By Anita Kenyangi

Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, I always thought that what made a show excellent was its opening theme song. Think of the Powerpuff Girls “Sugar, spice, and everything nice; these were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girl…” or Dexter’s Laboratory’s “Enter at your own peril, past the bolted door, where impossible things may happen that the world has never seen before…” or Timon & Pumbaa’s “Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase; Hakuna Matata ain’t no passing craaaze..” As soon as you heard the song, you just knew you were in for a good time!

Or think of the greatest movie scores of our generation. Hans Zimmer’s cosmic soundscape for Interstellar or Howard Shore’s fantasy epic for The Lord of the Rings. Sounds that take you on an epic journey with the characters and have you wiping tears as you leave the cinema. Sigh.

The soundtrack of a legal career

If my (short) career in legal practice had a theme song, it would not be a triumphant anthem. It would be something closer to an old hymn sung through gritted teeth and eyes blurred with tears. Beautiful, yes, but requiring effort, discipline, and complete trust in a composer whose arrangement I cannot always see.

I had long believed that the legal profession, for all its nobility, was not designed with the Christian in mind. It rewards self-reliance, aggression, and pompous brilliance and often measures success by how flashy one’s car is. And yet, it is precisely here in the well-lit corridors, fancy boardrooms, and late-night document reviews that God has planted me.

So what then is the motivation to push forward in this career? Same motivation to push forward in anything you choose to do, really: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23–24”

If it is indeed the Lord I am serving, this means that the memo I am drafting at midnight is not merely for a client or partner. The contract I am drafting is not just about commercial terms and getting it signed as quickly as possible. I am serving the Lord Christ. That changes the quality of my work, the attitude I bring to it, and the way I treat my clients and colleagues.

Working as unto the Lord in the mundane

Contrary to every SUITS episode you’ve probably watched, most days in legal practice are not dramatic. At least not for a corporate and commercial lawyer. On this side of the pond, no one bursts into the court room yelling, “Objection, your honor!” Much of legal practice is emails, document reviews, compliance checklists, uploading documents on slow portals, and following up with non-responsive regulators. On days like this, it is tempting to reserve our “Christian thinking” for the grand ethical dilemmas and sleepwalk through our workdays.

But Paul in Colossians 3:17 says no to that thinking, saying, “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Whatever we do. Not just the important matters. The larger-than-life transactions. Not just the ones that test your ethics. Whatever you do. Paul again, in 1 Corinthians 10:31, writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Reviewing 200-page agreements as part of a tedious due diligence exercise at 3.00pm on a rainy Monday afternoon will tempt you to grumble and pout about the length of the week. Having your well-reasoned legal research demolished by your sharp-eyed supervisor will make you dread coming into work tomorrow and trying again.

But Paul is tasking us to consciously choose to approach each task with excellence and gratitude, no matter how menial or annoying. I have found that committing even the smallest of tasks to God (a quick prayer before drafting an email or a meeting, a moment of gratitude before lunch with friends, or quickly forgiving a colleague who has wronged you) transforms the ordinary mundane day into an act of worship.

When integrity costs you something

One of the earliest lessons I learned in my legal practice is that thinking like a Christian will cost you. The legal sector can present situations where cutting corners, paying bribes, being economical with the truth, or turning a blind eye to a big problem appears to be the path of least resistance and the path to getting the client’s work out faster.

I remember being a young lawyer seated in the dimly lit halls of a registry for hours on end, watching my friends collect their stamped documents, simply because I was unwilling to pay for faster turnaround times.

I remember being a legal assistant walking slowly to my supervisor’s office to let them know that the law I cited in the opinion sent out was amended last year and no one caught it. Sigh. I remember a colleague letting the client know that we didn’t have an update on the registration of their documents, because we had never submitted the documents, and it was two days to the deadline. Heavy sigh. Legal practice is filled with days like this. Where your endless internal turmoil makes the path of least resistance seem better.

But Proverbs 11:3 reminds us that “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.” Integrity is not just a professional standard; it is our guide. When I am unsure of the right course of action, I have found that asking “What does integrity require here?” almost always illuminates the path forward. Sometimes that means a tough talk with your supervisor, disappointment from the client, or, at worst, disciplinary action for the mistake.

But this is the cost of integrity. One of the values at my workplace is “Do the right thing even when no one is watching. “I would slightly change that to “Do the right thing, especially when no one is watching.” As we are, in fact, being watched by God. Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

Trusting God when the path makes no sense

Perhaps the greatest challenge of navigating my career as a Christian lawyer has been the tension between professional ambition and divine timing. The legal profession (at least at a law firm) has a very clear ladder: legal assistant/trainee, associate, senior associate, partner. The world tells you to climb it as fast as possible, by any means necessary.

But Proverbs 3:5–6 offers a radically different instruction: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

That “lean not on your own understanding” is particularly challenging for lawyers when things are not going our way. I have heard variations of these discussions with my friends: “I worked for X number of years, so I should be X by now” or “I know someone who got their master’s and PhD and was made partner by X, so I should be applying to X by now” or simply even “I was so brilliant in school, I should be further along by now.”

We are trained to analyze, to reason, and to build solid arguments from evidence, and we are devastated when we cannot make an argument for our current life circumstances. Our entire professional identity rests on our understanding, so why can’t we explain the stagnation we feel after we start practice? 

Surely, we should have achieved something by now, right? We want to rely on ourselves and trust in our own timing for our lives. But God, in His mercy, says no; trust Me instead.

For me, this analysis of my life and circumstances often led to anxiety and fear of what the next day or year might bring. I have had to hold fast to Matthew 6: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing…therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Trusting in the Lord and handing over control of what your career should look like does not mean abandoning your intellect entirely or not planning or pursuing meaningful work. It means submitting the outcome of your endeavors to a higher authority and being willing to submit to his guidance even when you can’t see the yellow brick road to Oz. It means trusting that the Lord can and will sustain you at each stage of your career, whether it is where you thought you would be by now or not.

Grace for the days you get it wrong

I would be dishonest if I painted a picture of seamless integration between my faith and my work and perfection as I worked unto the Lord. There have been many days when I have responded in pride, lost my temper, chosen self-promotion over service, or simply forgotten that I was working for the Lord. Some days the legal opinions are not great, deadlines are not met, and my self-doubt and anxiety are through the roof. Other days, I do not rest as I should and tire myself out trying to prove a point and obtain perfection.

Timothy Keller in Every Good Endeavor points out that “the experience of work will include pain, conflict, envy, and fatigue, and not all our goals will be met.” This is the reality of every workplace. But the beauty of our work, much like the Gospel, is that it does not require perfection. It requires repentance, humility, and a willingness to begin again.

The opening theme for most of my days is the wonderful quote by C.S. Lewis: “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.” Not because yesterday’s reliance was insufficient, not at all. But today’s challenges are new, and you must be equipped to face them each day. I am grateful that God’s mercies are new every morning, as stated in Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

When the days, weeks, months, or even years are long, He gives us strength to try again the next day. For such days, I have been encouraged and refreshed by reading the word of God (Psalm 1:1-3), fellowship and being encouraged by other believers (Hebrews 10:24-25), and resting (Genesis 2:2-3 and Exodus 31:17).

Timothy Keller, in Every Good Endeavor, citing Ben Witherington, says, “It is perfectly clear that God’s good plan always included human beings working, or more specifically, living in the constant cycle of work and rest.”

So to the Christian woman navigating the legal sector, whether you are a law student, a trainee, or a seasoned practitioner, this work matters. Not because the world says it does, but because God has placed you there for his glory. Your labor is not in vain. Not the late nights or the difficult clients. Not the battles you fight for justice in systems that are often unjust. Not the quiet, unseen faithfulness of showing up every day and choosing to work as unto the Lord. So let that be your theme song and the soundtrack to your days. Not a catchy jingle of great wins, but a deep, abiding truth: You are serving the Lord Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:58 puts it excellently: “Therefore, my beloved brothers (and sisters 😊), be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

The writer is a corporate and commercial lawyer in Kampala and is part of the Nakasero Cohort resuming August 7th; sign up to join here.