Working with Impact
Making a meaningful impact
A talk at Soul Factor Singapore by
Sam Rhee, Co-Founder & Chairman Endowus, a digital wealth platform
On average we spend 81,396 hours at work in our lifetime. How is it going?!
Work is part of our God-given identity. It is good in itself and good in what it produces. However work has been corrupted by human sin - our failings, both intentional and unitentional, but also by poor systems that give bad incentives. Work therefore can be a beautiful and creative expression of God’s redemptive plans for people and planet.
How is your work good in and of itself? How is your work bringing good?
Sam Rhee suggests that the way to find meaning and purpose in your work is to look up and see the people around you that you are able to impact and then to look at the impacts your work has on people’s ability to live well and do good.
What meaningful impact are you making on people’s lives through your work? What change in the world would you be willing to give your life to?
What difference would it make to see people as God sees them and serve them as valuable individuals made in the image of God?
the character of impact
For a Christian, making an impact is a great commission because God’s heart is to redeem and restore. Work is a response to the redemptive work of God in us and an opportunity to be involved in the redemptive mission of God.
Sam’s perspective changed when he realised that his firm is not just a finance company but a financial service company that serves people.
He suggests 5 hallmarks of Christians who are of impact in their work:
1. Passion
Working for an audience of one - your Creator who unleashes in you the creative spirit that is a gift from him. Rather than quiet quitting, Christians realise that everything we do for God has meaning and makes a difference.
Read Colossians 3:23-24
2. Peace
Deep peace that all is good in our soul. We find this peace when we accept that it’s not found in money or power but in a person: Jesus.
Read Colossians 3:15-17
3. Joy
Knowing the eternal perspective and the final outcome when all will be made new in the world gives a bright optimism.
Read revelation 21:1-5
4. Grace
Grace is a gift that understands we are undeserving and yet given the riches of God and therefore seeks to restore others who are also undeserving from the riches we know from God.
Read Colossians 3:12-14
5. Humility
Sam Rhee says in his talk: “Humility comes from the knowledge that all I am comes from God and all I have is from God who made himself poor so I could be rich. I am the beneficiary of grace and I had nothing to do with it - so I love others as I have been loved.”
read philippians 2:1-4
Which of these character traits have you seen in others and how was it shown in practice?
What enabled them to show this?
Sam concludes by saying that he loves others because he is loved.
Read 1 John 3:1-3, 16-18
How does knowing God’s love and grace shape a Christian’s character at work?