I pursued my legal career without any Biblical understanding of work (I believed in God and Jesus, but I really didn’t have much of a Biblical understanding of anything).  When I was growing up, I thought that there were just two ways to look at work—either you were a “work to live” person who viewed work as primarily a way to fund your life, or you were a “live to work” person for whom work became their identity, drawing all their satisfaction, joy and self-worth from their job.  

Every entrepreneur is custom-created for a purpose. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he tells his readers that God “creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing” (Eph 2:10 MSG). 

Paul doesn’t leave it at that. He then tells them to “get out there and walk – better yet, run! – on the road God called you to travel” (Eph 4:1 MSG). How, though, in a world so full of noise and distraction, and with our broken humanity so prone to following our will and succumbing to fear, do we go about staying on (or getting on – let’s be honest) the road we’re called to travel? How can we approach getting in position so God can use us for the work he has for us to do? 

God can use you. But sometimes, we need to examine ourselves before we see progress in the area of calling.

In his New York Times best-seller, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey teaches that the second habit is to “Begin with the end in mind.” To that end, Mr. Covey suggests we all write a personal mission statement – a clear destination for our lives.

So what does the Bible say about writing personal mission statements? What would God want an entrepreneur’s statement to include?

I went to a men’s retreat that had me go through a mental exercise. The teacher had me imagine that it’s three years in the future, and, sadly enough, I’ve passed away. He asked all of us to take a moment to visualize our own funeral. I imagined my loved ones, but I also imagined my business partners, employees, industry colleagues, and my clients giving eulogies and talking about me amongst each other. I asked myself what I’d like them to say. What sort of business owner did I want to be remembered as? What would I want them to share with my mom and dad? For what did I want to be remembered as in my entrepreneurial career?