Michelle was recently nominated as one of the Top Women of Business in her province in Canada. She’s the co-founder and managing partner of a large recruitment firm. She’s one of Canada’s top career development coaches. And she’s lived cross-culturally, traveled widely, and owned or managed several Fortune 500 companies. Yet something was missing.

I met Michelle in February 2015 while teaching a graduate course at a Christian college. Even though she’s super busy as a corporate executive, she registered for the “Strategies for Business as Mission” course, which began with the reading of Dale Losch’s book A Better Way: Making Disciples Wherever Life Happens.

“What a transformative [time] for me!” Michelle wrote after the course. “In the 5 ½ years I have owned my company, and several others prior to this business, it never occurred to me that my business was my ministry. I have always separated full-time ministry from business.”

As a follower of Jesus, Michelle had an early desire to do “full-time ministry,” but she thought she had settled for second best by choosing business instead of being a missionary. She had unique ability to spot opportunities, understand threats, look around corners and grow strong teams, and she even recognized this as a gift from God, but she always wondered why God blessed her with those qualities — what was His end game?

As one of the last assignments, each student wrote a paper about how things would be different in the marketplace of life as a result of the class. Michelle wrote to me later, “Last night I gave the keys of my company over to its new CEO, Jesus Christ. What a wonderful relief to have Jesus take the reins.”

Neither Michelle nor you have to be sidelined from Jesus’ disciple-making mandate. He has empowered you with unique gifts and skills to engage with people wherever your life happens, imparting God’s truth in word and deed and bringing God’s love to life.