When Work Has Become Your Identity

Anne Byler's name is on more than a thousand

storefronts around the world. Most people who walk past one

have no idea. She's a real She grew up Amish in Lancaster

County, Pennsylvania, one of eight kids, and her schooling

ended after the eighth grade, the way it did for most Amish

children. She married Jonas at 19 and figured she'd spend her

life as a farm wife and a mother. Then, Jonas had a dream. He

wanted to open a place where people could get marriage and

family counseling for free. To help bring in money for it, Anne

took a weekend job at a little pretzel stand in a farmer's

market, driving two and a half hours each way. Her first

pretzels were, in her own word, horrible. But she kept at it,

and Jonas remembered some ingredients from baking in an

Amish kitchen as a boy. And one afternoon, they pulled a batch

from the oven and knew they'd cracked it. Word got out. Lines

formed 20 and 30 people deep, buying them faster than she

could roll them. She had thirty-some nieces and nephews

who all called her... Auntie Anne. So that became the name

over the counter. By the end of that first year, she'd made more

money than she had ever seen. The stands spread from the

farmer's market into malls and then around the world. More than

one thousand locations, every one of them carrying her name.

She had built something huge and had her name on it. And then, at

the very top, Anne Beiler did something almost no founder ever

does on purpose. We'll come back to what she did. But first...

Welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Leger. I

know a little how this feels. For years, I worked in law

enforcement. And when I retired, I lost a piece of myself I

didn't expect to lose. The badge had been a part of how I

understood who I was. I'd introduced myself and the job

was right there in the first or second sentence. Then, it was

gone. And for a while, I didn't quite know where to put myself.

I was still a pastor and I had that dual identity. But still,

it felt like a part of me was gone. Nobody warns you that

walking away from the work can feel like walking away from your

own name. Maybe you know the feeling. Or, you're headed for

it. It creeps up slowly. Your job title becomes the answer to

the question of who you are. Somebody asks about you and you

lead with what you do for a living. You measure your weeks

by what you produced. And when work slows down, when the

projects dry up, or the phone stops ringing, you feel

invisible, like you stopped counting. Jesus posed a pointed

question to anybody tempted to build their whole self on what

they achieve. Listen to Matthew 16, 26. And what do you benefit

if you gain the whole world, but lose your own soul? Is anything

worth more than your soul? Jesus is naming a trade. You can pour

everything into building and climbing, win the whole world

doing it, and still come out the other side, having lost the one

thing that was you, your soul. The part of you that God made

and God keeps. The part that has nothing to do with your output

or the job that you have. Here's how the trade sneaks up on a

good, hardworking person. You don't decide one day to make

your job your identity. It slowly becomes your identity

until one day you can't tell where the work ends and you

begin. And work itself is a gift from God, and it's meant to be

done well. The trouble starts when the work becomes the thing

that tells you whether or not you matter. There's a better way

to consider your work, and Ann Beiler found it. Your job is an

assignment God hands you for a stretch of your life. It matters,

and it deserves your best. But it was never meant to be who you

are. And when you know that, you can throw yourself into the work

fully and still hold it with an open hand because your value was

settled before you ever clocked in. Watch what Ann did when she

reached the top. She gave it away. In 2005, after 17 years,

she sold Auntie Ann's, the company that bore her own name.

The thing she'd poured her life into was suddenly no longer hers.

She said her goodbyes to hundreds of franchise owners and

walked away. And she could do it for one reason. Years earlier,

when the business was young and Ann was wrestling with whether

she was doing what God wanted, she'd been praying in church and

had sensed God telling her plainly that His plan for her,

right then, was to make pretzels. That was the assignment He'd

given her for that stretch of her life. It was never meant to

be the thing that told her who she was, though. So when the

assignment was finished, Ann could open her hand and let it

go. She'd known all along that she was more than what she'd

built because the one who gave her the work had never been the

work. Let me say that again. The one who gave her the work had

never been the work. Ann could open her hand because her

identity was anchored somewhere the sail couldn't touch. You can

build like she built and still keep that anchor.

Here's today's challenge. Notice how you introduce yourself. When

somebody asks what you do, catch the reflex to lead with your job.

Then take a minute alone with God and finish a different

sentence. Apart from my work, I His. Say it until you really

understand who you are. And if your identity has morphed into

your career, ask God to loosen it so you can do your work well

without needing it to tell you who you are. Father, thank you

that we were yours before we ever had a job title and will be

yours long after the work is done. For everyone listening

whose sense of self has fused to what they do, please loosen that

bond. Remind them they're more than what they do. Help us to do

our work as an assignment from you with open hands, holding on

to you instead of the title. In Jesus' name, amen. If Daily

Devotions for Busy Lives has become part of your day, make

sure you're following the show so a new devotion is waiting for

you every time. You can follow at

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button in your podcast app. I'd love to have you along. Thanks

for joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives.

Remember, your work is an assignment God gives you for a

stretch of the road, but it was never meant to be who you are.

You are more than what you do, and you always were. Come back

next time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in

God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a great day.