Q&A: Faith & Work

I have about five mentors in my life and, outside of my husband, they’ve changed my life the most. When I was younger, like 8 or 9 years old, if I was at a friend’s house and their parents did something interesting, I would sit down and ask them a million questions about life, about their work, about what it meant to be a parent. I think that led naturally to having a lot of mentors in my life. As I got older, if I found out that a person was doing something related to what I was doing, I’d email them and say, “I know you’re super busy, but if you have 15 minutes of time …” Through that, I’ve built relationships that I’ve had for [about a decade].

I signed my first modeling contract when I was 19, and I was in a lot of leadership meetings where everyone was a lot older than me. I always thought, “I don’t want to get into places and not have anything to say.” You always feel like you know everything, but I realized if I could sit down with a mentor and talk to them for two hours, I’d probably save myself five or 10 years.

First, wherever you are, you are ultimately working for God. In one of my early jobs, I felt like I wasn’t doing God’s work. I didn’t work for the Church or for a charity. What I learned, though, is that wherever I am, I’m still working for God.

Second, wherever God has placed you in this season, that is a mission field. Around 5 percent of the UK population goes to church regularly.²⁸ Which means that 95 percent of people at work or in our local communities are probably not going to walk into church anytime soon. If we can shift our focus and have a slightly different perspective—whether we work in a grocery store, in fashion, in a corporate world or even in a local church—we’ll see there’s so much opportunity wherever God has placed us.

In terms of bringing faith into work, one of my mentors reminded me recently that when someone employs you, they’re employing you to do a really good job. In doing a good job, not only are you honoring God, but you are given more opportunity to be a light and an influence.