You might be wondering what on earth anything said on Sunday morning can be relevant to your life at work – I think you’ll be surprised. We’re going to touch on questions like, Is what I do worth anything to God? What if I hate my job? How do I get my life into a good balance between work and everything else? Do I live to work or work to live?
Work is a good thing and work is important not just to us but to God. He is interested in you, your work and how well you are doing. What if God were to sit down with you for your annual work appraisal?
The Divine Work Appraisal
What is going on in an appraisal? The worker is assessing how they have been doing and identifying things they don’t like or want to change, or help that they need. The boss is trying to judge how things are going. Is the worker doing well? Are they making progress? Does what they do meet the needs of the organisation? Are they growing and developing? Are they enjoying their job? Are they proving to be reliable and hard-working, able to complement and enhance the team, bringing credit to the employer and the organisation? Do they provide value for money? How do you think God would assess your work?
Let’s start at the beginning.
6 – that’s the number of days God “worked” when he created the earth. Most people work 5 or 6 or 7 days a week. The bible makes a good case - for work and rest to be in a ratio of 6 to 1. Taking time to rest, what we call a Sabbath, is really, really important. But that still leaves a lot of time for work.
168 is the number of hours in a week. Let’s say that you sleep for 8 hours a night and spend 2 hours a day eating, an hour a day travelling and 3 hours a day resting. And a day off. That leaves about 10 hours a day for 6 days which means that 60 hours a week could be described as “work”
(by work I don’t necessarily mean paid work of course). 60 hours a week. Around 3,000 a year. Around 250,000 in a lifetime.
Work, paid or unpaid, will be part of your life to the tune of about 250,000 hours.
God at Work
The bible starts with the phrase,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. It is the first thing we discover about God. He is a creator, a worker. It goes on to describe 6 days of work, creating the universe.
And when he has finished, he stands back and says, “That’s a good job done there. I’m going to put my feet up and have a cup of tea” Genesis 1:31-2:2.
Unlike other world views and religions God is not absent from work and creation. He is very much part of it, involved. And he doesn’t just stop after those 6 days. He continues to sustain and nurture the world to provide for humanity. But he goes a step further.
Genesis 2:15,
“God took mankind and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”(pre-fall).
He commissions us to do the same, to work, to nurture and sustain. To establish culture and society. This is part of his plan, his mission.
Just imagine a world in which no one worked. No farmers growing crops or truck drivers carrying them to market. The supermarkets empty. In fact we can’t get to the shops because the car has broken down and there’s no one to fix it and no one to drive the bus, which has also broken down anyway. No one cleans the house so the dirt builds up and diseases are rampant - but without drug manufacturers there’s no treatment and we get more and more sick. A leak comes through the roof and it doesn’t get fixed so the house gradually becomes uninhabitable. There are no teachers so children stay at home not learning and without the police security vanishes. Before long we’re back to huddling around a campfire in the caves. Wilderness.
What’s the difference between the wilderness and culture, between chaos and nurtured creation? Work. (Mark Greene)
That’s how God made it and how he maintains it. Work is an essential thread in the weave of creation and that work is given to us to do as part of his creation and as part of sustaining his creation.
Every one of us is different. Thank goodness. Every piece of work is different. God calls us into his work in many different ways.
Ephesians 2:10.
“We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10.
You may be a senior executive in the City council or clerk in a council office somewhere. You may work as an electrician keeping the lights on or as a doctor attending to our medical needs. You may be cleaning offices in the middle of the night so that the call centre staff have somewhere hygienic and comfortable to work. You may be befriending one of Gwen’s debt advice clients or giving time to serve at the Child Contact Centre with Elaine. You may be running the family home, changing the plug, or raising children, changing nappies, maybe on your own. That’s hard work. You may be studying for qualifications or research. Your work might be to think through difficult problems and checking complex documents or it may be driving people from one place to another in your taxi or bus. Maybe you write songs to sing, blogs to amuse, maybe you paint or sculpt to open our eyes to a different view. You might give yourself over to public service in local politics or take entrepreneurial risks to establish a business which can then supply a need and give employment to others. Perhaps you are caring for a relative at home or invest time in the community as an encourager and friend. Perhaps you entertain through sport or show business. Maybe you are unable to work because of illness but you devote yourself to ardent prayer.
The Divine Work Appraisal
“I’ve looked at your 250,000 hours and I have done a 360 degree questionnaire with your line managers, your co-workers and your subordinates. I have also talked to your friends and family about what you say about work and how you approach it. I’ve have watched you at work myself, every minute actually. I’ve looked at the results of your work … and this is what I see …. “
What do you think God would see? Do you think you there might be any action points afterwards?
Some of you know that you’re not doing well. Some of you are perfectionists for whom the very concept of an appraisal brings you out in a cold sweat. Some of you think you are doing okay but you may be in danger of confusing being a good worker with earning your way to salvation.
This is not about salvation. Jesus died for you so that you can be saved by grace, not by works. There is no other way for you to find mercy in this life and hope for eternity except to believe in Jesus.
This
is about being a follower of Jesus
in your work. Whatever that work is.
1 Corinthians 3:12-16
If any woman/man builds using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his/her work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
That last sentence is weighty with expectation of what you will do with this “vehicle” for the Holy Spirit.
The context here is the ministry of the church but its application is to all of us in whatever work we are doing for those 60 hours a week, 250,000 through a lifetime.
What’s your work like? Is it something you could take to a divine appraisal with confidence and pride? Would your work stand being tested by fire? Is it gold, silver and diamonds or is it wood, hay and straw?
I don’t mean financial success or academic achievement or career progression. I mean, doing good work. The part you play in doing God’s work, in working for God.
Work takes many forms – but what is God looking for in the work appraisal? What does it mean when it says our work will be tested by fire?
Colossians 3:22-24,
“Don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from your heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance.” The Message
King James, “Do it heartily”. NLT, “Work hard and cheerfully”.
Work “heartily”. “Work hard and cheerfully”. “Do your best.”
As followers of Jesus we should be the best workers in Leeds. What does that look like?
9 questions to ask yourself – apply to your situation, paid or unpaid etc:
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Do I work hard or do I do just enough to get by? (Not slavery, long hours, denial of other pleasures – but diligent work, attending to it with focus and intent).
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Do I do good quality work? Even if I don’t like my work, do I produce results of which I can be proud and which reflect well on my employer, and on God?
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What is my work and attitude like when no-one is looking? Because I know God is working alongside me.
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Am I honest? Are my expense claims accurate? Do I tell the truth or make excuses? Am I reliable? Do I keep my promises? Do I turn up on time? Am I prepared for the task ahead?
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Do I stand up for what is right? Am I known for truth and justice and for speaking up for those who can’t defend themselves?
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Am I good to work with? Am I known as the cheerful, positive, encouraging one or the complaining, miserable one? Do customers like me?
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Am I a team player – supporting and helping others, putting the team first rather than my own needs all the time? Do people want me on their team? Do I go the extra mile?
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Are my skills and gifts being put to good use? I may be earning a ton of money but am I doing what God has made me for? As I grow up and learn and change jobs am I getting closer to my vocation? To what God has called me to? Is my work a vocation or just a way to pay the rent?
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Am I making a difference, adding value, making the world a better place? Am I working with God in his nurturing and sustaining of the world?
We’ll unpack some of this in the coming few weeks.
Martin Luther often referred to us as the
“fingers of God” – created and used by God to do his work. God is interested in your work, more than that, he has given you gifts and skills and work to do. Whatever your work, however mundane, paid or unpaid, visible or invisible, it has significance. It is important. God is nurturing and sustaining his creation and he calls you into this work with him.
As he seeks to clothe, house, feed, protect, inspire and give pleasure he uses you as his creative, working fingers in the world.
We come to him for our appraisal. We have a gracious, loving boss who won’t fire us when we fall short but will come alongside with mercy, encouragement and equipping to work better and gain the reward.
We’re going to spend a little time in reflection on this, in appraisal mode. I’m going to ask the Lord to reveal to you one aspect of your job to which you can pay attention. I am going to ask him to give you one action point you can take away from this appraisal.
Books:
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Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour (theological and apologetic approach)
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Ian Coffey, Working it Out (accessible and based around bible studies)
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Bill Hybels, Making Life Work (Nuts and bolts from Proverbs)
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Mark Greene, Thank God it’s Monday (The sacred secular divide, lots of stories)