So far in Part I & Part II, we’ve reflected on how God values our work since aspects of his nature as a worker get expressed as we work. We create, feed, and provide for ourselves, and help order and steward this world through the fruit of our labor. We also saw that the purpose for our work is rooted in our primary call to glorify God above all else in all we do, including our daily work. Work is much more than simply a means to a better end outside of the workplace such as providing for ourselves or church.
God’s Work Today is Done in a Fallen World
However, we all know an idealized view of work hardly addresses the brokenness of our everyday experience. The Fall of Adam reminds us all too sharply of this. We go back again to Genesis…
Gen. 3:17-19
[17] And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; [18] thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. [19] By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
This passage really brings it back to earth.
Work is certainly not only a fulfilling and glorious enterprise, but at times our work is hard, painful, toilsome, boring, involves difficult bosses, colleagues, and clients, and it will actively resist our best efforts to be productive. In fact, at least in the physical sense, our work ultimately will conquer us in this life as we are forced to resign, retire, and die.
But before you conclude this series is ending up negating the goodness and glorious purpose God gives us for our work, consider that God also has purpose and hope in the struggles and pain of our work. The book of James speaks to this directly.
James 1:2-4, 12
[2] Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, [3] for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. [4] And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing… [12] Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
While I, for one, am still not at the “count it all joy” stage when troubles come, I think we can all look for how God might be using the hard times we go through in our work to shape us in this life and how he often uses these circumstances for some of his most important work.
In the last several years of my aerospace career, my company experienced significant losses of business through pull-backs on contracts for our product lines. What followed was a series of career disappointments and changes as an engineering executive that initially rocked my sense of all the good God had been doing through our work.
Up to this point I had an exciting position, lucrative benefits, had recently rebuilt my old broken-down house through a larger refinanced mortgage, and had 2 adult children in private Christian colleges with large tuition bills. Yet I quickly found myself in a major restructuring that required myself along with 25 other executives at my level to take demotions and large losses in compensation benefits. In addition, I was assigned to be operations manager in charge of laying off hundreds of employees across my large engineering directorate.
“the work we do through our faith, faithfulness, and occasional long-suffering and trials become the very means God uses to shape us more into his image”
I needed to reflect hard about whether to make a drastic career move and had to weigh what exactly was the “good” God was still doing through our division and the need for good work and workers even under these circumstances. I found myself praying regularly over other managers as I led them to find other jobs for our employees around the company and I counseled many employees on their options while privately praying for them and their families that they would somehow be well provided for and land on their feet.
In all this, I discovered that even though the work was very hard and often undesirable, I felt more called by God to steward this work than at any other time in my career. God was doing something strategic both in me and on behalf of the place where I worked through my staying and seeing this season through. By God’s grace, I was also able to make every mortgage and tuition payment and found my family provided for through this season.
So, the work we do through our faith, faithfulness, and occasional long-suffering and trials become the very means God uses to shape us more into his image. It is our trials that become the miracle of his grace as he uses broken and unfinished people to accomplish his will and purpose in the world.
Our Lord Jesus found great joy, love, and suffering in his life’s work, and then summed up its fulfilled purpose near the end of his journey on earth:
John 17:4
I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
Steve is the Executive Director here at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles and leads the vision and overall ministry. Prior to this position, Steve was as an aerospace executive at The Boeing Company after 36 years of service.