​            There is a desk beneath a window. The desk is messy, covered in crumpled lined paper and textbooks with cracked spines. Some of the books are closed; their dense titles sink through hardback covers. Microeconomics. Risk management. Financial planning. Tax accounting. The syllable counts alone require an analyst to decipher their meanings, something the owner of the desk must be.

            That is not all that litters the desk beneath the window. Sprinkled among the textbooks are papers, inked and worn with words that spring and sparkle. Poetry, set to music, ring from amongst the hum of figures and symbols, harmonizing with a lilting tune. It is from within this melding of analysis and creativity that Braden Wyssmann views the world, where notes and numbers collide.  

            “I’m very analytical by nature which is why finance, accounting, and numbers make a lot of sense to me,” Braden said. “Up until probably a year and a half ago I would not have labeled myself as creative in any sense of the word. I would have said that I don’t create anything. That changed once I began to understand what creativity is.”

            For Braden, creativity spans more than the ability to paint or to sculpt and is not owned by those who would consider themselves to be “creatives.” The accountant can be artist, the mathematician a musician, and the pricing analyst a poet; there is no one size that fits all in the world of human creation. Braden is a student of finance within higher education, but his passion takes him into the world of worship music and vocals, as well as poetry and songwriting.

            “The creation of music has been more an expression than anything,” he said. “I feel that I can get my thoughts out in a way that I wouldn’t be able to if I were just thinking them through but getting them down and trying to put them into a form that is straightforward helps me process them.

            It does not stop there. Braden does not want his life to be defined by how well he performs in a financial career or business endeavor, nor does he hope to set a standard of excellence in music performance or creation. The heartbeat of everything he pours out onto that desk’s surface is his desire to add value, not to his own life but to those he is surrounded by.

            “There’s a quote that I really like that my dad says a lot [by Zig Ziglar] that says, ‘you can have everything in life you want if you can help enough people get what they want.’ If I’m not helping people get what they want, then what is the purpose?” Braden said.

            The value Braden adds is not found in high numerical figures or in complex musical numbers; it is by recognizing the skills he has, looking for a need that exists in people’s lives, and then endeavoring to fill that need for the lowest cost possible. It is an analytical perspective and one that carries the tune of Christ’s servant heart.

            Though a career is in the preparation stage of Braden’s life, serving in the local church is not. Every Wednesday night, he chooses to spend time with the seventh-grade boys in his church’s youth group, a gang that is full of energy as well as spiritual potential.

            “We can make a space where they can have fun and feel welcomed by people,” Braden said. “We got to lead one of them to Christ last semester and there have been a couple of them who have written us letters or have told us that we have been a huge influence in their lives and are really shaping their walk with the Lord.”

            Braden has dedicated this in-between stage of life to the serving of those who are younger than him, as well as to the nurturing of his family and friendships. Though the future is uncertain, there is one thing he can be sure of: he can always add value to other people right where he is.

            The desk beneath Braden’s window is messy. Finance textbooks, bank registers, and business plans blend with musical scores, handwritten poems, and worship music. Yet above it all there sits a calling that cannot be typed or bound; a calling to leave people better than he found them, to add life to the barren, and to be the hands and feet of Jesus, who stooped to serve rather than to be served.