I’m excited to share a conversation I had with Dr. Bryan Dik. Bryan is a world-class scholar in the area of vocation and calling and is a professor of psychology at Colorado State University. He has written multiple books and is the co-creator of a career assessment that is used by hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. I have used Bryan’s book (Redeeming Work), assessment, and other resources in my work and it was an honor to talk with him!
The audio is not the highest quality (I’ll work on improving that for future recordings), but I thought it was still worth sharing!
Here are a few quotes from our conversation, as well as a list of resources mentioned throughout.
Quotes
“There are times when people feel like they’re passive recipients of their work environments. I think it’s better to think of ways in which we can be active shapers of it.”
“Heaven will be a place on earth and we’ll work there.”
“A lot of people discover their calling by looking back and seeing God’s hand in it along the way. And their sense of calling, or the way they articulate that, emerges out of this ongoing process. It’s not something that they clarify ahead of time before deciding to go forward. That makes it more complex, but it also makes it richer and more meaningful, I think.”
“As Christians, our earnest prayer is for our life story to sync with God’s larger story.”
“We have this privileged opportunity to participate in God’s work, knowing that it’s God that does it. I mean, that’s what gives us hope, right? It’s not up to us, but nevertheless, we participate in it and that provides meaning.”
Three Questions To Ask About Your Area of Work
Here are the questions from Bryan’s book Redeeming Work that I mentioned in the interview.
- What aspects of this area of work are rooted in God’s creational design and therefore need to be preserved, developed, and cultivated?
- What areas have been impacted by the fall so that they now reflect a distortion of what God intended?
- What would it look like for this area of work to be fully redeemed, and what specific things can I do to work towards that end?
