Timothy Keller with Katherine L. Alsdorf. Every Good Endeavor. Penguin, 2016.

Keller gets his title from John Coltrane, the jazz saxophonist. Coltrane composed his most famous piece, “A Love Supreme,” after he had had an encounter with God. He wrote in his liner notes that it was, “An attempt to say ‘THANK GOD’ through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues. May He help and strengthen all men in every good endeavor.” (248, emphasis in original)

So Every Good Endeavor is about work. There is sometimes a perspective that work is a necessary evil. The Greeks and Romans, for example, imagined a past “Golden Age” where people did not have to work. H. G. Wells imagined a similar future with his Eloi in The Time Machine. Neither are biblical. God works. The Garden of Eden may have been a paradise, but we are told that Adam tended the garden—as Hamlet reminds us, “Adam digged.” (5.1.34)

Keller notes that both Christians and non-Christians alike often have a skewed view of work. For some, work is all there is. For others, our work has value because of its status or how much money we make. These ideas often lead to, as Thoreau would say, quiet desperation, not to mention snobbery.

Today people are often counseled to emphasize their “passion.” But this does not always translate into jobs and can be a form of idolatry. We see our work or our income as our chief good. Often it simply becomes a selfish, “What’s in it for me?”

For Christians and others with a moral outlook, there is a tendency to see only certain types of work as having value: working in a ministry or a nonprofit of some kind. Yet Keller reminds us that the term vocation, literally “calling,” applies not just to work for a religious organization or a charity, but to all beneficial work—every good endeavor. Even jazz! People in all kinds of occupations are helping others: farmers and grocers and many others provide food, artists like Coltrane provide joy and pleasure, businesses of all kinds provide goods and services that people want or need.

We understand that not every occupation is a “good endeavor.” Keller pastors a church in Manhattan. He hears of bankers providing necessary loans to help people and businesses but also of them providing questionable derivatives. As always, there is a balance.

The key to understanding what a good endeavor is is to see God’s plan for His creation. He created the world as a good place (see Genesis 1). His vision is for goodness. People can also see what things are good.

But God’s creation fell. We live in a fallen world. I once heard a preacher say, “When someone asks me what my background was, I say, ‘Sinner.’” We all sin. Jesus’ own passion included a lot of suffering, most of it unjust.

So the third part of God’s plan is necessary, too—the Gospel. God has a plan to redeem His creation, to make it good again. That includes people in their bodies, souls, and spirits. Sometimes Christians and other religious people will say that the physical realm is evil, that only the spiritual side counts. But Jesus came in the flesh (see I John 4:2-3). God’s promise of redemption includes not only heaven, but a new earth, and new bodies.

Keller also points out the often overlooked traditional concept of common grace. That is the idea that God is generous with His gifts even to a fallen world. Many inventions and discoveries have been made by nonbelievers. In many occupations a Christian may have a non-Christian mentor. God’s gifts are irrevocable, regardless of who has them or if they recognize the giver of the gift. Snobbery and self-righteousness are traps for anyone. Yes, Jesus suffered under the Roman elitists, but He was frequently opposed by the religious elites, too.

Keller uses many illustrations from the Bible and from the real world. For example, Esther’s beauty was a gift from God. She could have exploited it for her own vanity as her predecessor Vashti apparently had done. Instead, her mentor Mordecai noted that perhaps she had become queen “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). She risked her life, but God’s purposes were accomplished, and Haman’s plan for “ethnic cleansing” was thwarted.

Every Good Endeavor is a well-written book based on the authors’ observations and experiences. The credited co-author was a Silicon Valley CEO before moving to New York. They speak from experience to all of us, believer and unbeliever alike. What are we really working for? What are the gifts that God has given us? Are we using them in whatever endeavor we are working on?