Job Crafting as a Spiritual Discipline
Discernment begins with a new conversation...
Our recent Substack Live conversation with
reminded me of a past Future Christian Podcast episode I recorded with Dr. Arianna Molloy, Associate Professor of Organizational Communication at Biola University and author of Healthy Calling: From Toxic Burnout to Sustainable Work.In that conversation, Molloy unpacked what it means to experience work as a calling—and how that very sense of calling can both inspire and undo us. One idea in particular has stayed with me: job crafting—the spiritual and practical act of reshaping our current work so that it better reflects the life God is calling us toward.
From Calling to Collapse
Molloy’s research shows that those who feel called to their work are statistically the most satisfied—and the most prone to burnout. They’re the “yes” people, driven by purpose and passion, often carrying entire ministries or organizations forward. But as she writes,
“Saying yes to good things is often more seductive than saying yes to obviously bad ones.”
The same passion that fuels purpose can also consume identity. Burnout from calling isn’t just exhaustion; it’s disorientation. As she told me during our conversation,
“It’s not just I don’t like what I’m doing. It’s I don’t know who I am anymore.”
When work becomes identity, the smoke alarm of the soul starts to beep.
Re-discovering the Relationship
In Healthy Calling, Molloy describes calling as a dynamic relationship between the Caller, the called, and the community. It’s not a title, position, or job description—it’s a relationship that must be tended.
“Calling is about relationship with the Caller, with ourselves, and with our community.”
When that relationship frays, we try to fill the silence with busyness, performance, or productivity. But vocation, rightly understood, is something to be held with open hands, not clenched fists. Our roles may change; our relationship with the Caller endures.
Job Crafting: A Practice of Renewal
One of the most practical insights from Molloy is her framework for job crafting—the intentional act of reshaping your current work to better reflect your sense of calling. She identifies three forms:
• Task Crafting – Identify the tasks that drain or delight you. Where can you adjust, delegate, or reimagine?
• Relational Crafting – Pay attention to the people who make your work meaningful—or miserable. How can you connect more intentionally, mentor others, or set healthy boundaries?
• Cognitive Crafting – Reframe how you think and talk about your work. Molloy shared how she stopped saying to her son, “I have to go to work,” and began saying, “I get to go to work.” That small shift turned obligation into worship.
Job crafting isn’t a productivity strategy—it’s a spiritual discipline. It’s repentance and renewal through imagination, a way of seeing ordinary work as participation in God’s ongoing creation.
A Seminary for the Everyday
This is what Substack Seminary hopes to explore: how theology meets everyday life.
When ministry titles disappear or careers shift, job crafting becomes a kind of liturgy—a way of rediscovering that vocation is less about what we do and more about how we love while doing it.
Maybe discernment doesn’t begin with a new job at all.
Maybe it begins with a new conversation—
with God,
with yourself,
with your community.
Reflection Questions
Where do you feel the “seductive yes” pulling you beyond healthy limits?
Which form of job crafting (task, relational, or cognitive) needs your attention this week?
How might reframing your current work as worship change the way you show up tomorrow?
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