As I sit in the airport in San Francisco about to depart for a week of vacation, I couldn't help but blog about the topic of work. I've been reading a book about prayer which contains a bunch of excerpts from famous books, sayings, and prayers. Two of the ones I read this morning were on the topic of work and how christians should view work. The topic has been on my mind a lot lately and what I read this morning and some insightful comments from a friend have given me some clarity on the subject. Here are the two excerpts:
From Richard Foster's book Prayer:
"The work of our hands and of our minds is acted out prayer, a love offering to the living God. In what is perhaps the finest line in the movie Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell tells his sister, "Jenny, when I run, I feel his pleasure." This is the reality that is to permeate all vocations, whether we are writing a novel or cleaning a latrine.
It is at the latrine cleaning that many have a problem. It is not hard to see how a Michelangelo or a T. S. Eliot is giving glory to God - theirs are creative vocations. But what about the boring jobs, the unimportant jobs, the mundane jobs. How are those prayer?
Here we must understand the order in the kingdom of God. It is precisely in the "slop-bucket job" - the work that we abhor - where we will find God the most. We do not need to have good feelings or a warm glow in order to do work for the glory of God. All good work is pleasing to the Father. Even the jobs that seem meaningless and mindless to us are highly valued in the order of the kingdom of God. God values the ordinary. If, for the glory of God, you are putting an endless supply nuts on a endless line of bolts, your work is rising as a sweet-smelling offering to the throne of God. He is pleased with your labor.
"Aren't you glorifying work a bit too much - you know, Protestant work ethic, and all?" you may be wondering. I think not. Work came before the fall, and the curse of the fall was that work would be "by the sweat of your brow" - that is, the results would not be commensurate with the labor put in. In fact, one of the clearest signs of the grace of God upon us is when the results of our labor are far in excess of the amount of work we do. We glorify God in our labor because we most closely approximate the Creator when we engage in the creative activity of work."
And this one is from Augustine:
From Richard Foster's book Prayer:
"The work of our hands and of our minds is acted out prayer, a love offering to the living God. In what is perhaps the finest line in the movie Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner Eric Liddell tells his sister, "Jenny, when I run, I feel his pleasure." This is the reality that is to permeate all vocations, whether we are writing a novel or cleaning a latrine.
It is at the latrine cleaning that many have a problem. It is not hard to see how a Michelangelo or a T. S. Eliot is giving glory to God - theirs are creative vocations. But what about the boring jobs, the unimportant jobs, the mundane jobs. How are those prayer?
Here we must understand the order in the kingdom of God. It is precisely in the "slop-bucket job" - the work that we abhor - where we will find God the most. We do not need to have good feelings or a warm glow in order to do work for the glory of God. All good work is pleasing to the Father. Even the jobs that seem meaningless and mindless to us are highly valued in the order of the kingdom of God. God values the ordinary. If, for the glory of God, you are putting an endless supply nuts on a endless line of bolts, your work is rising as a sweet-smelling offering to the throne of God. He is pleased with your labor.
"Aren't you glorifying work a bit too much - you know, Protestant work ethic, and all?" you may be wondering. I think not. Work came before the fall, and the curse of the fall was that work would be "by the sweat of your brow" - that is, the results would not be commensurate with the labor put in. In fact, one of the clearest signs of the grace of God upon us is when the results of our labor are far in excess of the amount of work we do. We glorify God in our labor because we most closely approximate the Creator when we engage in the creative activity of work."
And this one is from Augustine:
"O Father, light up
the small duties of this day's life:
may they shine
with the beauty of your countenance.
May we believe that glory can dwell
in the commonest task of every day."
There are two ideas that came to mind while reading this that that I found thought provoking (the first courtesy of a good friend and the second from me):
the small duties of this day's life:
may they shine
with the beauty of your countenance.
May we believe that glory can dwell
in the commonest task of every day."
There are two ideas that came to mind while reading this that that I found thought provoking (the first courtesy of a good friend and the second from me):
1. I like the idea that it is by God's grace that we see fruit from our labor at all. And that we are abundantly blessed when "the results of our labor are far in excess of the amount of work we do." Isn't that exactly what we expect/demand from our jobs every day? That our little input will produce a great reward. We want to put in as little effort as possible to reap great reward. Putting work in that light, where the 'results' are a gift of grace, is humbling.
2. I know it's easier said than done, but what if we were to think of the most mundane tasks as a chance to glorify God. I'm challenged to think about how much more powerful and attitude-changing it would be to be able to think about my work this way. If I were able to think this way, I'd be that much more grateful and that much more able to make my work something that glorifies God and less of something that I may be tempted to use to glorify yourself. And I think more often than not, I'm in the business of working to glorify myself through money or power or success or reputation.
So, I'm excited about going on vacation this week! But I'm also interested in taking some time on vacation to think more about how these ideas could change the way I view and complete my work in a practical way.
What about you?? Leave a comment if you have any thoughts - I'd love to hear them.
2 comments:
hey matt,
thank you for sharing these thoughts. I found them challenging and something that fit in with what I was thinking about during devotions today. I read the story of the rich ruler and thought about how we try to "earn" God's grace with our work or deeds. It's all about having the right heart attitude isn't it? I tend to do many things because it's the right thing to do and I think it pleases God but I don't always have the right heart attitude.
love,
mom
Hi Matt
Thanks for the comments as I too am thinking about work and how I should finish as I move inexorably toward retirement and beyond. I went to a Pointman Institute conference yesterday on leadership. The reason for going was to try to figure a way to develop more leaders in our church but I came away thinking more about how I can be not only a better leader but a more Godly person. Three of the attributes discussed were Courage, Diligence and Optimism. Having the courage in Christ to do what is right not just expedient is difficult in the secular workplace of today. Being diligent in our work no matter what the task is just what you are talking about and being optimistic is also glorifying to God even when our co-workers may be complaining and we in turn join right in. Thanks for the thoughts
Love Dad
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