing that.

KIMBERLY VOICEOVER: There's a responsibility towards excellence, because I wouldn't be comfortable putting myself out there as a Christian and doing shoddy work.

KIMBERLY: You know, I was originally really hoping to get glass up here. How hard would that be?

CONSTRUCTION WORKER: Well, I can get those out for sure.

KIMBERLY VOICEOVER: I've heard so many times from people who've said that they really could not stand their contractor by the time their construction project was completed. I certainly don't want to be that contractor. I want my work to be a reflection of my faith in God.

We often get the message that in order to do godly work we need to be pastors or evangelists or Sunday School teachers. I don't feel gifted to be a pastor, but I do feel strongly gifted to build homes, and I want to use that work to honor God. It's satisfying to have taken a property that was an eye sore and a problem within its community and to restore it. I built great relationships with my team, and we did excellent work. We as people, as God's creations, are a reflection of him. If our output to the world is our work, then we want it to continue that reflection. I believe this process is a high calling.