Work in the Light: An Interactive Guide to Transforming your Career with New Purpose and Meaning

By Wayne Kuna

Bring your work into the light. What if God has been waiting for all eternity for you to partner with him to transform your work, leadership, workplace culture, and life priority? What if fleeting success at work can be transformed into lasting fulfillment? Work in the Light is an inspiring, working-person's guide to God's real meaning and purpose for work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646700011

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Work in the

Light

An Interactive Guide to Transforming your 

Career with New Purpose and Meaning

Work, Leadership, Culture, and Life Priority

Wayne A. Kuna

ISBN 978-1-64670-000-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64670-001-1 (Digital)

Copyright © 2020 Wayne A. Kuna

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Introduction

Work and Leadership

Working in the Light for God’s Acclaim!

Work in the Light of God’s Image

Work in the Light to Benefit Others

Work in the Light as God’s Providing Hands

Leadership in the Light Is More than Leading

Voice Matters!

Be the Gate!

Shepherd Leadership Means Sacrifice!

The Ecosystem of God’s Environment

The Ecosystem of God’s Environment

Amply Resourced—Provide What’s Needed!

Rest, It’s a Rhythm

Nourishment—Feed What You Grow!

Refreshment—Filling the Physical Tank!

Encouragement—Filling the Emotional Tank

Ethical Leadership—The Right Way for the Right Reasons

Presence, Protection, and Correction—Not on My Watch

Celebration—Don’t Forget to Cheer!

Reward—Good Job!

Casting Leader Values—You Can Count on Me

Mutual Loyalty—I’m All In

Life Priority

Creating Your Life Priority Arrow

Priorities—the One-Word Oxymoron!

Treasuring What God Treasures

Loving God with My Unseen Me

My Way or the High Way

When Doing Is Worship

Pursuing God’s Dream

Pursuing God’s Global Dream

Pursuing God’s Dream for Me

Next Steps

Life Driver Arrows

About the Author

Introduction

You may wonder, "How did Work in the Light happen?"

Faith and the workplace are woven tightly together in my life. As a young toy designer working at what was then the world’s largest independent toy-inventing studio, Marvin Glass and Associates, I experienced life-shaping events. I was working alongside some of the most creative people in the world. Inventors who created toys like Lite-Brite, Mouse Trap, Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, Operation, Simon, and many other iconic toys and games. However, my most life-shaping experience at the studio had little to do with toys.

One morning, after running up a staircase from my office on the lower shop-level of the studio, to the second-floor design area, I paused before opening the door. I stopped because someone had started lighting firecrackers just on the other side of the door. No surprise. We were toy designers after all, and it was July 1976, the two hundredth anniversary of our country. I thought it was all fun and games until I heard Kathy say, Oh, my god! He has a real gun! I froze as my stomach felt like it was going to drop through my bottom.

Within thirty seconds, the series of pops stopped, and I cautiously opened the door. Kathy was lying on the floor in front of me. She had been shot, and her drawing board had somehow flipped off of her desk and was covering her upper torso and face as she lay on the floor. A movement to my right startled me. My eyes darted in that direction. Another body was lying on the floor, twitching. Before I could even consider who that person was, Doug stumbled out of his office. He was cradling his intestines in his arms as he grunted or moaned, I’ve been shot! This second thirty seconds has been permanently etched into my psyche.

It soon became apparent that Kathy’s last words saved my life. Four people lost their lives, and two others were seriously wounded that day. Others, like me, bore invisible wounds that cut through our hearts, minds, and souls. Among the horrors of that day, the shooter was a friend.

Amongst all of the senselessness that seemed to chaotically swirl around in the days that followed, one of the designers came to work and began telling everyone how he had given his life to Jesus. When Ralph stepped into my office to tell me his story, I already knew what to expect. He immediately launched into his conversion pitch. I couldn’t wait for him to leave. In fact, I didn’t. As he neared the end of his pitch, I grabbed him by the shoulders, spun him around, pushed him out of my office, and slid the door shut behind him. When I sat back down at my desk, all I could think was, Did I just push out the person who had answer to the peace and healing I had been seeking since I was a boy? You see, unfortunately, this wasn’t the only violence I had experienced.

The next two years became an accelerating slide into my own personal hell. Despite a career that was skyrocketing and what appeared to be a good marriage, my inner me had died and was decomposing while paranoia and obsessive-compulsive thinking began to consume me. Those two years nearly destroyed me. The emotional and spiritual maelstrom had me free-falling into a dark abyss. Obsessive thoughts had overwhelmed my ability to sleep. When I did sleep, night-fright outbursts often woke me. As you can imagine, there was much more than I’m sharing.

One late afternoon, more than two years after the shooting, I sat alone in my home, wondering when the moment would come that my mind would snap and I would no longer be able to fight my way back to rational thinking. Sleep was nearly nonexistent for me. It had been nearly a week since I had last slept, and I was afraid for my sanity. My mind was racing in a panic of thought. I decided I had to try something.

Back at the studio, Ralph had continued telling me, and everyone else, Jesus would heal and set me free. He said I had to acknowledge my sins to God and trust in Jesus’s sacrifice for my forgiveness. He said that would set into motion God’s power in my life. I wanted to trust what he said, but somehow, I knew this decision would not only mean Jesus’s life for mine but my life for his as well. I wasn’t about to give up control of my life. Fortunately I was so scared of my deteriorating mental state, I felt I had to risk a plunge into faith. That’s when I experienced yet another life-changing—no, make that life-transforming event.

Sitting on the edge of my sofa, I told God I didn’t know if I was doing this the right way. I also apologetically let him know I was more afraid of losing my mind than my soul. As best as I knew how, I went on to give my life to Jesus. He was right and I was wrong about the condition of my soul. Soon I found myself on my knees and then facedown, prostrate on the carpet. For some reason, I began thinking about God’s holiness as I acknowledged my brokenness and need for his healing salvation. His holiness quickly became a consuming, obsessive thought as I sensed a widening gap between who he is and what I was in my self-proclaimed goodness. The unfathomable and immeasurable difference between us grew until it became a frightening realization. I sensed what seemed like a shapeless, cavernous, lightless void growing between us. The void wasn’t growing—my awareness of its scope was growing.

I began having what I thought was a panic attack. My heart started racing, and my breathing became panting grasps for oxygen. The expanding thought of God’s holiness wasn’t helping. I told myself I had to stop thinking about God’s holiness. That’s when things became really scary. I couldn’t stop the thoughts! I realized I wasn’t thinking about God’s holiness; he was revealing it to me, and I had absolutely no control. God’s holiness had taken me from fright to terror. How did this good experience go bad? I truly thought my wife would come home from work and find me dead on the floor.

Then my experience took an amazing turn. At the height of my terror, Jesus filled the room with his love. I know that sounds vague, but it’s the best I can do. I felt his presence pressing his love, or maybe his care, into me. The storms raging within me were calmed. My soul and mind entered a place of peace. Unexpectedly something like a crushing boulder seemed to roll off of me. At least, that was what it felt like as my body heaved with a deep loud inhale, now free of an unseen, crushing weight. God’s holiness stopped being frightening. My paranoia and the obsessive thoughts vanished.

I immediately knew something, or someone other than myself, had taken control of me and had changed everything. I was different. I began to realize that I had never been in control of my life. My life had been completely out of control. I also realized at those moments in my life when violence had rushed in a vigilant love had been watching over and maybe even protecting me. Now I didn’t have to be concerned or obsessed with controlling my life. I knew Jesus had me in hand. For the first time in two years, I slept soundly without anxious or compulsive thinking.

The timing of all this was ironic. As God had planned it, my new birth of faith all happened during the same time period that I was offered a partnership in the studio. It turns out, compulsive thinking and sleepless nights, despite its emotional downside, seemed to be good for creativity. The ink on my partnership agreement was barely dry when word began circulating through the studio that I had become born-again. Evidently the partners heard the news about my conversion and had encouraged the managing partner to have a talk with their new young religious partner. This meeting gave birth to yet another defining moment. Here’s how it went.

One morning, I heard the studio’s intercom click on and Jeff, the managing partner, called me into his office. This was no ordinary office. It was designed to impress and to make our clients from around the world believe we were the best. Two walls of the office were lavishly decorated with Leroy Neimans, a Remington, and other pieces of priceless artwork. A third wall was a living coral reef aquarium teeming with exotic fish, showing off a brilliant rainbow of color. Opposite Jeff’s rosewood desk was a large circular one-way glass window, giving him a view of those walking past his office and to an outer window that looked toward the Moody Bible Institute located across from the studio. The eclectic collection of masterpieces was under an umbrella of vibrant color created by a backlit stained-glass ceiling. Jeff was sitting at his desk when I walked in.

I admired Jeff. He was creative, smart, polished, and only six or seven years older than myself. He had great business acumen and was one of the studio’s creative visionaries. As I stood there, he said, I heard you’ve become religious.

Not really understanding what had happened to me, I said, I guess?

Then Jeff asked a question that would forever knit faith to my career. He asked, What’s this going to mean? Jeff was bright. He didn’t mean what was my faith going to mean to me? He wanted to know what it was going to mean to him, the other partners, our creative staff, and our clients. In short, he wanted to know what role faith was going to play in my career.

I hadn’t honestly thought about it. I had considered how my new faith would get me to church regularly, have me pray, and read the Bible more, hopefully become a better husband; but he was asking how it was going to affect the secular, professional side of my life, my career, and specifically the studio. I must have stood silently for a while longer than Jeff expected because he prodded my silence with, Well?

I dropped down onto the designer sofa, under the colorful Neiman of gamblers around a roulette wheel, and asked for a second to consider his question. He waited and finally, I asked, Do you generally know what Jesus stands for, what he was about?

Jeff immediately responded, Yes, yes! with the wave of his hand, not wanting to get into talking religion.

I then said, I guess it’s going to mean I want to think the way Jesus would and do things the way Jesus would.

With a slightly puzzled look on his face, Jeff looked at me and asked, Is that it?

Is that it? I thought to myself, That’s everything! Yes, I said.

Jeff looked at me, then down to his desk, and said, Oh, okay. That’s all!

I left the office realizing that Jeff expected my faith to impact every facet of my life, including those that overlapped him and the studio. Jesus used Jeff’s question to help me see that my work in the toy industry wasn’t just a career, it was a calling through which others could see the light of Jesus. I guess that was when Work in the Light was first born in me. What I didn’t know then was that Work in the Light unleashes miracles throughout your career.

The Work in the Light discussion modules are about a Monday through Sunday that belongs to Jesus. It represents the truth and light God revealed to me through my twenty-five-year-plus career as a leader in the fast-paced, high-stakes, high-stress, global toy industry. It also represents what I learned during another seven-plus years in the fast-paced, high-stakes, high-stress role of a pastor. Some of these principles came by way of those who spoke God’s truth into my life, some by study, some through experience, and others by making countless mistakes. I learned my work needed to be in the light. As I believe Timothy Keller says, Work is a spiritual endeavor. I needed to recognize and avoid the shortcomings and failings of the world’s career model. I also needed to learn what it looked like to lead in the light and how to create a healthy and productive workplace environment.

Over my career, I learned that those leading in the light are shepherd leaders that lead from a place of God’s example and character. They seek to create healthy and productive environments that help people grow. Work in the Light gives your career new purpose and meaning. I also had to learn the lesson that none of this, either professionally or personally, is remotely possible without first having a singular life priority that is aligned with what God treasures.

As a Soul Priority alum put it, We’re encouraged on Sunday to bring our faith to work, so we strap on our tool belt called faith before heading to the workplace. Then when work happens, we reach for our faith tool belt and either discover there are no tools in it or we don’t know how to use the tools we have in the belt. Soul Priority provides faith tools and teaches us how to use them.

The workplace is filled with situations and relational issues that challenge or question where faith belongs. Frustrations, threats, and fears can trigger our survival instincts in a way that may become an assault on our integrity and faith. Without the perspective Work in the Light brings, we can lose our bearings and our advantage. We can end up working for the more that is actually less rather than working for the more that is actually more. Work in the Light will teach you about God’s faith tools and show you how to use them on the job.

Work is the place where many of us spend most of our awake hours. It is also the place where we are most mentally and physically engaged. Work is where we have learned to hone our skills and apply our talents. Work in the Light makes it the place where we can also become most spiritually engaged.

If my own career is an example of what can happen, Work in the Light means transformation and miracles. The environment around you and the people around you will be changed as you are transformed into a shepherd leader.

I’m not exaggerating when I say transformation. Transformation goes from one state of being to a completely new state. Unlike change, transformation does not change back. There is no regression. Amazingly transformation becomes the fertile soil of miracles in your career. None of us wants to leave miracles on the table at work because we are satisfied with less than what God has planned. Don’t be satisfied with the broken and limited status quo of how the world gives purpose and meaning to work. Don’t be satisfied with anything less than what God has designed you to be, in the career he created you to excel in, at the workplace he strategically placed you for his kingdom plan. Let your job become a kingdom career.

Work and Leadership

Chapter 1

Working in the Light for God’s Acclaim!

In a lot of ways, purpose is the perspective from which we view a goal, a quest, a career, or our life. Purpose brings meaning. It may be about others or a cause greater than self. Purpose may also be all about self whether it is about personal survival or simply about self-aggrandizement.

Let’s explore the idea of purpose as it relates to work.

Purpose in life is often tied to our work. Many of us, especially men, it seems, see ourselves in the light of our career. It’s not just what we do that gives us purpose but how much money we make at it and the title we have before or after our name. Just a few years ago, I met with a despondent man who lost everything in the MF Global meltdown. Along with the loss of his money came the loss of his house and, eventually, the loss of his marriage. He was depressed and near-suicidal. The purpose of his life had vanished. He was emotionally adrift and didn’t know what to do.

Is work about giving ourselves purpose? Is work about paying bills or having the means for a better life or achieving prominence and notoriety? Maybe the purpose of work is more noble, to take care of the family, get the kids through college, and hope to have enough money for your daughters to have fairy-tale weddings all before planning for retirement. Any one of those things are bundled in what creates purpose. But purpose also depends on your perspective. Where you stand to view things may give you a different view or perspective. We need to view work from a different perspective before work can take on its ultimate purpose and meaning.

The key concept of this discussion is to determine why we even work. This first and foundational discussion is to communicate the importance of Work in the Light. Work in the Light is not driven by money, advancement, or personal prestige but by the purpose and meaning for which God designed it. Work is a calling that includes purposes greater than ourselves. Consider these opening quotes.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. (John F. Kennedy)

To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity. (Friedrich Nietzsche)

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose. (Margaret Thatcher)

Make every product better than it’s ever been done before. Make the parts you cannot see as well as the parts you can see. Use only the best of materials, even for the most everyday items. Give the same attention to the smallest detail as you do to the largest. Design every item you make to last forever. Make it fit for an angel to sit on!" (Shaker Philosophy)

These quotes are not all directly about the purpose of work. However, they each speak to the resident purpose within everything we do. Here are some questions.

Did any of these quotes grab your attention? Why? Did you agree, disagree, or never considered it before?

What different answers might people give if asked, Why do you work?

What different answers might people give if asked, How important is your job/career compared to others?

What about you? How important do you feel your job/career is in the scheme of things?

Jot down what you believe God’s perspective to be on the purpose of work or career.

Have you ever been on a road trip with the family when you come upon a road sign that reads, Vista Ahead? As you drive on a little further, you find an exit marked, Vista this exit. That’s where you turn off the main road to discover something you would have otherwise completely missed if you stayed on the path most people travel. Many of us view our careers from the main road without getting off at the exit that gives us a new vista on God’s purpose. We assume the status quo purposes and are not aware of the amazing view God has of our work and our career. We need to change our perspective to see the spectacular vista God wants us to see in work. Here is the story of someone’s shift in perspective. They shared it with me while I was still in the toy industry.

I received a phone call from one of my clients to inform me that he was no longer with the company he had represented. He had just lost his job. Ironically he seemed to have lost it for being too successful. It is my understanding that one of his product decisions took the company from tens of millions of dollars in sales to hundreds of millions in sales. His salary was modest, but his contract included a simple, growth-based bonus structure that would have netted him a significant amount of money. His company seemed to terminate his contract rather than pay the bonus.

His former company was not based in the US. He knew pursuing legal action in another country would be expensive and possibly futile. My client also happened to be an intentional follower of Christ, so he and his wife decided to pray, asking for God’s guidance, before making any decisions. After a weekend of prayer, they decided to walk away from pursuing legal action for two reasons. First, they did not want those who knew of their faith to believe they were motivated by greed. Second, they also did not want to be perceived as seeking revenge. They wanted friends and business associates to know that they trusted God’s plan for their life and that he would redeem this situation. So instead of pursuing legal action, my client pursued interviewing for a new position.

While in Japan, between interviews, he stood, looking out of his Tokyo hotel suite at the city that seemed as gray and dreary as his heart felt. He found himself second-guessing his prayerful decisions and feeling a little abandoned by God. Stepping out onto the balcony of his suite for a breath of fresh air, he was stunned by a spectacular view of Mount Fuji rising over the city. He had no idea that the balcony of his room had such a vista. He was amazed at how easily he could have missed the stunning view had he not changed his perspective by stepping out onto the balcony.

That’s when it happened! Like a lightning bolt, he had an epiphany. God impressed on his heart that he was in danger of missing something in his career if he didn’t change his perspective as well. God’s view of his career was far more stunning than the defeated, victimized, self-absorbed place from where he was currently viewing it. His career needed to be viewed from the perspective of God’s majesty, power, and purpose that lay beyond his immediate sight and understanding. Financial success and prestige were not necessarily God’s only purpose for my former client. His character and values were being reshaped, actually being transformed, through the fire of disappointment and adversity as he willingly submitted to God’s plan. God had a plan and a place where he desired my client to best serve and represent him. There were people God wanted him to work alongside, to lead, and to serve.

God was calling my client to step out and view work from his balcony. He had to learn that his work went beyond payday and into eternity. From God’s balcony, he saw new purpose, new motivation, and new meaning in his work. He realized he couldn’t accomplish God’s ongoing sovereign plan for him and his career at his former company. Work was about God’s glory. Work was about worship. God was doing something new!

My former client never recouped what he lost. He did, however, become the North-American president of a Japanese toy manufacturer and went on to be a respected executive in the toy industry. God gave him the opportunity to lead an organization in a way that represented Jesus—with service, respect, and integrity. From God’s balcony, he saw his career being repurposed from fleeting success to lasting fulfillment.

When it comes to our careers, we all need to change our perspective. We all need to exit the mainstream highway of career thought and view career from God’s vantage point. For many, if not all of us, this means moving from the fallen, status quo perspective seen from the world’s perspective, to a new more spectacular view seen from God’s plan and purposes.

Who doesn’t want to look good and get kudos for a job well