I’ve been reflecting on how some of the most well-paying jobs come with a cost that isn’t listed in the offer letter. The salary is strong. The benefits are great. Plans for future growth look promising. Yet day after day, the work leaves you anxious, unsettled, or quietly conflicted, because you can see how the product, the service, or the decisions being made are negatively affecting people.

That tension matters.

Emotional intelligence invites us to pay attention to what our bodies and spirits register long before our minds try to rationalize it away. Persistent anxiety at work is rarely just about workload. Often, it’s the strain of participating in something that doesn’t align with our values, our empathy, or our responsibility to others. The pay may be good for your pocket, but if it’s bad for your heart, something is out of order.

In many workplaces, success is framed almost entirely around individual gain: compensation, title, influence. Rarely are we asked to pause and consider the broader impact of our labour. Who is being helped by what we’re building? Who is being harmed? What does this normalize for our teams, our customers, our communities? These questions don’t make us difficult or disloyal; they make us conscientious.

This is where God’s economy offers a different lens. Scripture consistently points toward provision that is communal, not isolated; one that accounts for people, dignity, and long-term consequences, not just short-term profit. God’s provision is not meant to arrive wrapped in constant anxiety or moral compromise.

Sometimes God works by providing opportunities that allow both individuals and communities to flourish. Other times, He works through holy discomfort; an unease that signals misalignment between what pays well and what does well. That discomfort isn’t failure; it’s information. It’s an invitation to discern whether what sustains our lifestyle is quietly eroding our peace or our compassion.

A job that pays well but requires you to overlook harm, silence your conscience, or normalize outcomes that damage others may still fund your life, but it will quietly tax your soul. Over time, that cost shows up as burnout, cynicism, and emotional fatigue that no salary can fully offset.

The better question, then, isn’t simply Is this good for me? It’s Is this good for us? For the people affected by the work. For the culture it creates. For the person I’m becoming in the process.

Not all money is bad...but not all money is good. The kind of provision aligned with God’s economy sustains both your livelihood and your heart, allowing you to contribute to the well-being of the whole without losing yourself along the way.

Coming live from my pile of dirt to yours, this is God Made Dirt: where we remember that success measured only by profit is incomplete, and that we are called to steward not just our careers, but each other.

Media Recommendation | Paid in Full: The Battle for Black Music

Narrated by Canadian icon Jully Black, Paid in Full: The Battle for Black Music examines how Black artists have historically generated immense cultural and economic value—while being systematically underpaid, exploited, or excluded from true ownership. From the earliest days of the recording industry to today’s digital streaming era, the series exposes how profit has often flowed freely, but not fairly. It’s a sobering reminder that money earned without justice, equity, or regard for community may look lucrative on paper, yet come at a deep moral cost. A timely watch that reinforces the truth at the centre of this issue: not all money is good money.

CBCNews: Docuseries Paid in Full exposes history of racism, exploitative contracts in music industry, September 16, 2024

Until next time,

Carrie

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