The Real Reason Self-Development Matters for Christians
As a freelancer, I’ve written for years about business in different veins, eventually honing in most often on mental health and psychology. And one of the most common themes I’ve heard from people at just about any company level is that you constantly should be learning, self-developing, and generally just bettering.
But the more I wrote, the more one question kept nagging at me: Why? What in the world actually is the point of improving yourself or the environment around you?
The traditional corporate explanation
Traditional business wisdom says that self-development is a path to all kinds of security, whether it’s having enough money or reputation, having the knowledge or skills necessary to take on new opportunities, having access to others, or being able to switch careers at your fancy. All of those things, the mantras sing, are supposed to make you happy with a broader view of the world, or at the very least, keep you from suffering too much.
The Christian faith-based rationale
Through a Christian lens, joy and security don’t come from anything we do. We can’t earn or manufacture them. Both are gifts, with God Himself being the source (Psalms 16:11; 27:1–3; 43:4; 86:4; Isaiah 56:7; 58:14; 60:5…
