Work and the Meaning of Life

Work is the meaning of life. Got your attention? Your identity is tied to what you do. I bet I have it now. So argues David Bahnsen in his book Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life . Bahnsen is the founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, a national private wealth management firm. He’s also the author of several books, including Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It . In This Episode 00:00 – Why Christians shouldn’t pit work against family or church 01:10 – Why Full Time Work and the Meaning of Life matters so deeply to Bahnsen 02:11 – Losing his father and discovering purpose through work 03:56 – The church’s discomfort with ambition and vocation 06:00 – Identity, salvation, and what our work says about us 09:06 – “Work is the meaning of life?” A biblical case from Genesis 12:55 – The crisis of men not working and its social consequences 16:12 – How Reformed theology shapes Bahnsen’s view of vocation 19:41 – The influence of Tim Keller and Every Good Endeavor 23:14 – Rejecting the zero-sum view of family vs. career 31:41 – Productivity, early mornings, and modeling joyful work 36:10 – Why in-person work still matters after COVID 44:39 – Conviction, politics, and resisting tribal thinking 54:21 – Overcoming resentment by telling the truth Resources Mentioned Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It by David Bahnsen Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work by Tim Keller — — — 📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things: 🎁 Help The Gospel Coalition build up a renewed church for tomorrow. Let's Build Together: Donate Today at 🎧 Don’t miss an episode of Gospelbound with Collin Hansen ▫ Apple Podcasts: ▫ Spotify: ✅

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Work and the Meaning of Life is an episode from Gospelbound by The Gospel Coalition.

This episode is 00:56:17 long.

This episode was published on Dec 30, 2025.

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