Ep. 081 - Honoring God with Your Career: Stewardship Lessons for Your First Job

Episode Transcript

Austin
The habits that we form early in life set a foundation for how we will act throughout life. When we begin our first job or have kids and grandkids starting their first job, we need to consider what habits we form to honor the Lord. Today, we will discuss critical stewardship decisions when you begin your working career.

Spencer
So today we're talking about your first job and your first job really that is a full time job. Let's just say, you know, you either graduate from high school or maybe you go into the trades, you graduate from college, you're a professional now. “What does it look like to be a steward of those resources in a way that honors God,”
Is our question today.

Austin
Absolutely. Well, I think that's a really good framing, because I think about my very first job that was in high school and sometimes at my grandfather's pharmacy that I was working at. The Coke machine had more business than our front desk did. So we're really not thinking about those jobs where you're really just in some ways biding your time, really thinking, what are you setting your mind to?
You have invested time, maybe energy and resources to become on this career trajectory. And so that's a little bit different framing that, hey, I've got a little bit of extra pocket money. So we're really thinking, what are those things that we're trying to do that set the foundation? And I love this book by Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience In The Same Direction.
And I think the framing of this is he's welcoming us into this pathway of spiritual growth, spiritual discipleship over time versus instant gratification. And it's that long obedience of what are the things that I'm setting forth today that are going to set me on a good trajectory for the remainder of my life, whether I stay in the same career field, whether I change careers 2 or 3 times.
It's some of these foundational pieces as we think about how do I live, give, owe, and grow? If we're setting him up now to where the entirety of the focus of my career is, serve myself in that Parks and Recreation treat yourself kind of way. This is not what we want to be setting up in that first career. We want to really be coming back to.
God owns it all. He is our provider. We are stewards. We are his fiduciaries, investing, growing our worth saving as if it was God's money. Because it is God's money. And so that's the foundation that we want to start off with. Anything else that you would say before we dive into some of the specifics here?

Spencer
I think it's a good framing. And it really leads us into what do we do with those first dollars, and it’s tithe. You know, if we come back to it, if we give back to God out of the first fruits, just like it says in Exodus 23:19, the best of the first fruits of your ground, you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.
We're setting a proper framework, and I love what Randy Alcorn says many different places. But he says, if you are not tithing right now, if you lost 10% of your income, would you die? I mean, he really hits us hard with that because all of us, you know, in the West are going to say, well, no, I wouldn't die.
I might have to eat rice and beans a little bit more. I might not have, you know, certain luxuries, you know, in my life, but no, I could survive if I have a job and if I have income. So I think laying that as the first piece sets everything else up well.

Austin
Right. Well, and I think, to that you have to think about where you've come from, college, some folks have put themselves through college. They've worked through college. But for a lot of people, if you are getting your first job or if you're entering your trade for your first time, you're going to see a substantial amount more money come in immediately.
And so I think saying, yes, Lord, I will lay the first fruits of the ground before your feet. These are yours. You have given me skills to be able to work, to live. It's just that first way that we honor the Lord, that we show the gratitude to the Lord for what He has allowed us to participate with him.
And then once we have started tithing, we have given our first fruits to the Lord. We've given the best of our resources to Him. I think about these pictures in Exodus and throughout the law. It wasn't like, okay, I'm going to take my harvest and then I'm going to look at it and see what can I give? It's no, it's they always took the best of what they received.
And that was the first thing that they gave. It wasn't the scraps. It wasn't okay. We've gotten all of the good food out, and now the bad of the wheat is given to the Lord. No, it was the best of the wheat that was given. So once we have tithing set, we say tithe before you start spending, then you can really start thinking of setting lifestyle,
setting limits, excuse me on your lifestyle. Another way to state this is spend less than you earn. And the reality is this quintessentially is the question of how much is enough. And I think we start off by tithing because we say we give the first fruits to the Lord. Then we say, what do we really want to keep?
How much of it do we need to keep? There are going to be certain seasons where your expenses are going to be higher. If you are in a first job that doesn't pay substantially and you're trying to live in New York City, Well, you may need to keep a whole lot more after you've tithed, because rent is expensive and food is expensive, versus maybe living in Knoxville on a same salary, where a little bit more can be spent to save or to, owe taxes and owe debt.
But what else do we need to think about on lifestyle limits?

Spencer
I think if we start and we live on a budget and we live on those targets, it builds the proper discipline for us not to go above and beyond what is helpful. And we live on a budget such that we can think about these other categories there as well, because we need to have some margin in our lives.
Life is not always going to be easy, and we might not always have a job. So we need to think about those seasons and prepare for those different seasons that we might have ahead of us in life. If we live on a budget, it's much easier to modify that and look at trade offs that we can face rather than just going willy nilly and hoping that there's enough in the account at the end of every month and not really knowing, okay, what are my trade offs?
And I spend a little bit less on eating out and shift that over into, some kind of other, field if I need to. Because if we're in the midst of a season of transition, we might have to do that.

Austin
One, I think, especially if, if funds are tight. If resources are tight, one of the best ways to not overspend is actually use physical cash. If you go to the bank and you say, okay, I need $500 for rent, I need another $500 for food. That leaves whatever left I have. I'm going to take it and I'm going to put it in actual physical envelopes that have an actual physical paper dollars on them.
Yeah, you don't get your credit card rewards, but that's a great way not to overspend, because when the money's gone, the money's gone. And my wife and I, for the first several years of our marriage, when we were living in Colorado, we did this. Is it inconvenient to go into a bank to get cash? Yes. It takes some time.
Is it inconvenient to walk into the [sic], into the gas station and say, I'll take $20 on number three? Yes, it is inconvenient. It takes time. But if you really need to stick to that budget, I can think of no better way to really stick to a tight budget. And I think this is where it's really necessary, not just to set a budget, but you actually have to live on it.
You have to track it. You have to make sure that you know what you're spending.

Spencer
Well and there's a level of pain with the $20 bill departing from your hand into the, to pay rather than swiping a credit card. It just psychologically for almost every person, there's going to be more pain involved there, even to the point that if we spend six months and we do it the way that you talked about, okay, well, now if we've, if we've set the rhythms and we know what we're spending in these areas much easier than to adhere to it, if we did move over to a credit card/debit card type of situation.

Austin
Right, absolutely. And I think it comes back and says, okay, if you start on that cash, then you move to a credit card, then you realize, oh gosh, I'm spending way too much. It's a great way to break it. Just go back to the cash.

Spencer
Well, and the cash even can accumulate. You know, we're not going to advise you to have thousands and thousands of dollars in cash. You know, typically. But it can serve as a motivator when we're trying to build a primary reserve. So let's just say that you have, you know, $300 or something to your name when you graduate college.
Hopefully you have more, but you might not, if you are then able to accumulate and your goal is to build 3 to 6 months of living expenses in cash in something that's available, why every paycheck that comes in and you see that envelope grow, you can tangibly see, okay, day to day, I'm adding, you know, certain amount of money, you know, to that primary reserve.
And that's going to be one of those critical, foundational elements that if you have enough margin, there, you're not going to feel tied to your job. You know, if your boss comes in and asks you to do things that you are not comfortable with, that you do not think are ethical, or you think are just bonkers, you have a lot more capacity to say no, knowing that if you get, pushed out of your current employment, you have resources to help you make a transition.
If you have $300 to your name and you know that you have the rent coming next week, and that's a lot more than $300, you're going to be less likely to push back in those situations and live as really a steward of your time and of your talents.

Austin
Yeah. Well and I think I love what you were talking about there is this idea of how do we work diligently and honor the Lord in that way, because there are going to be seasons and times where our employers maybe want us to do things that are unethical, or things that they call you and say, hey, I, we have this deadline and I need you to come in and work another 14 hours tomorrow.
And they're just going to be times where you have to say, okay, what boundaries do I need to set? And I think we have to be diligent to honor the Lord. Okay. Your employer has taken a risk in hiring you. Now, that doesn't give them leeway to treat you and exploit you and exploit the time that you have given them.
But I think this is where we start asking the questions of what does it actually look like tangibly, to honor the Lord in the work that He has given us, we think about how do we steward our time, the resources that God has given us. We think about how we steward the actual gifts of our brain and our mental capacity that we have trained over the course of, whether it's college or trade school or high school, to be able to have skills to offer to an employer. In that season,
it really is how do I live fully? How do I use every moment to the fullest of my capacity? Not trying to get on Instagram or TikTok during work or do these other things? It is, hey, I have been hired here for a job. The Lord has given me this opportunity. I want to work hard for my employer.
So Spencer, one of the nice things about working for an employer is oftentimes they have other benefits that you can receive while you're at that employer. One of them is saving for retirement. So what do we think about the foundational piece when we consider saving for retirement in this first job?

Spencer
Well, we want to be wise stewards. And one of those things is getting free money, getting that employer sponsored retirement plan match typically. So there are some employers that they don't offer this benefit. And if you're in that situation, then this is not, you know, one of those pieces that's going to be as critical. We want to make sure that you're saving for the future and that you are thinking and praying about what the Lord may call you to in the future, not necessarily to say, hey, I need to be saving a ton of money for a retirement or something like that.
But the retirement savings options that most employers offer are going to include free money. And I think the Lord likes free money. I like free money. You know? So we want to take advantage of that. But we also want to recognize that we don't want to put that goal as, some kind of ultimate that we're trying to achieve.
We, you know, the whole, retiring early movement, trying to retire by the time you're 40, that doesn't necessarily align with the Gospel. Now, if you're, if you feel like you've been called to retire early and to go into full time ministry or something like that, or to switch a field, okay, you know that at least you're listening to the Lord and you've got a defined goal that you're going to continue to use those gifts and talents and time and energy and relationships the Lord's put in your life.
But for the vast majority of folks that are angling towards that, it is just trying to get away from an employer that maybe they feel, a piece of work that is, is more taxing or, more draining, you know, for them. So the antidote we would say for that is no, just build a primary reserve from the outset.
If it's not a good fit for you, don't stay there. If at all possible. Do something that you're going to be able to engage with people, be able to fulfill the call that God has on your life in a place. And, oftentimes that's really tough to do if you have an employer that's really treating you poorly or asking you to do unethical things.

Austin
Right, absolutely. Well, I think this idea of savings in general, it's really it is wise and prudent to save for the future. But again, we come back to James 4. We come back to Ecclesiastes, that our life is a vapor. We are not going to be here for forever. We are simply pilgrims on this earth. And so it's not that we are seeking our own pleasure and enjoyment when we are in work, but if there are things that are negative in the ways that you're being treated in unethical ways, okay, you don't just need to stay there because that's where the Lord has you.

Spencer
Really, there’s a lot to consider here. There is the cultural moment that we're living in. We think about the fact that we're not counting, most of us at least, are not counting on our kids for our retirement, you know, living in China, that was Chinese retirement. You know, you invest in your kids. Your kids take care of you when you become older.
We don't have that same cultural value in the United States. I think what we come back to is there are very legitimate things that we save for. If you feel called to a particular community and you don't have the resources to purchase a home in that community, saving towards a home can be a really important step. Likewise, you may be feeling like you can't do this particular job forever.
You do feel called to it, but there is a level of stress to it. So you may say, well, at some point in time in my 60s, I'm probably going to need to step away, still be engaged with what the Lord has for my life, maybe be mentoring other people or, you know, giving of myself in some other way.
But I can't do this 60 hours a week, probably at the same, you know, clip. So yeah, saving towards retirement in that makes a lot of sense for most people. But we don't want to have some kind of goal that is different that puts us in a different lifestyle and a different trajectory where we're not depending upon the Lord for Him to provide for us each day.
We're not looking to the Lord because having saving a tremendous amount and resources can pull us away from that. So we want to, to really set our face on a direction that is going to be positive here. You know, it's one of those scenes in The Chosen where Jesus talks about, the first cut in the stone and how important that is, because it's going to lay the framework for everything else that's going to come.
And of course, you know, this is, you know, not, I'm sure, exactly how it happened in, real life. But He’s you know, grappling with how He’s going to frame things in the Sermon on the Mount and that being one of the first teachings, that He had publicly to a ton of people. And, you know, as we think about the first job, you know, that we have there are some commonalities there of really wanting to be diligent about the way that we set up our lives so that we've got this momentum.
And if we need to change, fields, if we need to change employers, whatever we might need to do, we have a set of habits and rhythms that are going to allow us to pursue the Lord and not get tripped up.

Austin
Right, absolutely. One other thing. Just to finish the last two pieces of that live, give. owe, grow framework real quick just before we tie up loose ends and, finish this episode. It's just the reality that we are going to, owe taxes. You cannot avoid taxes. And so I think it is coming with a posture of when you receive the W-2, you at the end of the year, looking at the statement and saying, Jesus, you provided for me, looking at the gross number, looking at the taxes that you paid, and say Jesus, you have provided income.
I will gladly pay the tax that is due because you have given me a job. We fall on our knees and we pray. And with debt, owing debt, we try to avoid it at all cost because debt leverages the future. If we have done some of these other things where we build as a primary reserve, we have resources set aside.
There are absolutely times where taking on debt might make sense: mortgages, things of this nature. However, we want to try to avoid debt where we can. Those are kind of the last two pieces of the framework. And if we can do that from the beginning, when we're 20 years old and we've got that first job 18 years old, we've got the first job, we get that first W-2, we can praise the Lord for His provision,
then when we're 52 and the tax bill triples or quadruples, we can again continue to follow on our knees and say, Lord, thank you for providing a job where I get to earn money and give back to you. So I think as we think about the framework of live give, owe, grow; those foundations that we want to set, these are really important as we get that first job.
They're really important as we disciple people who have their first jobs as they're entering the workforce. Hey, what does it look like to honor the Lord with my time, with the resources that He’s given me? How do I think about saving? How do I think about not “building a barn?” How do I think about investing in the Kingdom?
These are really crucial pieces that, as we take that long obedience in the same direction, those first steps, it's really critical that we lay this foundation really well. Clients, if you want to talk to us about how do you disciple people into that season of life where they're taking the first job, if you have kids, grandkids, if you yourselves are entering that season, we would love to have that conversation with you.
As always, feel free to reach out. We would love to talk with you. We'll see you again next time. If you found this episode valuable, share it with a friend and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss the next episode.

Disclaimer
This content was provided by Second Half Stewardship. We are in Knoxville, Tennessee and you can visit our website at www.secondhalfstewardship.com. The information in this recording is intended for general, educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as investment advisory, financial planning, legal, tax, or other professional advice based on your specific situation. Please consult your professional advisor before taking any action based on its contents.