The Hope of the Gospel for Our Stress at Work

Psalm 3:3

But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

COVID-19 AND OUR COLLECTIVE STRESS PROBLEM

Stressed. Tired. Exhausted. Anxious. 

America has been reckoning with the cost of hyperproductivity long before 2020. However, the myriad effects of the pandemic— job loss, fragile employment status, complications for working parents, and forced changes in nearly all industries—have only further exacerbated our problems with stress. In a survey conducted by a mental health provider, nearly 7 in 10 employees indicated that the pandemic is the most stressful time of their entire professional career. According to this same study, 88% of workers reported experiencing moderate to extreme stress over the past 4 to 6 weeks. At face value, the situation is bleak at best. 

“Beyond the cheap platitudes and bumper sticker slogans, what is the firm hope that the Gospel provides for our anxious hearts as we work in a broken world? ”

However, as Christians, we know that our ultimate hope is found not in our circumstances but in Jesus Christ. Despite this truth, it can be difficult for Christians to apply this hope to their daily work.

How does God’s redemption story for our work offer us a respite from the day-to-day grind that leaves us catching our breath? Beyond the cheap platitudes and bumper sticker slogans, what is the firm hope that the Gospel provides for our anxious hearts as we work in a broken world?

THREE TIMELY ENCOURAGEMENTS FROM SCRIPTURE

God has a better story for our work than the frantic busyness of the world around us. We find deep-seated comfort in the unchangeable truths of the Gospel. Here are three realities that offer us a rest in the thick of our weariness.

1) God uses our difficulty at work to teach us child-like dependence on Him.

In God’s original design for work, one of the primary ways we imitate our Creator is through our labor. While our work is now plagued by “thorns and thistles” (Genesis 3:18), these difficulties are the clay with which God forms us. Paul famously writes these words in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

“Our tendency is to minimize what is hurting us without considering how it is forming us.”

The great reversal in the last verse runs counter to how we often think in the Western world. We act so pain is to be avoided at all costs. Our tendency is to minimize what is hurting us without considering how it is forming us. However, as Paul explains, the pathway of discipleship runs through our day-to-day frustrations and failures, including at work, not around them.

What if we began to embrace this at work? How might we experience our jobs differently if we saw our stressful sales quotas, demanding deadlines, and even our failures as opportunities for God to teach us to depend solely on Him? While believing this won’t make our stress immediately disappear, this perspective on our challenges will allow us to see the redemptive value of work even on our most difficult days. In moments of disorientation, our facades of self-sufficiency are torn down, and we come face-to-face with our child-like dependence on God. 

2) Your ultimate value is not in your productivity at work but in your identity as God’s beloved.

For many of us, the idea that work is done both with and for God may feel foreign when living in a Western culture that prizes individualism and self-sufficiency. It’s no wonder that “stress” and “work” have become almost synonymous in our culture. When our schedule stares back at us in the morning, what do we need to be reminded of to find our strength in God? While producing excellent work is a way that we can honor God and love others, if this pursuit of excellence leads us to equate our worth with our output, we will be crushed under the weight of expectations we’ll never fully live up to. It’s not the desire for excellence that is the problem: it’s our obsession with it. 

“It’s not the desire for excellence that is the problem: it’s our obsession with it. ”

Rather than attempting to outwork the problem, we need a Gospel-centered way of approaching our work. By understanding that we are God’s beloved, made in His image, we can stop the exhausting cycle of trying to prove ourselves through our work and instead find our deepest sense of value in the presence and love of God. We are called to work faithfully, not perfectly. Intentionally reminding ourselves of these realities—in other words, preaching the Gospel to ourselves—helps us step out from under the weight of our own expectations. When our heads are cast down, eyes focused on the tasks ahead of us, it is God who is the lifter of our head (Psalm 3:3).

3) The End of the Story is Redemption.

It can be exhausting to work in a broken world. The effects of the fall are not just individual but also systemic, and for many, we experience stress at work because of the growing list of wrongs that need to be made right. As Christians, we are not afforded the option of turning a blind eye to the brokenness. Whatever it is, we must acknowledge what is broken in our industry, who it affects, and how it affects them. 

Work, given how important it is, can feel overwhelming in the face of the fractured realities that we encounter. While the conviction to address brokenness is Biblical, believing it’s all on our shoulders is not. What if we worked with a vision of eternity in mind? For Christians, this means that we can work knowing how the story ends. The ultimate end, or telos, of the world is in perfect harmony under the rule and reign of God. There is great encouragement to be found in knowing that all things will be made right as God’s kingdom is realized, even as we lament that things are not yet this way and work to change that.

As Stephanie Summers explains, “Knowing what God intends as the end of the story means that every day we can trust God for the results of our work in a world marred by sin.” God’s story of redemption is being weaved every day through our daily work, and we are invited to participate in it, trusting in the end of the story rather than believing we have to achieve it on our own.

THREE QUESTIONS FOR SELF-REFLECTION

Our beliefs can either help alleviate or further exacerbate the stress we experience at work. Below are a few reflection questions to ask yourself to help ground you in truth in the moments you need to be reminded of it the most.

1. What am I feeling right now, and how can I offer these emotions to God in prayer?

2. What am I believing right now, and how might my distorted beliefs be contributing to my stress?

3. What is true about myself, about my work, and about God in this moment?

Our deepest worries at work matter deeply to God. We can find comfort in a Savior who does not casually dismiss our fears or chide us for our anxieties. Instead, God’s intimate response to our stress is that He promises to be with us in the midst of it. 

As A.W. Tozer writes, “God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.” We are invited to find deep rest in our unhurried God as we work faithfully in the world.

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Reimagining Retirement

Anne Bell, a recently-retired researcher at the University of Northern Colorado, spent one of her first years after retirement volunteering with the 5280 Fellowship, a leadership program for young professionals in Denver. Bright and soft spoken, wearing dark-rimmed glasses that match her innate curiosity, she confessed one day to a group of early career professionals, “I’m really searching for what I’m called to,” she confessed, wiping a tear from her check. “I just want to know what’s next.”

“... we first need to understand the culture surrounding retirement and the stories that shape our perceptions about work, rest, age, and meaning.”

The world is undergoing a massive demographic shift.  Nearly 80 million Baby Boomers will retire in the next 20 years, at a rate of nearly 10,000 per day. By 2035, Americans of retirement age will exceed the number of people under age 18 for the first time in U.S history. Globally, the number of people age 60 and over is projected to double to more than 2 billion by 2050.

But today a growing number of baby Boomers – both Christians and their neighbors – are discontent with current cultural assumptions about retirement.

Decoding the Culture of Retirement: Three Postures

Retirement is an idea with a history. And to understand our purpose, we first need to understand the culture surrounding retirement and the stories that shape our perceptions about work, rest, age, and meaning.

The history of retirement began in America around the idea of a never-ending vacation. Using that theme, here are three postures toward retirement that dominate headlines today:  

1.    Let’s vacation.

Today, the dominant paradigm of retirement is about vacation – how to afford it, and then how to spend it. A Google search for the word retirement shows articles, ads, and tips on how to save enough money for retirement, and a host of books on how to enjoy it: How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free, 101 Fun Things to Do in Retirement, and Design Your Dream Retirement. Retirement gifts follow suit: a coffee mug that reads “Goodbye Tension, Hello Pension.” A kitchen wall-hanging with the acronym for R.E.T.I.R.E says Relax, Entertain, Travel, Indulge, Read, Enjoy. The wine glass that reads, “I can wine all I want. I’m retired.”

A more whimsical version of the Let’s vacation paradigm includes the Red Hat Society, an international women’s organization for women over 50 inspired by Jenny Joseph’s poem, “Warning.”

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me,
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
and say we've no money for butter.

I’ve been good long enough, so goes the train of thought. Time to let loose and enjoy life. I deserve a vacation.

2. I can’t afford to vacation.

If the dominant paradigm for retirement today is a never-ending vacation, the fastest growing group of retirees are those who know they can’t afford to vacation.

He’s not alone. The economic problems facing most Americans at retirement are mounting. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College estimates that 52% of Americans may not be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement, which it defines as an income not more than 10% below the replacement rate (65-85% of their previous income). To make that concrete, the average retirement assets of those aged 50-59 in 2013 were just $110,000, yet they need $250,000 just to generate $10,000 in annual income.

If the great American dream is “financial freedom” in a blissful retirement, the great American frustration is that such a dream is out of reach for the majority.

3. Vacation isn’t as satisfying as world-changing.

Quickly pushing out the Let’s vacation paradigm is a widespread movement toward “encore careers.” Led by the talented Marc Freedman, author books like of Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life and Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America, the story about retirement is shifting away from leisure toward social entrepreneurship and civic engagement.

“Retirement needs a new story. Or better yet, a very old story. ”

But there are three weaknesses to this movement. First, it often overlooks the realities of aging. Backs ache. Bodies change. Funerals become a regularity. Time changes us all.

Second, baby boomers are human (like all of us) – which means they are beautiful yet flawed. Saying that the Boomer Generation is a great solution to our social ills belies what we know about ourselves. We’re deposed royalty, says Blaise Pascal, and when we’re honest, we’re drawn to greed as much as generosity, sloth as much as diligence, cowardice as much as courage.

The third problem with movements that stress social change as a story for retirement has to do with the human longing for purpose. Over a generation ago, Bob Buford wrote the best-selling book Halftime, which coined the phrase “from success to significance.” I asked Fred Smith, the president of The Gathering, an annual conference for Christian philanthropists, what he thought about the idea of significance. “It’s like drinking salt water,” he said. “Looking for significance from external things is still competing for somebody else’s ‘OK.’ It just leaves you thirsty.” 

The motivation behind our service is critical. If it’s merely to solve social issues, we will always find more to issues to solve and that we have never done enough. Ironically, the same exhausting treadmill from our careers can follow us into “more meaningful” work.

Ethel Percy Andrus, the founder of the American Association of Retired Persons (now just AARP) established the organization’s motto as “To Serve, Not to Be Served.” If we listen carefully, in the world’s largest nonprofit organization we can still hear the echoes of one who “gave his life as a ransom for many.”

Retirement needs a new story. Or better yet, a very old story. 

Wisdom and Blessing

Gary VanderArk is a not-so-retired physician living in south Denver. In his late 70s, he continues to teach five classes of medical students at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, serve on nearly a dozen nonprofit boards, and bike almost 20 miles a day. Gary was also the founder of Doctors Care, a nonprofit that has helped thousands of Colorado’s medically underserved.

If anybody has a “right” to hang up his cleats and slow down, it’s Dr. VanderArk. Yet when I interviewed him about what motivates him, he said with a broad grin, “Well, I believe it’s more blessed to give than to receive. I’m enjoying myself too much to stop.”

“What’s most needed after a lifetime of work (and often toil) is to take a season of deep sabbath rest.”

White hair, bony fingers, and frail voice, to some Gary may seem “old.” But when you speak with him, he seems almost carefree, like a child on Christmas morning. He acknowledges human frailty and death, yet keeps serving others as if death is of no concern to him. He keeps teaching and sitting on nonprofit boards not because of social duty, but instead out of sheer delight. He is quick to listen and slow to speak. His words hold genuine gravitas. He is like “the righteous [who] flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon…They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,” (Ps. 92:12-14).

George MacDonald once wrote, “Old age is not all decay. It is the ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within that withers and bursts the husk.” This is Gary VanderArk.

Gary, like many of God’s people through the ages, isn’t living in a story that culminates on the seventh day, the traditional Jewish day of rest. The story he lives in culminates on Sunday morning. It is the first day of the week. It’s the dawn of a new world.

“What am I going to do with my retirement?” asks Anne Bell, and generation of Baby Boomers entering into a new phase of life. To answer that question, the first thing to do after retirement is not to travel, volunteer, or find a new career.

What’s most needed after a lifetime of work (and often toil) is to take a season of deep sabbath rest.

This article is an adapted excerpt from Jeff Haanen’s An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life. Jeff is the executive director of Denver Institute for Faith & Work and lives with his wife and four daughters in Littleton, Colorado.

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How to Transition Well at Work

What does it look like to transition well?

If you’ve been in the workforce for even just a few years, this question will have entered your periphery at some point.

In 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated the average worker will hold 10 different jobs before the age of 40, with that number only anticipated to grow.

Given the boom of the gig economy in recent years as well, transition at work is not a matter of if, but when, for everyone in the workforce.

The days, for most, of working 40 years in a singular vocation and role and retiring with a gold watch in hand are long gone.

So if transition is inevitable, how do we overcome the tensions and trust God in the wake of vocational disruption?

Transition Tension

Sometimes the transitions happen to us, but other times the pursuit of ultimate fulfillment through our work drives our discontented career shifts.

In his 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, Steve Jobs offered words of insight that have defined vocational pursuits for many over the past decade.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do,” Jobs said. “If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.”

There is much truth we can derive from Jobs’ insights. The idea of pursuing, developing, and cultivating the passions and skills God has placed on our hearts and leveraging them for the betterment of the common good for all is incredibly biblical.

But this discontentment has fueled much job-hopping. Instead of seeking to see work as a means of serving my neighbor, we see work as a means to serve our own agenda. We lose sight of what work was intended to be when we pursue it for our own gain.

While discontentment surely fuels many of the transitions we experience, sometimes job switches happen to us unexpectedly.

Recently John Oliver focused a segment on his Last Week Tonight show on “job automation” and the effects things like automation are having on the workforce.

The piece was enlightening as it laid forth the reality for many in the workforce: transition, loss, and failure are a reality for many as the economy continues to shift in the U.S. and across the world.

“Automation is not going to stop,” Oliver said. “Some people are going to lose their jobs. So we should help those who do and prepare the next generation for the possibility that they may need to be more flexible in their career plans.”

Flexibility in career planning is not merely a nicety for vocational thriving, it has now become a necessity for the future workforce.

When things like our occupation, financial security, and pride are all shaken to the core, it can be hard to trust God’s plans are designed “to prosper you and not to harm you” and are “plans to give you hope and a future” as Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us.

An antidote to our moments of unbelief lies in remembering and proclaiming. We must remember the faithful God who has called us and proclaim that truth to our own hearts.

Transition Reimagined

A 2018 Harvard Business Review article titled “Learn to Get Better at Transitions” unpacks a few practical points on finding ways to live proactively in light of the transition-rich reality of our work.

“Longevity means that, more than ever, we need to plan for change,” the author writes. “Using the gift of decades requires acknowledging their existence and deciding what you want to do with them.”

To transition well we must remind ourselves of the Biblical storyline to best find our place in it and put our tensions in context. In fact, the Bible makes it abundantly clear transitions will be present.

But instead of allowing these times of tumult to drag us down, we would do well to reimagine these new seasons as fresh mercies of God to trust him anew.

This is not to shove down the emotional, financial, and physical toll a job transition can bring. Those are real and present realities.

But part of anchoring one’s hope in the gospel means we don’t see our vocational successes or failures as core to our identity. It is out of our status as children of God that we confidently work out the “good works he has prepared for us” as Ephesians 2:10 tells us.

It is God who goes before us in preparing the works of our hands. We are all made in the image of the creator, and by extension, we bring his image and character to bear in his world by living out his commandments and trusting him in each and every season.

In my own life, it’s been the moments of deep transition (from high school to college, college to the workforce, from the workforce to seminary) that I’ve felt most discombobulated and most reliant on this God who goes before me.

The tension of vocational transition provides a place for us to trust God in a new and deeper way.

May we take this hope to bear as we walk through each season of life the Lord grants.

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Gage Arnold

Gage Arnold is currently a Master's of Divinity Student at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO., and the Communications Director at the Center for Faith and Work Los Angeles (CFWLA). He is formerly a founding team member of the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work (NIFW) and a 2014 graduate of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where he studied journalism and electronic media. Gage is also an alumni of both NIFW's Gotham Fellowship and the Nashville Fellows Program. Above all else, he finds joy in telling and hearing the stories of others.

Four Common Standards for Integrating Faith and Work in Local Congregations

How will the Church in the 21st century “equip the saints for works of service” (Eph. 4:12) for the vast challenges we face in the world today? This seems overwhelming at first blush. But then I remember that God’s people are touching every area of our cities through their daily work, and it’s the Church’s privilege and responsibility to send them to be agents of healing through their vocations.

I recently had the privilege of learning from Matt Rusten, Executive Director of the Made to Flourish Pastors Network. On a call for other leaders in the faith-and-work movement, Rusten and Jeff Haanen, executive director of Denver Institute for Faith & Work, discussed the possibility of leaders and churches agreeing upon a set of minimum standards for the integration of faith and work in local congregations. They discussed that “faith and work” isn’t an “add on” ministry, but instead a vision for the sending of God’s people that should be integral to every church’s philosophy of ministry.

Rusten presented a compelling list of four practices that I believe could be a common starting point for churches that embrace historic teachings about vocation. As presented by Rusten, the four practices intersect with four distinct areas of congregational life: corporate worship, pastoral practice, discipleship/spiritual formation, and mission/outreach.

Here’s a brief summary of each of the four practices:

Four Common Standards for Integrating Faith and Work in Local Congregations

1. Corporate Worship: Pastoral Prayers for Workers (1x per month)

• Pray specifically for congregants’ working lives.

  • General liturgical prayers

  • Vocation-specific prayers

  • Commissioning prayers

2. Pastoral Practice: Workplace Visitation (1x per month)

• Visit parishioner’s workplaces.

  • Onsite - non-participatory

  • Onsite - participatory

  • Offsite

    • Meetings

    • Sermon prep 

3. Discipleship/Spiritual Formation: Vocational Interviews in Small Groups (regularly)

• Interview congregants about their daily work. (Use the following sample questions.)

  • Give us a picture of a day in the life of your work.

  • What unique opportunities do you have to love your neighbor through your work?

  • Where do you experience the brokenness of the world in your work?

  • How can we pray for you?

4. Mission/Outreach: Asset Mapping Exercise (annual)

• Conduct a congregational survey about the varying assets a congregation has that can be deployed for community benefit.

  • Physical/space assets

  • Financial assets

  • Networks

  • Human capital

  • Community

Below is the full presentation by Matt Rusten (from about 4:18 to 19:00) and transcript of the City Gate call. In addition, here’s a simple asset mapping survey that local churches can use.

 We at the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work heartily commend each of these practices in our network, and eagerly look forward to working with local churches to better equip the saints for works of service.

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How God Uses our Failures at Work

Let’s face it. Fear of failure at work is a struggle for almost all of us, regardless of our gender, race, or economic status. I know it has been a struggle for me at times. The fear of doing or saying something wrong that threatens our reputation or employment security makes us anxious.

“Failures get our attention.”

For those of us who own their own business, the thought of it failing can be overwhelming. We don’t want to let our families, our employees, or our customers down. And we sure don’t want the discomfort of financial and reputational ruin. As Christians, we don’t want to let God down.

The Bible teaches us that failure is one of the main tools God uses to make us more Christ like. He transforms us through these experiences if we allow Him to do so. In addition, God sometimes opens up new opportunities to serve Him.

Failure is Transformational

Gene Veith, in God at Work, provides an astute observation: “Failures in vocation happen all the time. Wise statesmen find themselves voted out of office. Noble generals lose the war. Workers lose their jobs, maybe because they are not good at what they do, despite what they thought.”

Failures get our attention. They cause us to reevaluate our spiritual maturity. God often uses the failures we experience to humble us, remind us of our limitations, make us more willing to depend on God, submit to His commands, and remain open to His leading in our lives.

The Apostle Peter gives us some hope, reminding us of God’s restorative power after we have been broken: “And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:10).

Failures Open New Doors of Service

One who failed miserably at work was the late Chuck Colson. He was one of President Nixon’s most trusted staff members. After the Watergate scandal, Colson went to prison. It was during this time the Lord began working on his heart and prompted Colson to begin the Prison Fellowship.

As a direct result of his imprisonment, he became one of the most influential Christian leaders of our modern times. He was radically transformed through his failure, enabling him to minister to many because of his deep understanding of God’s grace, forgiveness, and transforming power.

I am reminded of my own failures at work. I was let go from a church youth ministry position in July 1985. During the first few days of summer vacation, the senior pastor called me at home and asked me to come in for a meeting. He informed me that the church no longer needed me to be the youth director. I had been fired.

However, God had a greater purpose in mind. This providential detour in my career set in motion an unexpected vocational journey that God eventually worked out for my good and for His glory. As a result of being fired, God redirected my life’s work by nudging me to consider joining the military (which I did in February 1986). I spent 20 years on active duty, and 33 years later, I still work for the US Army as a Department of the Army civilian.

I was able to serve God in a greater capacity than I would have experienced in full-time vocational Christian ministry.

“Jesus died a criminal’s death, seen by many as a man who was a total failure. That is, until Easter Sunday, when the empty tomb confirmed His victory.”

Stories of Failure in Scripture

We read many examples of men and women in the Bible who failed, only to be an illustration of God’s power to transform and open new doors.

A well-known illustration of how God transformed failure at work is King David. His moral failures were his own doing. He committed adultery and murder. He chose poorly and suffered the consequences of his decisions. Ultimately, he repented and confessed his sin (see Ps. 51:1-4).  Despite his sins, God called David “a man after His own heart,” and used him to pen much of the book of Psalms.

What about someone who was perceived as failing to the world’s standards, yet they were doing what God had called them to do? It is common to see someone labeled as a fool or failure because they are working counter-culturally in line with the Gospel.

The one that best illustrates this is Jesus. The religious establishment of the day treated Him as an enemy. They misunderstood Him. They persecuted Him, tried to trap Him, arrested Him, and eventually shouted to the Romans, “Crucify Him!”

Jesus died a criminal’s death, seen by many as a man who was a total failure. That is, until Easter Sunday, when the empty tomb confirmed His victory.

The Apostle Peter reminds the early church and us how to respond when we experience the kind of undeserved suffering that Jesus went through. Peter instructs us to live good lives in order to overshadow the false accusations they may make about us (1 Pet. 2:12). He exhorts us to submit to our employers, even those who give us a hard time (1 Pet. 2:18). He said it was a good thing when we endure “the pain of unjust suffering” as Jesus did (1 Pet. 2:19-21). Peter taught that we should not be surprised when we suffer for our faith; we are to rejoice (1 Pet. 4:12-13).

“... our God is more powerful, sovereign, and loving than our failures.”

How Does God Work Through Failure?

Below are a few biblical principles on how to handle our failures at work:

• Do not be surprised by failures; we do not know what a new day may bring (Prov. 27:1);

• If we think that we cannot fail, our pride will inevitably cause us to fall (1 Cor. 10:12);

• When our failures are due to our own sin, we need to repent and confess it to God (1 John 1:9); be reconciled and confess our sin to others as appropriate (Matt. 5:23-24);

• When we do fail, we need to rest in God’s promise to work out all things for His children, even failures, for our good and for His glory (Rom. 8:28);

• God makes us more compassionate as a result of our failures; it opens doors to pass on the comfort we received from God in our situation to those in the same situation (2 Cor. 1:3-4).

My prayer is that these truths will comfort the ones of us who need comfort and empower the ones who need the courage to press on or take that leap of faith into a new chapter in your spiritual career journey.

Trust that our God is more powerful, sovereign, and loving than our failures.

(Author’s note: Portions of this article were taken from my book, Immanuel Labor – God’s Presence in our Profession: A Biblical, Theological, and Practical Approach to the Doctrine of Work, published by WestBow Press, 2018.)

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We are honored to have Russell E. Gehrlein as a guest contributor in this month’s newsletter. Russ is a former youth pastor and a junior/high school math and science teacher. In 2006, he retired from over 20 years of active duty in the US Army in the rank of Master Sergeant. He currently works as a Department of the Army civilian at the US Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

A potential antidote to workism

A Gotham alum’s response to The Atlantic's article on workism.

Bob Dylan once sang, “It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody.”

How prophetic those words are to us today in our workplaces.

In a culture of surplus, globalization, technological advancements and a booming gig economy, wouldn’t it be plausible to expect freedom from the captivity of productivity?

Shouldn’t this supposed freedom lead to a recapturing of peaceful shalom and mark a return to Aristotle-esque philosophical leisure?

In Derek Thompson’s latest essay for The Atlantic he outlines a phenomenon faced in the modern workforce: our newfound worship of work not simply as a means for economic advancement but as something core to a person’s identity.

Now the notion of workism, as Thompson calls it, isn’t new at all. People throughout history have been known to work themselves to the bone. Work has always had the potential to be used as a means of numbing or escaping from present realities. Our loves have always been disordered as we approach our work in a broken world.

But what’s frightening in Thompson’s essay are the ways this pervasive bowing down to work has permeated the culture-at-large.

No longer is helping others (81%) or getting married (47%) a core driver for the Millennial generation, according to a Pew Research Report. The newfound goal is having a job or career they enjoy (95%).

“Finding meaning at work,” Thompson writes, “beats family and kindness as the top ambition of today’s young people.”

Thompson helpfully points out that with declining interests in formal religions in the West we’ve seen an uptick in workers putting the identical weight of religious efforts, devotion, and belief into their work.

Work has become our God.

“The decline of traditional faith in America has coincided with an explosion of new atheisms,” Thompson writes. “Some people worship beauty, some worship political identities, and others worship their children. But everybody worships something. And workism is among the most potent of the new religions competing for congregants.”

But what is it costing us?

From a Biblical perspective, at its core work was deemed inherently good before the man’s rebellion in Genesis 3. Now, it bears the marks of enmity given Adam and Eve’s rebellion and mankind’s subsequent sinful nature (Gen. 3:15). The thistles and thorns of our work are felt each and every day (Gen. 3:18). What was intended to be an outlet for glorious image-bearing—mirroring God’s character into the world for His glory—has now become a reminder from where we have fallen and the consequences for man’s disobedience.

So as we look into the workforce, what is the antidote for our unhealthy workism?

We Were Born Sick

A recent Gallup poll revealed 87 percent of worldwide workers are not engaged in their work.

“Our jobs were never meant to shoulder the burdens of a faith,” Thompson writes, “and they are buckling under the weight.”

He’s right. The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes outlines this excellently. Bookended by the notion that our efforts to indulge in all the world has to offer will feel like “vanity” and a “striving after the wind,” the writer names existence as it is.

Compared to some notions of art or society that make an effort to prescribe a quick-fix, Ecclesiastes describes life as it is. And it’s not all pretty.

“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it,” Ecclesiastes 2:11 reads, “and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

Commentaries note the word “considered” means to “look something right in the eye.” By seeing it as it really is—squeezing work, life, experiences for all they are worth—the writer lets us see it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.

The heart behind a generation of dreamers lost in efforts to seek ascension through the works of our hands is misplaced but comes from a place of goodness. Can you hear it?

In the efforts of using work to find our identity, it’s often masked with the notion of making the world better. There is a biblical drive in the hearts of workers, even if it’s misappropriated in application.

We want the allure and blessings of God without God himself. This is something we all face. Whether it’s independence, added responsibility, financial flexibility, or a few extra letters (VP, CFO, etc.) by our name for our own benefit, we all fall into the trap of seeking our work to serve our own ends.

Pastor Tim Keller helps us understand we fall into this pit of idolatry anytime we take a good gift from God and make it ultimate in our hearts and lives.

Our desks, Thompson writes, were never meant to serve as our altars. A collateral effect of a life filled to the brim with work is a loss of leisure.

In his book Leisure, the Basis of Culture, 20th-century German philosopher Josef Pieper made a defense for the workaholism modern-day workers find themselves in.

“Leisure,” he writes, “is not justified in making the functionary as ‘trouble-free’ in operation as possible, with minimum ‘downtime,’ but rather in keeping the functionary human … and this means that the human being does not disappear into the parceled-out world of his limited work-a-day function, but instead remains capable of taking in the world as a whole, and thereby to realize himself as a being who is oriented toward the whole of existence.”

In essence, Pieper argues we lose what it means to be human when we lose the necessity of rest.

So in our efforts to find ourselves through success, drive, and accomplishments, could it be that instead of solving our identity issues we’ve simply created more?

Cure for Workism

Without the checks and balances of leisure and rest, we’re leaving our vocations to bear weight they were never intended to carry.

Instead of crushing it, our work is crushing us. So how can we escape the spiral?

We must remember that although we were created to work, it was never intended to be core to our identity.

“One solution to this epidemic of disengagement would be to make work less awful,” Thompson writes. “But maybe the better prescription is to make work less central.”

In the opening chapters of Genesis we see Adam living in harmony and working the land (Gen. 2:15), just as God commanded him in Genesis 1:27. This even continued through Adam’s taxonomy of the animals that God graciously invited him to co-labor with him in.

This is what work, at its core, was intended to yield. Following God’s lead by creating structure out of chaos (God created the heavens and earth; Adam creates names and order for the animal kingdom), in an effort to mirror God to every corner of the creation.

This is what we were made for.

But we’ve lost sight of it. In the culture of do more, work faster, hustle harder, the antidote for our plight is complex, yet simple: we must rightly order our loves. Dorothy Sayers helps us understand this by succinctly imploring us to serve the work rather than using it to serve us.

To serve the work means separating it out from the core identity and keeping it in its proper place. Not retreating from the good gift of God, but also not letting it sap our identity as His children.

The writer of Ecclesiastes doesn’t leave us in despair. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,” Ecclesiastes 9:10 reads, “for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.”

Our work, for many, has become our ultimate source of control and identity. But that doesn’t mean we should view work as a lost cause. Instead, by seeking first the Kingdom of God, the rest is added.

As C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”

The cure for workism is not a striving towards securing an identity but rather resting and working out of a secured identity as a child of God.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” Jesus says in Matthew 11.

Instead of plugging our identity into our vocational successes, may we seek to glorify God by working out of our rest and diligently putting our hand to the plow He has placed in front of us. Only then can we utilize work as it was intended—a means of worship to our Creator.

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Gage Arnold

Gage Arnold is currently a Master's of Divinity Student at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO., and the Communications Director at the Center for Faith and Work Los Angeles (CFWLA). He is formerly a founding team member of the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work (NIFW) and a 2014 graduate of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where he studied journalism and electronic media. Gage is also an alumni of both NIFW's Gotham Fellowship and the Nashville Fellows Program. Above all else, he finds joy in telling and hearing the stories of others.

What If My Work Isn’t My Passion?

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Missy Wallace, Founder of NIFW and Vice President & Executive Director of the Global Faith & Work Initiative. This piece was originally published at thegospelcoalition.org.

I was recently asked if it is honoring God to have a “day job that pays the bills” instead of one aligned with your “passions“ Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. We hear this adage over and over, assuming it as a universal truth without analyzing its validity. So I went on a search for the quote’s origin, the science behind passion and work, and what Christianity might say about it all. Because if finding our passion is not, in fact, a path to vocational satisfaction, then what is?

A quick Google search reveals controversy over the quote's origin: Some sources attribute it to Confucius, others to an unnamed teacher highlighted by a Princeton professor in 1982. Whether it originated with an Eastern philosopher 2,000 years ago or an American academician 30 years ago, the quote’s prevalence as a job-search mantra has increased significantly over the last 10 to 20 years. When I was seeking my first full-time job in 1989, not once did the career counseling office at my college ask me about my great loves. And you can be sure my parents did not either. Their concerns were, “Have you found a job? When does it start? Does it pay enough to support you?”

Yet in recent years, nearly every person I’ve talked to about jobs—whether they're 20 and looking for an internship, or 50 and looking for a C-suite transition—somehow reference passion as part of their job search. Google search history affirms the trend: Since 2010, internet searches for “passion at work” have more than doubled, with workers in the United States the most likely to be interested in the topic.

At the same time, Gallup reveals that over two-thirds of the American workforce is disengaged (51 percent) or miserable (16 percent) at work. So if more people are searching for passion in their work, yet most are dissatisfied, where is the disconnect? I propose that both social science and God's Word refute passion as a major job-search criterion.

Here are four principles to bear in mind.

1. “Finding your passion” assumes passion is a fixed and/or inherent quality, whereas social science research suggests it's more of a developing and changing quality. Seeing passion as "fixed" can be limiting. Recently social scientists at Stanford and Yale-National University of Singapore published a paper arguing that passions are cultivated, not discovered. The study claims, “Urging people to find their passion may lead them to put all their eggs in one basket but then to drop that basket when it becomes difficult to carry.”

2. Passions, when channeled into work, often don't translate to giftings. For instance, we all know people who love to cook and might even call themselves passionate about food and cooking. Should they open a restaurant? How many have the skills or natural gifts to manage large numbers of people with various educational levels, have the wiring to work under intense time pressure, and have the financial acumen to create a profitable business in a low-margin industry?

3. Science reveals that turning a passion into paid work can cause it to lose its inherent pleasure. “Research shows that being paid to do something can make it mean less to us," wrote David Silverman, a senior executive at a Fortune 500 company. "By turning something enjoyable, like a jigsaw puzzle or a knitting project, into a paid activity, we turn hours of freely given effort into a commodity. It’s no longer a labor of love; it’s $10 an hour. The intangible nature of pleasure that derives from the activity is lost.”

4. Scripture reveals that even though God created us to take dominion and create productive flourishing, all work includes toil, regardless of its alignment with our interest and giftings. In secular verbiage, “work” is called “work” because it is “work.” The only people I've ever met who claim they “never worked a day in their lives” are ones reflecting back on their careers—and perhaps forgetting the difficulties the way a mother forgets the pain of labor. But those in the trenches, no matter how "called" they feel or how much they adore their work, almost always admit to its challenges and brokenness.

So if passions can evolve over time, are sometimes divorced from our natural giftings, and can lose their sense of pleasure if they become paid work, what should we consider in our job selections?

Of all the books I've read about career discernment, I find a section of Os Guinness’s The Call to be incredibly clarifying and encouraging. First, Guinness encourages us to think of having a “Caller” before a “calling.” So as you consider your work and your passions, are you considering what your Caller wants for you and how you can serve him by advancing his kingdom?

Guinness goes on to explain that we're all awaiting our “call” on a megaphone, yet very few receive it with such crystal clarity. Without the certainty, therefore, we should consider our gifting and circumstance. Weighing our abilities and our situations allows for incredible vocational inspiration and hope, while at the same time honoring financial needs, relationships, geographic constraints, educational access, and more.

So, as a very long-winded way to answer the tension between provisional duty and passion,, I heartily endorse “a less exciting ‘day job’ that pays the bills when needed. Are some people thoroughly enjoying their work? Certainly so, but let’s stop seeking that as the imperative goal.

I encourage you to assess the following:

• What are your gifts and wirings?  Do you know? There are many aptitude tests available, but one that is highly accessible online at a low price point is YouScience. There, you can learn how your unique aptitudes properly equip you for thousands of jobs.

• What are your immediate circumstances? Consider your finances, relationships, geographic location, and education.

• Which of your circumstances do you desire to change, and which do you see as fixed?

• Given your current situation, your desired future circumstances, and your unique abilities, how does your Caller nudge you to work?

• How can you reframe your perspective about work? Have you considered how you can serve the work instead of looking for the work to serve you (as Dorothy Sayers asks in “Why Work?”)?

I'm thankful we live in a world where discussion about vocational fulfillment and satisfaction is even possible, as the privilege of choosing work is a first-world opportunity that reflects a movement from scarcity to abundance. While God may enable us to work for him in our "sweet spot," we must acknowledge and steward the gift of that choice, remembering that our only true fulfillment is in him.

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Work: Can we hate it enough to change it, yet love it enough to think it worth changing?

“Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound;
and the more it is bound the less it is blind.”
- G.K. Chesterton

In the busy grind of work, sometimes we need an awakening to the paradoxes of following Jesus in the marketplace. One Christian writer who brought that awakening for me is the British journalist and theologian, G.K. Chesterton. C.S. Lewis claimed Chesterton as a spiritual father. “If I were stranded on a desert island and could bring only one book apart from the Bible, it would be Chesterton’s Orthodoxy,” wrote author Philip Yancey. When I first read Orthodoxy, I knew I would be getting in deep waters, but I couldn’t have known how challenging one chapter called “The Flag of the World” would be for my faith. In that chapter, Chesterton pounds you with a paradox that I believe lies at the heart of the intersection of faith and work. I want to suggest some implications of this paradox for work.

“When you love a thing, it’s gladness is a reason for loving it, but its sadness is a reason for loving it more,” says Chesterton. Love is an unconditional commitment; it is bound. But that commitment is also the basis of our deepest criticism; it is not blind. Chesterton explains this paradox in a marital illustration. In his customary wit, he writes, “A man’s friend likes him but leaves him as he is; his wife loves him and is always trying to turn him into somebody else.” Whether you are a husband or wife, I bet you can relate! In our workplace or within our industries, we can hate the dysfunctional relationships or systemic brokenness, but we also belong and are bound to our work and our workplace. To be a change agent in our work, we need what Bonhoeffer called a kind of “this-worldliness” to our faith. I want to suggest three practical applications of this paradox: in leading others, in giving feedback, and in staying connected to people.

First, compassion is the foundation of any effort to lead change. Chesterton warns about the error of the optimist and the pessimist. The pessimist finds error but “does not love what he chastises.” She is like the person who claims to “just be honest” and at the same time is hiding the fact that she takes pleasure in saying unpleasant things. The optimist is more inclined to defending than reforming; they want thriving without conflict. To lead, we need both the optimist and the pessimist on our team. We need to say to our colleagues, “we are so committed to you that we think you can be better.” I remember the challenge of a newly hired faculty member during a time of low morale at a university where I worked. He was observing how few stickers of the university he saw on cars in the parking lot. This was a small thing, but it told a big truth: we had not planted our flag. Leaders point out when our criticisms lack loyalty and when our commitment shields us from change.

“Do we have it in us to stay engaged and committed to those in the world that we sharply disagree? Can we keep a critical and loyal connection instead of a distanced debate? You may be thinking politics, but this is for our industries and workplaces. Innovative teams mix critical debate and camaraderie. A sign of organizational health is the degree to which “troublemakers” are protected.”

The second implication is how we give difficult feedback. Think about the last time you felt disgusted with someone’s behavior: did you feel committed to that person at the same time? There is something darkly insistent in human nature about distancing ourselves from those with whom we find fault. When we give difficult feedback to our employees and co-workers, our feedback is not Christian if we don’t do it with a genuine and consistent loyalty to their well-being as people. Research on giving healthy feedback finds that correction and critique is only helpful if the giver conveys to the receiver that he/she belongs here, that we have high expectations, and that they have what it takes to reach those expectations. To grow and be productive, people need feedback that is specific and shared in the context of unconditional safety and connection. When you have a criticism, get right to it, but find a way to convey it with the context of commitment to them as people. Believe in them and show it.

Our intentional connection to those with whom we may sharply disagree is a third application. G.K. Chesterton wrote during the time of the philosophical movements of fascism, determinism, Darwinism, and the eugenics movement in the early 20th Century. Among Chesterton’s best friends were the atheist playwright George Bernard Shaw and the socialist writer H.G. Wells. He was not only in literary conversation with the philosophical ideas of his day, but in personal contact with the people who held them. It seemed to be authentically part of his “this-worldliness”. It was also the source of his harshest criticism. Do we have it in us to stay engaged and committed to those in the world that we sharply disagree? Can we keep a critical and loyal connection instead of a distanced debate? You may be thinking politics, but this is for our industries and workplaces. Innovative teams mix critical debate and camaraderie. A sign of organizational health is the degree to which “troublemakers” are protected.

Chesterton’s challenge for us a century later is beautifully summed up in these lines,

“We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe as at once an ogre’s castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening.”

For our work, the question Chesterton poses is “can we hate it enough to change it, yet love it enough to think it worth changing?” Leaders like Gandhi and King that have shown us that apathy, not hate, is the opposite of love. It is when we disengage from one other and that we all lose. We see apathy show up when people are uncritically loyal or when we criticize while keeping distance. In our apathy, workplaces can be filled with harsh critique or fearful acquiescence. When we love our work, our sense of accomplishment and contribution is a reason to love it, but its brokenness is a reason to love it more.

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Josh Hayden is a guest contributor for the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work (NIFW). Josh has almost 20 years administrative and university teaching experience and is a leadership consultant awaiting his departure to work as an educator in Western Europe with Global Scholars. He is an alumni of the Gotham program, NIFW’s nine-month faith and work intensive.

On Success

Being first usually implies victory: a deal closed, a battle won, a goal accomplished. It is a typical benchmark in the working world. But as Christians, how do we reconcile success when Jesus clearly calls the least, the last, and the lowly?

“It’s not just coming out on top, but also being the first to listen, to apologize, and to make amends in the mundanity of office life.”

Our goal for work cannot be society’s template for success: win at all costs, climb higher, work longer and harder. Work becomes all-consuming. Preaching a sermon on work, Tim Keller says, “You will not have a meaningful life without work but work cannot be the meaning of your life.”

As Christians, the very notion of success is turned on its head in the finished work of Jesus. Christ’s work on the cross was only for the last, the least, and the lowly. Said another way, anyone with a pulse. Because of His selfless act, we no longer ask, “where can I succeed?” Instead, we ask, “Where can I serve?” It's not just coming out on top, but also being the first to listen, to apologize, and to make amends in the mundanity of office life. Instead of wondering when the next bonus will come, we can ask, “where is the darkness in my work and how can I shed light?” Or, “How can I model excellence in my specific line of work?”

Christ never promised the success of His people in the eyes of the world. He has promised something far better; that He would return and renew all things, including our work. To that end we labor unto glory; our success fueled in simple faithfulness to the King of this world and the work that happens within it.

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Why Does Labor Day Matter To Christians?

Someone who knows my passion for the theology of work recently asked me an excellent question - “What makes Labor Day significant for Christians?”  

Let me provide a brief backdrop of the history and meaning of this holiday, and then illustrate why Christians should wholeheartedly celebrate this holiday.

A day to celebrate labor

I did a little research to find out why we celebrate Labor Day in the U.S. on the first Monday in September.  Wikipedia states that the holiday “honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws and well-being of the country.”[1]

Reading further, I am reminded that during the trade union movement in the late 1800s, it was suggested that there be a holiday to celebrate the laborer.  Shortly thereafter, in 1887, it is reported that the first state to make it a public holiday was Oregon. Over the next seven years, thirty states had begun to celebrate Labor Day, and it was deemed a federal holiday in 1894.[2]

Certainly, Christ-followers should celebrate the many social reforms that came out of the labor movement, which resulted in establishing child labor laws, guaranteeing more livable wages and safer working conditions for all.  It should be obvious to the Christian that this movement was biblically appropriate, considering the Lord’s concern for the least, the lost, and the last. Solomon observes in Proverbs 29:7 that the righteous care about justice for the poor.  This implies that Christians should speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, defending the rights of the poor and needy.  (See also Proverbs 31:8–9.)

“It should be obvious to the Christian that this [Labor] movement was biblically appropriate, considering the Lord’s concern for the least, the lost, and the last.”

Work matters because it matters to God

There are hundreds of Bible verses that address some aspect of work.  

In Genesis, we see in the creation story that depicts God as a worker.  He calls humans to work with Him to expand His handiwork. We also see the downside of work, where Adam’s sin brought a curse on work, making it unnecessarily difficult and resulting in sweat, unfruitfulness, and disharmony among workers.  In the Old Testament (OT) narratives, we read about well-known men and women who successfully integrated their faith in God at work—Moses, Joseph, Ruth, David, and Nehemiah. We also read about ordinary people such as Bezalel and Oholiab, who were called and gifted to work with God in the construction of the tabernacle.  We find principles on how we should work from the OT writings (Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes). The prophets give us some insights about the future of human work in the new creation.

In the New Testament, we read what Jesus taught about work in the Gospels, as well as what Paul and others wrote in their epistles.  We see how Jesus redeems and transforms workers. Finally, the book of Revelation has some things to teach us about the eternal value of our work.
 

Work matters because God upholds His creation and brings shalom through our work

Our Creator sustains His creation mostly through human labor.  

God created us as His coworkers with various talents so that He could meet all of the complex physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of people.  God loves people through human work. Tim Keller confirms this in his book, Every Good Endeavor. He reminds us, “God’s loving care comes to us largely through the labor of others.  Work is a major instrument of God’s providence; it is how he sustains the human world.”[3]

Isaiah 28:23–29 supports this concept well.  The prophet describes how a farmer does the work of God as His coworker.  God provides the wisdom needed and instructs the farmer how to do the work the right way to cultivate the field, gather the harvest, and process the grain so that His people can eat.  He emphasizes that all of this ultimately comes from God.

Lee Hardy, in his book, The Fabric of This World, presents Luther’s view.  “Through the human pursuit of vocations across the array of earthly stations the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, the sick are healed, the ignorant are enlightened, and the weak are protected … In the activity of work, God is present as the one who provides us with all that we need.”[4]

The end result of all of this hard work that God orchestrates is a world where shalom increases.
  

Work matters because through it God brings blessings to His people

Doug Sherman and William Hendricks in Your Work Matters to God have observed several things that the Bible teaches (verses mine).  Through work God meets the needs of people who are of eternal value to Him (Psalm 104:10-31).  Through work God meets our needs and our family’s needs (1 Thessalonians 4:11–12).  Through work God provides extra money so that we can give some of it to those in need (Ephesians 4:28).  Through work we love God and neighbors by serving them both (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:37–40). [5]

In addition, God’s blessings take a variety of forms.  Sherman and Hendricks wisely indicate some of the byproducts of work.  “People need work. They need its challenge, its product, its achievement, its aesthetic and emotional rewards, its relational dynamics, its drama, its routine, and its remuneration.”[6]  This idea is supported with our understanding of the creation mandate in Genesis 1:28.  There, we read that Adam was created to be a worker, or rather a co-worker with God.  We were also created by God for a purpose. Each of us were given the appropriate gifts, skills, abilities, and desires to be able to perform various functions through our jobs.

Believe it or not, Christians who live “under the Son” rather than merely “under the sun” can find some measure of satisfaction in our work.  Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 states that man should “be happy and do good while they live … eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil – this is the gift of God.”  It is indeed possible in the Lord to find joy and contentment in our work.

It was stated earlier that we love God through work.  Sherman and Hendricks explain how work relates to loving God (Deuteronomy 6:5).  “Just think about how much of your heart, soul, and might go into your work.  Imagine, then, as you spend yourself at that task, being able to say, ’I’m here to do something God wants done, and I intend to do it because I love Him.’  The person who can make this statement has turned his work into one of his primary means of obeying the greatest of God’s commandments.”[7]  Amen!

I want to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ to celebrate Labor Day with praise to the triune God who is a worker and a new appreciation for His gift of work.

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We are honored to have Russell E. Gehrlein as a guest contributor in this month’s newsletter. Author of "Immanuel Labor - God's Presence in our Profession: A Biblical, Theological, and Practical Approach to the Doctrine of Work", Russ is a former youth pastor and a junior/high school math and science teacher. In 2006, he retired from over 20 years active duty in the US Army in the rank of Master Sergeant. He currently works as a Department of the Army civilian at the US Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day.
[3] Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work (New York: Dutton, 2012), 184.
[4] Lee Hardy, The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 47-48.
[5] Doug Sherman and William Hendricks, Your Work Matters to God (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1987), 87.
[6] Sherman and Hendricks, Your Work Matters to God, 71.
[7] Sherman and Hendricks, Your Work Matters to God, 94.

A Primer on Work for Recent Graduates

Summer months mean this: thousands of U.S. graduates from high school to university institutions walked across the stage to receive a diploma of completion over the past few weeks. And even more sat through the roll call of names waiting to hear just one familiar one, culminating decades of hard work.  

As freshly minted graduates transition into new day-to-day vocations and rhythms, the following Gospel principles can guide both good days and bad. These principles are for all - those who celebrated with the graduates and those who will welcome them into workplaces. It’s a theology of work for all to model as these new minds breathe new life into our organizations.  

1. You were created to work.

In the first sentence of the Bible, God creates.  Then He makes man and woman “in his image.” By being created in the image of God, you are created to work.  And like God did his first six days of creation, you can bring structure out of chaos over and over. Every job is some version of structure out of chaos - healthcare, starting a company, financial analysis, parenting.  Scripture also tells us to be “fruitful and multiply” and “take dominion over the earth” Can these extrapolate beyond agricultural work and child bearing? Analysis of scholars seeing the original text language help us understand that these passages can be interpreted more widely as “create flourishing.” How can you think of your job if you know it is to “create flourishing”? As noted by Tim Keller and Katherine Alsdorf in Every Good Endeavor, “we are continuing God’s work of forming, filling, and subduing. Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and 'unfold' creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development.” Work itself is a basic need for man and helps to provide both purpose for our lives and means to serve and honor the Lord through the labor of our hands.
 

2. Work is broken.

In the third chapter of Scripture, brokenness entered the world.  You are broken and work is broken. Because of this brokenness entering humanity, we now experience frustration and toil in our work on earth. Regardless of your job or industry, you should anticipate thistles and thorns in your work. The old adage “love what you do and you will never work a day in your life” is the American dream for a happy career, but it does not align with biblical truth. People are broken, systems are broken and therefore work will be hard at times.
 

3. God’s good work can come from anyone, not just those who believe in God.

The concept of common grace affirms that all good gifts in a person come from God, regardless of a person’s personal beliefs.  Every man and woman is created in HIS image. The world may be enriched, brightened, and preserved through anyone and that goodness is of God, even if the one doing the work does not see it. Because all human beings are image bearers, it should not surprise us that all are capable of doing great work.
 

4. Work is an opportunity to use the gifts you have been given.

Do you think of work only as a way to pay the bills, get ahead, or provide a convenient schedule for you? If so, you may need to reassess how you can serve the work rather than the work serving you. Regardless of your position, workplace, or title, your work serves a purpose in God’s unfolding story. Dorothy Sayers said it best: “Work is not primarily a thing one does to live but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God."
 

5. We are called to rest from our work.

God rested on the 7th day. And he commands us to rest. The pace of the American workforce and 24/7 connectivity can pressure us to be “on call” at all times.  Rest is not only a way to restore our minds, souls, and bodies (and many “secular” articles suggest that comes with productivity and creativity improvements), but it also increases our dependence on God.  In the words of Keller and Alsdorf, “To practice Sabbath is a disciplined and faithful way to remember that you are not the one who keeps the world running, who provides for your family, not even the one who keeps your work projects moving forward.”  He calls us to rest.
 

With these principles in mind, how can your day-to-day work be transformed with this renewed perspective? “The Gospel frees us from the relentless pressure of having to prove ourselves and secure our identity through work, for we are already proven and secure. It also frees us from a condescending attitude toward less sophisticated labor and from envy over more exalted work. All work now becomes a way to love the God who saved us freely; and by extension, a way to love our neighbor.” - Katherine Alsdorf and Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor.

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Finding Hope in Ezekiel to Combat Workplace Brokenness

We all love our work, but there are aspects of every job that drive dissatisfaction.

While it’s easier to embrace work when we are satisfied, what is your thought process when things go awry at work?

As you ponder the the day-to-day stresses and frustrations of working in your specific company and/or industry, do you take time to think about ways you can leave your workplace better each day?

While there are surely aspects of your day-to-day work that are fulfilling, in fact, we assert that the broken areas of work demand responses and action rather than side-eyed complaints over the watercooler amongst coworkers.

Sitting in the tension of knowing you were created to work all the while feeling its toil calls to mind Ezekiel 37:1-10 and the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.

In the passage, God reveals how He both keeps his promises for redemption and resurrection and uses the Spirit in us to breathe life into the dry and barren areas of existence.

It’s easy to think of the ways our vocations appear to be valleys of dry bones. Bones themselves represent something that once was—something that once contained inherent meaning, calling, and purpose.

But the dry and scattered wasteland of bones we see serves as a reminder that brokenness touches every area of our vocations, and it can often feel overwhelming to consider the brokenness and our needed reponses.

Our contributions to push back the darkness in our project, our department, our company or even our industry can more often than not feel like a drop in the proverbial bucket. So why bother fixing things like unhealthy staff meetings, water cooler gossip, indirect communication channels, broken evaluation processes, or even greed and inequality?

First, we must embrace work for work’s sake, and to embrace that we were created to do creative and/or redemptive work.

And second, we must embrace that we are called and equipped by God to bring about flourishing by pushing against the broken areas.

The power of our words to speak life into areas of our work is powerful. And God calls us to it.

So how are you wrestling and engaging with the broken parts of your daily workplace? Are you salt and light? Or are you at the water cooler?

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Why All Good Work Matters Into Eternity

As part of a research study examining the connection between work and meaning, psychologist Dan Ariely paid participants to construct figures out of Legos.

For each consecutive figure, the price dropped by several cents. By decreasing the financial incentive, Ariely was trying to find other factors that influence productivity.

In a not-so-surprising conclusion, he found that one group of participants—a group who had their figures taken apart in front of them while they worked on the next one—was the least productive.

Ariely concluded, “In our view, meaning, at least in part, derives from the connection between work and some purpose. … When that connection is severed - when there is no purpose -  work becomes absurd, alienating, or even demeaning.”

In his study, Ariely writes often of “meaning,” as “a connection between work and purpose.”

But he never explicitly names what seems to be the theme of his least productive group: their longing for permanence.

If we are to endure in our work, we want to believe that our work will matter into eternity. It often leads us to ask God if he, like the researcher in the Lego study, will ultimately dismantle our efforts.

Is work nothing more than part of the curse—a toil meant to punish mankind for our sin in Adam? Or has God given us work merely to distract us while He implements His plan for salvation?

Scripture suggests otherwise.

The implications of these two verses show that God is using the work of his people in his plans for the new heaven and the new earth:

• Isaiah 60 prophesies that the fruits of human labor will appear in the New Jerusalem.

• Acts 3:21 depicts Christ’s work as restoration for all of creation and the cosmos.

This knowledge gives us the confidence to strive for excellence in all our work, knowing that God will use it in some way to usher in his salvation for all of creation. He’s not breaking down our proverbial Legos. He’s using them.

“This knowledge gives us the confidence to strive for excellence in all our work, knowing that God will use it in some way to usher in his salvation for all of creation. He’s not breaking down our proverbial Legos. He’s using them.”

There are many ways to find purpose in our work. We can and should contribute to the flourishing of creation and to the correction of injustice, but if our worldview tells us the end of all our work will be nothing, then any purpose we’ve found in our work becomes temporary at best and meaningless at worst. We become like Ariely’s Lego builders who found no purpose in their labors.

This is precisely why embracing biblical faith and work theology has breathed new life into the vocations of many Christians who have lost a sense of purpose in their jobs.

In the final reckoning, the efforts of our hands will not be disassembled like the Legos, but redeemed. In fact, looking around, there is evidence he’s doing just that, right now.

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Creating a ‘Symphony’ Out of the Broken Areas in Your Job

What place does redemption have in your work?

And, how could reconciliation of relationships, systems, and processes impact your work?

A recent piece in The Atlantic tells that story.

It’s one of instruments - the damaged and discarded instruments from one school system - played by professional musicians and student players in order to demonstrate their potential.  

They played them in their broken states. Some of the instruments barely resembled what they were designed to do and didn't make the sounds they were intended to make.

Yet, somehow, the noise from the broken instruments enticed the symphony to support and fix them.

“Making new art,” the author notes, “is the best redemption imaginable for a broken instrument.”

So what are the broken reeds and bent trombones in your industry?

Depending on your line of work, this question could feel confusing. However, regardless of industry, work sphere, or title, we all experience broken systems on a daily basis that demand attention, affection, and action.

The same applies across each and every industry.

So as you engage your work in a new way, adopt an action-oriented intentionality that improves and redeems the "faulty trumpets" and "dented saxophones" you experience on a day-to-day basis.

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A Theology for the Vocation of Politician

What is a faith-inspired framework for public office?

Recently Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam delivered his final State of the State address to the state’s General Assembly. And regardless of your personal politics, we can all likely agree on one of the Governor’s parting comments, as he emphasized a need for all Tennesseans to have meaningful work.

“Tennessee will lead,” Haslam stated, “because every man and woman, created in the image of God, deserves meaningful work.”

The Nashville Institute for Faith and Work was founded on the dignity of work and a desire to further instill that emphasis into our culture. So when we see the themes and purposes displayed in such public places, it’s encouraging.

Haslam’s SOTS address echoes a recent piece for Comment Magazine in which Haslam attributed a great deal of his vocational discernment to both his personal faith and John Senior’s book, A Theology of Political Vocation: Christian Life and Public Office.

As Senior states and Haslam agrees, “Christians should not shy away from political service, but should engage with a spirit of being about God's work rather than the passionate pursuit of our own political success.”

Below are a few excerpts from Haslam’s article in Comment which we found particularly poignant as examples of integrating ones faith into work in the public service realm. We hope you notice the thoughtfulness with which he combined his faith and work to see the flourishing of all.

• "John Calvin's description of politics as being ‘the most sacred and by far the most honorable of all professions’ has always seemed like a little bit of a stretch to me. However, since I do agree with Senior that all of us are called to be a part of God's project to redeem society, I think that having a political vocation does give us a chance to multiply the influence our work has. I have often remarked that, while I ran for governor thinking I would be the CEO of the state, I more often feel like its senior pastor. I am amazed at how often our work, when done well, can change the course of a life. It is hard for me to imagine ever having a job again that will give me as much opportunity to change lives as being governor."

• "For those of us in elected office, the challenge of political vocation means taking seriously Paul's call to "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Romans 12:2). As a candidate and as an office-holder, I experienced powerfully the pull to conform in order to succeed. The best way that I have found to counteract that magnetic pull is to remind myself that I am here because I truly believe that this is where God called me to be. As a matter of fact, nothing in my life has felt as much like a calling as serving in a public role. A campaign for office can either be an exercise in pushing Christ to the side, or a crucible for the formation of Christ in us."

• “One of the joys of serving in office has been seeing the impact of various initiatives that contribute to the common good. A program to provide free community college has changed countless life trajectories. New drug courts can provide alternatives to incarceration for people struggling with drug addiction. Job training for adults with disabilities allows them to enter the workforce. These elements of the common good, and many more, rarely make the list on a voter's guide describing critical issues for people of faith. Add to this the historical difficulty of governing in a pluralistic society, and it is understandable that most potential office-holders would just throw up their hands and declare politics hopelessly broken.”

• "As someone currently called into a political role, I am grateful for the insight that John Senior brings. Given today's political climate, Senior's thesis is an important one: Christians should not shy away from political service, but should engage with a spirit of being about God's work rather than the passionate pursuit of our own political success. However, those of us in elected office at any level could benefit from a further discussion of the practical pulls and tugs that are a part of our lives. The practice of a political vocation, based on a sound theology of political vocation, has rarely been more difficult, or more critical, than it is today."

You can read Haslam’s article in full for Comment here.

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What Makes a 'Good Job' in Today's Workforce?

We were created to work, but how can we make sense of what type works helps individuals thrive in their endeavors?

A case study from the service industry in the United States covered in the Harvard Business Review may offer some context to this question.

The recent article from the Harvard Business Review cited a case study where “Good Job Companies”—ones with decent wages, predictable hours, sufficient training, and opportunities for growth — are good for retailers.

“At good jobs companies,” the article points out, “store managers feel like owners.

“Taking care of customers and developing employees are their most important tasks.”

Part of developing good jobs for employees, the article notes, is that employers are noting engaged workers are more productive, as seen in 2016 by the 65% (retail) and 73% (restaurant) turnovers rates for employees. And since we know from Gallup studies that over 70% of American workers are disengaged to downright miserable, is there something to learn theologically?

Looking at this trend through a theological lens, the opportunity to create thriving workplaces for employees all along the supply line affirms the dignity of all workers and work and gives everyone the freedom to both put their hands to work and provide a living for themselves.

If we are to go out and love people places and things to life through our work, that includes creating work where people can thrive. What might be required in your place to increase employee engagement?

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Created to Work: A Primer on Layering Faith and Work vs. Integrating the Two

In the last decade, more and more people are engaging in discussion about integrating their faith into their day-to-day work. As such, church leaders are re-engaging Dorothy Sayers’s prescription from her essay Why Work: “It is the business of the Church to recognize that the secular vocation, as such, is sacred.”

Teachings that demonstrate how our work matters to God provide comfort for Christians who feel alienated from their jobs. Yet we must not neglect to develop an eschatological, or end-times, stance regarding our work.

Without a proper perspective on the eternal implications of vocation, perseverance in our work may diminish when we encounter inevitable challenges in our jobs.

Before examining this eschatological view of work in an upcoming post, let’s first consider three common views that are in fact spiritual, but in isolation can actually devalue the function of work for work’s sake in God’s design.

The examples include: “Our work matters to God because it can be a vehicle to evangelize,” “Our work matters because through it we can gain wealth to ‘bless’ others,” or “Our work matters if it temporarily alleviates poverty and suffering until Jesus returns.”

“Though Biblical and inherently good in nature, these responses flow from views of work that are not an integration of faith and work but a layering of one’s faith on top of one’s work.”

Though Biblical and inherently good in nature, these responses flow from views of work that are not an integration of faith and work but a layering of one’s faith on top of one’s work.

The Bible unequivocally advocates for evangelism (Matthew 28:16-20), selflessness with wealth (Malachi 3:10), and tending to the poor (Matthew 25:35-40). But each of these views places ultimate value on a spiritual good beyond work itself.

Consequently, if work is a mere vehicle to other, more spiritual goals, then will work have any function in heaven where sin is no more and souls no longer need to be saved? How can we expect Christians to give their all to something with no lasting significance?

Without a theology that values work for its own sake, we end up seeking value in some external outcome unrelated to the work itself in order to avoid feeling hopeless about an endeavor that consumes the majority of our time.

If we believe that God created and cares about us, sent us out to "take dominion" and "be fruitful,” and is a sovereign God, then can't we believe that he cares about what we do everyday—that he cares about companies, art, education, and government?

“Without a theology that values work for its own sake, we end up seeking value in some external outcome unrelated to the work itself in order to avoid feeling hopeless about an endeavor that consumes the majority of our time.”

In our fallen world, work will inevitably become alienating to some degree. So when it does, will your theology embolden you to confront and correct the alienation, or will your theology ask you to push disappointment in your work to the side in order to focus on “more important things”?

When we value our work by its external spiritual effects, it becomes easy to ignore (and sometimes participate in) the real and negative consequences of work that must be completed in a broken world.

These consequences might be dehumanization in our businesses, injustices in the marketplace, shoddy craftsmanship, and secular influence in culture. Instead, we should embrace a theology that empowers us to reform that which is broken.

We can more easily redeem and approach our work wholeheartedly if our theology tells us that our work is not only good, but that it will continue into eternity—not in the form of more Christians in heaven, but as itself.

So the art, politics, business, sports, architecture, agriculture, education, technology, economics and more we push forward will become, as Sayers says, “a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God.”

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How Can Faith Combat Workplace Loneliness?

The workplace is filled with exhaustion and loneliness—a bit more so than usual.

Research cited suggests "50 percent of people are often or always exhausted due to work," a number that is 32 percent higher than two decades prior.

A recent write-up from the Harvard Business Review concluded workplace burnout today is more impacted by loneliness rather than exhaustion.

So how do Christians respond to a culture that both values and suffers due to the pursuit of productivity?

“The work we do cannot ultimately fulfill us.”

Jesus spoke of the idea of striving, exhaustion, and rest in Matthew 11:28-30.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The response is found less in striving without ceasing and more in embracing that your work matters and acknowledging its limitations.

The work we do cannot ultimately fulfill us. That doesn't mean it doesn't serve a purpose. We are called to serve the work at hand, not the other way around.

As Tim Keller and Katherine Alsdorf hone in on in their book Every Good Endeavor, "we work to serve others, not ourselves."

By embracing an identity of resting in the person and work of Jesus Christ, a slice of freedom to serve the work at hand—without perpetual exhaustion or loneliness—can be fully embraced.

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investigating our desire for Meaningful Work

Every generation wants meaningful work.

This was the finding from a short study cited in the Harvard Business Review that sought to understand what millennials (and other generations) are seeking from their work.

Here are a few of those responses:

• Traditionalists (born between 1922-1945): “I can’t even imagine going to a job that…I didn’t think had value.”

• Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964): “If I didn’t get personal fulfillment and feel like I was doing something good, it would be miserable to put that much time and effort into something.”

• Generation X (born between 1965-1983): “If your job is without meaning, what would get you out of bed?”

• Millennials (born between 1984-2002): “I would rather make nothing and love going to work every day than make a ton of money and hate going to work every day.”

“One of the most striking findings was that every generation perceived that the other generations are only in it for the money, don’t work as hard, and do not care about meaning.”

This funneled into a deeper study that uncovered while most generations agree on the inherent need and desire for meaningful work, negative stereotypes are the leading device for division amongst cross-generational work.

One of the most striking findings was that every generation perceived that the other generations are only in it for the money, don’t work as hard, and do not care about meaning. If each generation thinks this way, it’s not surprising that they treat each other differently than if they believe they are all striving for intrinsic meaning in their jobs. Stereotypes like these likely cause conflict among generational cohorts, which may affect performance, commitment, and job satisfaction.

It’s clear every generation wants purpose out of their work, yet somehow, we don't see that in one another.

How do you experience generational differences in your day-to-day vocation?

We will dive deeper into this question and many more generational differences in our work at our citywide forum, “The Gen Divide: Bridging Age Gaps at Work” on November 9 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Houston Station in Nashville, Tennessee. Reserve your spot today.

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