Sleep before you ship + use this AI prompt to pursue “the ministry of excellence” today

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people. (Ephesians 6:5-7)

Long before the LEGO brick, Ole Kirk Christiansen got into the toy business by selling wooden yo-yos, toy cars, and ducks-on-wheels. As the business grew, so did his family’s involvement.

Eager to please his father and boss, Christiansen’s son Godtfred tried to make the business more efficient. He thought they could save time and money by shipping ducks with only two coats of varnish instead of the three prescribed by his father.

After shipping an order of two-coat ducks, Godtfred proudly reported his savings. But his father was not pleased. To Godtfred’s embarrassment, Christiansen demanded that he fetch the entire order and give the ducks the third coat. Because, as Christiansen reminded his son, “only the best is good enough.”

It’s highly unlikely any customer would have noticed the difference. But Christiansen knew that we glorify God by pursuing the ministry of excellence even when nobody is watching (see Ephesians 6:5-8). Because ultimately we are “serving the Lord, not people,” in our work. 

I’ve written a lot about “the ministry of excellence,” and I’m constantly experimenting with new ways to better serve you through my work. Here are two practices I recommend for proverbially adding a third coat of varnish to your work.

#1: Sleep before you ship a deliverable. As she was writing the duck story above for our book Five Mere Christians, my co-author Kaleigh Cox began finishing deliverables a day early so she could sleep on them before she shipped them. More often than not, she woke up with ideas to take her work to the next level. You will too.

#2: Ask AI for feedback rather than flattery. AI tools tend to tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear to grow. That’s why I’ve fed my AI tools this prompt that you’re free to copy and paste:

When I ask you for feedback, I am not primarily looking for pats on the back (although I certainly love encouragement). Primarily what I am looking for is constructive feedback because I am committed to serving others through the ministry of excellence in my work. And I have a super strong conviction that constructive feedback is essential for mastering my craft.

Why do I go through all this trouble? Because, as Dorothy Sayers once said of the Nazarene Carpenter whom the carpenter Christiansen called Lord: “No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever, I dare swear, came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth...The only Christian work is good work well done.”

Join me in doing “good work well done” today for the glory of God and the good of others!