Recently, I had the privilege of speaking with several audiences at a liberal arts college. I began my talks by posing a question: “What is going on in the world?” The first answer (from students) came quickly and definitively: “chaos.”
Later that day, I offered the same question to a group of professors, and sure enough, the first answer: “chaos.”
If that was the sentiment on a beautiful, serene campus where the primary work is to teach and to learn, we shouldn’t be surprised how true it feels everywhere — in our work, in our communities, in the news we absorb everyday, and (especially) in the wilds of social media. We’re experiencing a growing collective helplessness that the problems we face in our world are increasingly complex and we don’t know where to turn for solutions.
In the face of this sense of powerlessness amidst chaos, I believe that now more than ever, each of us needs a robust vision for how our work can be a vehicle for redemptive possibility: to bring a little more beauty and justice into places of brokenness and harm, and to bless others in the process.
In fact, in the six years since starting Praxis Academy — our work with next-generation founders, builders, and creatives — I’ve had the privilege of working with hundreds of college students and recent graduates asking important questions about their vocational choices: How can I have the most impact? How can I make use of the gifts God has given me? How can I learn what it is “really like” to express my faith through my work in my chosen field? Are some fields or professions more redemptive than others? Should I start my own venture or join one? Can I work redemptively and entrepreneurially if I’m not a founder, or (especially) if I’m trying to move up in a large organization?
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