Gospel Prism

Does God want us to love our jobs? That often seems to be the conclusion that so many have regarding their work. After all, God wouldn’t want me to have difficulty, strife, hardship, challenges in work, would He? So usually, the logic goes like this:

1. God wants me to be happy.
2. I hate my job.
3. Therefore, God wants me to find a new job.
4. When I get my new job, then I will be happy.

But the problem that often occurs is this:

1. I find a new job.
2. My new job is no better, and sometimes even worse than my old job.
3. God led me to this new job.
4. Why are you disappointing me God? I was just following you. You must not truly care for me.

Far, far too many Christians think of work and themselves in this way and it leads to an endless cycle of blame, self-pity, dissatisfaction, and anxiety. But I wonder…

Does God really ultimately care about what job we hold? When I think of Joseph, God used him regardless of where he was, whether it was in Potiphar’s household, prison, or in Pharoah’s household. I am sure that the actual job in the first two places, Potiphar’s house and prison, were terrible jobs to say the least. In Potiphar’s house, Joseph came as a common slave, a foreigner from a land of no consequence. What led then to Joseph’s success there? It wasn’t his hard work or his connections. Though in a sense, both played a role. But what led to his success was what Moses records in Genesis 39:2: “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man.” And the Lord was with Joseph and so Joseph responded with a fear of God. He loved the Lord more than anything else and he trusted Him. And this trust even led to his imprisonment, when he refused to give in to Potiphar’s wife and was unwilling to give up His trust in the Lord. His faithfulness to God is ultimately what led to his joy, and not the work itself. And so, even when he was in prison, Moses records: “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” (v. 21)

Also, David was satisfied in the Lord as he was a mere shepherd boy despite the many hardships and drudgery that comes with shepherding (which led to psalms like Psalm 23). While Paul ministered to churches, he made tents which must have been an arduous and tedious task. He could have grumbled and complained about his job. After all, he was Paul, the apostle and church-planter extraordinaire. And yet, he responded with such words:

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13)

The reality is, God never promises that we would have a job that we enjoy doing. Because God has given us His absolute best in His Son (Romans 8:32), and since that absolute best is actually the ultimate means by which we can have true and lasting joy, anything else is merely grace upon grace. If we don’t truly appreciate this wondrous truth, then we will always be searching for something that will never fully satisfy us. Thus, there will never be a job (including pastoral ministry and missions) that will bring ultimate joy. And our search for such satisfaction and joy will be an ultimately fruitless endeavor.

So what does this mean for us as we work?

1. It means that work is not the end or even the means to our ultimate joy.

It can’t be. Something so fleeting as our jobs can change in a moment’s notice. James reminds us, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. “ (James 4:14) The teacher in Ecclesiastes had every good job that he could possibly gain (he had wealth and power) and it still left him terribly empty (Eccl 2:1-11), which led him to conclude: “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” (Eccl 2:11) A job that was once exhilarating can change to be miserable if we have a new manager or a new role at work. Coworkers who we get along with leave their jobs and new ones come on board who rub you the wrong way. The work that was once challenging becomes tried and banal. Therefore, a job must never be where we find ultimate joy and if we pursue it to be such for us, we are chasing after the wind.

2. It means work keeps us from the allure of laziness which leads to godlessness.

Paul writes: “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11 For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” (2 Thess 2:10-11) I am sure Paul is looking at his worn hands from all of his tentmaking as he writes this text. If there was anyone who had the right to be supported by the church, it was Paul. And yet, he decided to work because he didn’t want to hinder the advance of the Gospel in any way (1 Cor 9:3-18). And so when he is writing this letter to the Thessalonians, he’s writing as a laborer who has a ‘menial’ job. But this job, regardless of the nature of the job, guards him from being idle. And often with idleness comes the temptation to sin, to be a ‘busybody’ who simply loves to revel in sin and wallow in self-pity. And so, regardless of the work, we must consider such work, when done faithfully, as God’s means of grace to provide for us and our families, but also to keep us from trusting in Him.

3. It means that our ultimate joy is found in God as we work.

Paul tells us that whatever we do we can do for His glory (1 Cor 10:31). If we can eat or drink to his glory, we can collate papers to His glory, flip burgers to His glory, collect trash to His glory, type on a computer to His glory, attend meetings to His glory, pump gas to His glory, , teach kindergartners to His glory, fix pipes to His glory, run a business to His glory, etc. If we have the mentality, “God surely doesn’t want me to do this,” then we are neglecting the sovereign means by which God often uses His people. If God can use prison in the life of Joseph and shepherding in the life of David and shepherding in the life of Amos and tentmaking in the life of Paul for His glory, He can surely use you wherever you are for His glory. And the promise that the Lord gives to you in return is that as you glorify Him in your work through your integrity, steadfastness, diligence, you will be most satisfied in Him (see John Piper for more details as to how this happens ).

4. It means that sometimes staying in a job you hate could be exactly where you need to be to find ultimate joy in Him.

I am not suggesting that God NEVER wants us to move jobs or switch careers. However, I am suggesting that far too often we use our job dissatisfaction as the number one reason to leave a job. But this trend of using circumstantial satisfaction as a reason to stay or leave something is an epidemic that plagues all of modern life. We see people leave marriages when they’re not satisfied. We see people leaving churches when they’re not satisfied. We see some leaving their children behind when they’re not satisfied. We see some leaving sorrows or guilt or anxiety through drinking and drugs when they’re not satisfied. We see people trying to leave their financial circumstances by the quick fix of gambling and playing for the lottery when they’re not satisfied. This is the human condition that continually attempts to find satisfaction and joy in everything else but God (Rom 1:24-25).

Since our hearts are prone to deception (Jeremiah 17:9), we must deeply question our motives to see if we are merely wanting a quick fix to far deeper issues. I am asking that we consider searching and probing questions as to why we might want to transition jobs: a) Is it for my your glory?, b) Is it to escape conflict?, c) Is it out of sheer greed?, d) Is it because you think your job is drudgery, e) Or is it truly that the Lord is leading you elsewhere, giving you a next opportunity to bring Him glory, where even if you fail, you will still praise Him, honor Him, and delight in Him? Will you see even negative circumstances such as strife, failure, loss of a job, as means by which the Lord can and wants to use you for His glory and your ultimate joy in Him? If you cannot truly see yourself doing this should things go awry, then I would strongly urge you to reconsider any job change. We need to heed the words of Job to his wife (who believed good circumstances meant God’s blessing and bad circumstances meant God’s withdrawal, which I do not believe is a right biblical framework of viewing circumstances, which is the whole point of the book of Job): “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)

5. It means that we need to change the criteria on how and why we look for a new job.

Far too many people look for a new job based on a few criteria: 1) Money, 2) Position, 2) Influence, 3) Happiness. But very few take into account the two areas that I believe are most important: 1) Church, 2) Family. The reason I put the church as number 1 is the direct correlation that one’s church affects one’s love for God and one’s love for his or her family. I love the way Mark Mullery puts it:

We live in a crazy upside down world. People will move across the country for a job or for a school. But if you do that for a church, people will think your insane. Or if you pass up an opportunity for advancement, explaining that you want to remain so that you can be a part of your church, people assume that you’re a part of a cult… Some have moved from one place to another simply because of a sense of call in serving and participating in a local church…But I’ll tell you something greater. Once there was someone who moved from heaven to earth because of the church. From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy Bride. When you are gripped and affected and stirred for the church, you are simply reflecting the passion for His holy Bride.

If we can see how critical the church is to one’s life in Christ (Heb 3:12-14), we would make the church our first priority in considering jobs. We do this by asking for the guidance of the church leaders in making a decision about a job. We do this by considering my job’s location in relationship to the church. We do this by assessing whether my job will in the long run (understanding that some jobs require longer hours during a professional training period), allow me to serve the church and honor God. By making the church a first priority in the job search, it would not only allow one to grow in the Gospel, but would also lead that person to lead his family well, since both are directly connected (Eph 5:21ff.).

Our occupation, though it takes up much of our day, is only a means to an end. We live for His renown remembering that Jesus did the ultimate work (2 Cor 5:21) so that we could gain a new reputation by His righteousness. In heaven, when we worship around the throne of the Slain Lamb (Rev 4-5), we won’t be focusing on the job we held on earth, but rather how we held whatever we job we had as a reflection of the very Lamb of God that we are worship in heaven. Our work on earth will reflect His work on the cross, and this means will lead to the end goal of God’s ultimate glory and our joy in Him.