July 25. Justin Searle. Justin knew how to work hard and learned there was more to life than he could get by hard work alone.
If life feels driven but empty, take faith to work with you.
The perks and pains of overwork drove investment banker Justin Searle to say, “No more!” Compelled to succeed, he often clocked 110 hours in a week. Once, for 3 months straight, he worked 18 hours a day, 7 days a week.
At three in the morning, Justin went home, woke his wife Deb, and told her, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” Despite his drive, his work ethic, and his success, life felt empty.
Justin and Deb moved halfway across the country, where he found a good job as Director of Strategy and Special Projects for a health-care company. And soon he was promoted. Justin and Deb didn’t have children, but they bought the house they wanted to raise a family in. It was near a church, which they passed often.
Justin was raised with faith, but “the world got in the way.” Now the church near their home called to him, and Justin and Deb started attending. It changed how Justin viewed everything: God didn’t want pieces of him. He wanted the whole package. Justin couldn’t compartmentalize faith. This meant Justin needed to take his faith to work. He would serve a “bigger boss”—God.
Justin led a team of 500 people with 2,000 patients under his supervision. He prayed, “You put me in this position of influence. What do you want me to do with it?”
He asked the Holy Spirit to make him discerning, wise, and discreet. He wanted to further God’s Kingdom and principles, so he set out to “love God, love people, lead by example,” and to “extend truth and grace with wisdom.”
Jesus “went first,” when He led others to love sacrificially, so Justin served his team and taught them that “leaders go first.” At church, Justin heard that God was for him, not against him. He showed his team that he was for them, not against them. And he encouraged them to be for—not against—each other.
When he told his team, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful,” he didn’t tell them he was quoting Proverbs 27:6. But his team took the message to heart. Justin didn’t bludgeon people with the Bible, but he shared the wisdom of God’s Word.
Since authentic, caring relationship is part of Kingdom living, Justin wanted his team to enjoy that kind of community. Everyone has struggles. Since leaders go first, Justin chose to be vulnerable. When he shared that he and Deb struggled with infertility or that his mom had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or that he had confronted his dad about alcoholism, it gave others permission to be vulnerable, too. Co-workers asked, “How are you dealing with this?”
Justin told them he prayed.
Then Justin was passed over—twice—for a promotion he and his team believed he deserved. He could feel his team watching his response. “To be honest,” Justin said, “I was pretty bummed … I’ve had to push into where I really get my value … I get my value from who [God] says I am, not these worldly achievements.”
Justin’s dull spiritual life no longer existed. A new passion had taken over. “Work is part of the kingdom God has given me as a custodian for a piece of time,” said Justin. “Faith has permeated my ‘worldly’ pursuits, and so it’s less about accumulating accolades and more” about sharing God’s “love in an otherwise secular setting … I still feel like I’m working hard, but my cup is fuller. I’ve got a sense of peace and joy that combats the grind.”
Do you need a new passion? If life feels driven but empty, take faith to work with you.
Based on an interview with Justin Searle, 2019.
Story read by: Daniel Carpenter
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https: //authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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