His talk reminded me of the experiences of two friends of mine. James Tennison makes his living as a portrait artist. (He is extremely gifted. Recently James was hired to paint the governor’s portrait for the capitol building in Austin.) About five years ago James struggled with a bad attitude because he wanted to paint other things. Like landscapes, for instance. But landscapes don’t pay the bills. So he painted portrait after portrait after portrait.... "I used to hate doing portraits," James says. "On every one, I secretly hoped it would be my last one. I used to wish for an inheritance so I could paint what I want."

James also teaches art in a local university. Sometimes he got nervous because he had to do painting demonstrations. He thought, "I’m supposed to be the expert. My students are watching. What if I blow it? What if I paint this and it looks stupid?"

Fortunately, God did a great work in James’s heart. James began to see his work as an opportunity to serve. He humbled himself. As an act of love, he began to count his customers as more important than himself. The results were dramatic. James says, "The servant mind-set changed everything. Rather than dwelling on myself and my desire to do my own thing, I began focusing on my clients and on how much joy I would bring them if I did a wonderful painting of their child or spouse or whoever." For James, it’s not just a job anymore; it’s a ministry. He often mentions how much joy he now has in his work.

This change in approach also helped his teaching. James says, "I finally realized, ‘This isn’t about me; this is about them. I’m here to serve them. The nervousness has disappeared."

The second story is about Mike Shrock, a friend from my college days. Mike owns a landscaping business in Oregon called Living Color Landscaping. When Mike first took over the business, it included landscaping on fourteen Burger King franchises. From the outset Mike saw his business as a ministry and really put his heart in his work. He went to Disneyland to study how they did their landscaping. Mike’s goal was to make the help franchise owners by making the landscaping so sharp and so colorful that it would grab the attention of people driving by. If Mike learned from an owner that his franchise was about to be inspected, Mike would send out an extra crew to plant new flowers and to re-mow the lawn (even if it had been mown just a few days earlier) to make the place look incredible. Needless to say, his customers were thrilled with the service they received and Mike’s company grew to handle forty-eight Burger King accounts along with many others. Mike had a lot of joy in his work.

About two years ago Mike became the co-pastor of a small church. He loves to pastor. He decided not to draw a salary from the church, but to keep his landscaping business as a source of income. He began to see his job as God’s provision. It provided the finances to pay the bills so Mike could pastor his church. His change in the way he viewed his landscaping job brought an unintended consequence. As he labored just to make a buck, he became extremely bored. Mike said to me, "To be honest with you, for about a year now, I’ve hated my job. Nowadays I find myself checking the contracts to make sure we’re doing what we said we would do. I never used to check the contracts--because we were always going so far beyond what we said we would do."

When Mike realized recently that he was using his customers rather than serving his customers, he corrected his mind-set. "Instead of focusing on how bored I am, "Mike says, "I look for something else I can do to make their place look better. It’s really made my work a joy again."