Hello, hello, everybody! I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, and this is Faithful on the Clock, the podcast for Christian professionals where every cheesy puff gets dust on your fingers to get your faith and work aligned. In today’s episode, I’m exploring this whole idea of genius. We really — and I mean really — like the idea of being a polymath in the business world, but you might not have to be completely well-rounded to contribute in a meaningful way and be successful. Let’s dive right in.

So, today’s show really has to start by going all the way back to the Renaissance. And if you don’t know anything about that time period, we’re talking roughly from the 14 to 17th century. And during this whole time, people were absolutely drooling over this concept called humanism. And one of the cornerstones with humanism was that we had to kind of reclaim the human spirit or wisdom. We had this idea that we had to learn as much as possible in as many subjects as possible, so a multi-disciplinary approach to education and work was a big deal. But that’s where we get this term Renaissance man or woman. It refers to someone who has a lot of knowledge in a bunch of areas or who has skills they can apply all over the place.

Now, today, we’re still totally in love with this idea of multi-disciplinary learning and application. And in the business world, we see it in this message of, like, career development and personal growth. You’re always supposed to be taking a class or finding a mentor or shadowing or doing all those kinds of things. And the whole reason we’re infatuated by this is because we have this notion that the more you know, the better the odds of success and security are, just because you can be more flexible and see the big picture of things. And especially in the United States, where we’ve got this independence mindset, we like the idea of anything that might help us get some promise of security for ourselves. We see being multidisciplinary as protective.

Now, part of the problem is that we have kind of gotten confused about what being a polymath even means. So, in an article for LinkedIn, Franscisco Sagastume asserts that — and I quote — “A generalist or polymath is an individual with a broad range of knowledge and skills across multiple domains, rather than specializing deeply in one single area.” So, to us, a polymath is somebody who knows a ton of stuff, but it’s all more superficial level knowledge and just being able to understand the basic connections and functions between things. And for most of us of a typical IQ, that’s the most we can achieve, just because the number of minutes in the day are limited. There are just too many subject areas, and we do not have the capacity to learn everything at a faster pace that would allow us to go deeper. But the traditional definition of a polymath refers to someone who is a true genius in multiple areas. We would say Leonardo da Vinci was a polymath, for example. And part of what makes traditional polymaths so memorable and impressive is that their level of skill or understanding in all of these areas is so much deeper than you’d see in a generalist. They can specialize or really excel not in one job, but in many. These are the people, they can go deeper because they have the natural mental capacity to learn and understand at such a faster rate than the average person. And that kind of makes the world their oyster, as they say. So, from here on out, I just want to be clear, when I say genius polymath, I’m talking about the more traditional polymath, not the generalist polymath we refer to today.

So, the question is, do you really need to be a genius polymath to succeed? Because in some ways, even though we know we really can only generalize if we study everything, I think we still are striving to turn ourselves into geniuses. We wanna be smart and believe learning isn’t limited, and, like I said, to have all the security a lot of deep knowledge and skill can bring. But I think the building of the tabernacle offers a really good answer.

So, we find the story of the tabernacle in Exodus 31. And God is directing Moses to build a place where the people can come and worship and where God can be present among the people. And so, God is setting aside workers who are gonna be part of this project. But listen to what the scripture says in verses 1 through 6. “Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you…” So, Bezalel, we are told he has all kinds of skills. He can design things, do woodwork, all of this stuff. This, to me, describes a genius polymath. He’s like da Vinci. He’s not limited to specific kinds of jobs or crafts. But then when God talks about the other workers, we don’t see this kind of list of skills, which makes me think that the rest of the tabernacle team are specialists. And I think God makes him a genius polymath because God needs someone who truly can oversee and have full authority over every part of what is going on really to the nth degree of detail. A modern company, having a generalist at the top, that can be just fine, because their job is just to see the basic big picture to keep everybody functioning well together. They don’t necessarily have to get to the deep details to keep the ship moving in the water. But here, we’re dealing with the tabernacle. Things have to be done exactly as God says. So, to have somebody in charge who really can drill down, who’s gonna be able to hold every specialist accountable for every little thing, that really matters.

So, my big point is, everybody wants to be Bezalel. We all want to be the genius polymath. But God only needed one overseer. And the tabernacle could not have been built if there weren’t a ton of people doing very specific tasks, applying very specific skills that other specialists in the group weren’t gifted for. And what I want you to see is that all of these people, they got the job done. They succeeded, not because they were all geniuses, but because each of them gave what they had to make a bigger whole. So, if you’re a Bezalel, good for you. God’s trusting you with all of what you have for a reason. But if you’re not Bezalel, if you can contribute in only one area, your role is still ridiculously valuable. And as long as you are willing to cooperate with other people, you know, and be a part of a real team using the gift God gave you, you can still have the security everybody wants. And believe me, I understand what it is like to see all the things everybody is doing and to try to have all these side gigs going. I’ve spent most of my life feeling like I was behind somehow, like I needed to just do more and get more and more information to keep up. I’ve gotten to the point of just absolute burnout multiple times and lost a lot of relationships because of that. And maybe some of you out there are at that point now, where maybe you don’t know exactly what to leave behind, but you just know that you can’t keep functioning the way you are. Something has to give. And my hope is that, if you understand that specialization is very much a needed thing in the service of God, if you just give everything you’ve got to the gift you have, you won’t put so much pressure on yourself to be everywhere and do everything. You’ll slow down enough to have the peace that God has always wanted you to have in the first place.

So, if you’ll join me, I’d like to lead you in prayer.

Lord, one of the biggest challenges I have ever had in my life is learning that I don’t have to be everything the world tells me I have to be. I only have to be what You need me to be. And I just pray, God, that if somebody’s out there, you know, if there’s a listener who’s taking on more than You want them to, put some guardrails along their path. Just concentrate their energy on the job You put them here to do. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

That wraps it up, listeners. I’m super excited about the new content I’ve been putting up on the podcast sister site, so if you haven’t checked that out, go as soon as possible to faithfulontheclock.com. That’ll help you pass the time for the next two weeks until Episode 124, where I’ll be giving you a lesson on heeding the warning signals others might give you in your career, using the story of Balaam’s donkey. Until then, everybody, be blessed.