During the Center for Faith & Work Los Angeles’ 2019 Annual Conference we received a handful of insightful questions pertaining to vocation and calling as part of a question and answer session. Due to time constraints, some of those questions were left unanswered.
In this periodic series, the CFWLA team will select from these questions provided and seek to provide a helpful, biblical response. If you have a question like this you would like to see answered, let us know by sending an email to cfwla@faithandworkla.com.
This edition’s question: How can I be more mindful to love my neighbors at my workplace when I am swamped with work and paid to be productive?
At its best, the workplace provides an avenue to systematically apply the giftings and passions God has hardwired into us for the sake of the world. However, sometimes the workplace can feel overwhelming.
In fact our work days can feel quite disconnected from the Cultural Mandate in Genesis 1:28 to “be fruitful and multiply.”
“To love our neighbor at work, we must both steward our capacity and compassion at work while reframing the work itself into an act of love for God and others.”
The incongruence can stem from a slew of things: a workplace culture that over-values deliverables, a boss hyper-focused on the bottom-line, a coworker bent towards stepping on fingers in an attempt to climb the corporate ladder, our own tendencies to set unrealistic standards of perfectionism or lack of healthy workplace boundaries.
It’s easy to feel the tyranny of frustration while on the workplace wheel of productivity.
But Christians are called, even in spite of these tensions, to embody the principles of Matthew 22:39: to love your neighbor as yourself.
Tom Nelson, in his book The Economics of Neighborly Love, gets at the heart of the tension of neighbor-love well.
“When we have compassion without capacity we have frustration,” Nelson writes. “When we have capacity without compassion we have alienation.
“When we have compassion and capacity we have transformation.”
To love our neighbor at work, we must both steward our capacity and compassion at work while reframing the work itself into an act of love for God and others.
Embracing Compassion and Capacity
A 2018 poll noted 50 percent of workers do not feel they can take a full lunch break. With this reality sinking deeper into the overworked nature of the American workforce, how can someone love their neighbors well when the workplace culture makes it difficult to love and care for ourselves?
In short, we must reframe and expand our practice of neighbor-love.
“Individuals and organizations that don’t take seriously the importance of capacity building,” Nelson writes, “face both the challenge of fruitlessness and frustration.”
What Nelson notes above is a key tenant for neighbor-love displayed at work. Caring for ourselves, in a culture that’s already overworked, is a prime example of a healthy start to foster resources and margin to display compassion for others.
“Even though it may feel like a risk, having the courage to take respits can reap the habit of placing priority on the fellow image bearers you share office spaces and cubicles with on a daily basis.”
While each worker and workplace is certainly different, studies continue to emphasize the importance of breaks for deeper and more productive work. Even though it may feel like a risk, having the courage to take respites can reap the habit of placing priority on the fellow image bearers you share office spaces with on a daily basis.
Practicing spiritual disciplines, integrating a breath prayer, and even taking a regular, weekly sabbath from your work, as well, are practical steps that can help refocus your soul for neighbor-love in the midst of your workday.
This may come at a cost of saving face with a superior or earning a leg up on a promotion, but having a priority of loving others and working excellently—while not falling into the idolatrous trap of overwork—is a fuller picture of what it looks like to work heartily, as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23).
Reframing Work Itself as Neighbor-Love
As well, at the heart of loving our neighbor well is an emphasis on humans being made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Taking it a step further, we honor God when we honor and help draw out the image of God in others.
We do this by helping others see who they were created to be, creating means for the flourishing of others, and even redeeming and pushing back on the ways darkness infringes upon the inherent dignity of others. Each of these represents a way we shine forth neighbor-love through the systems and rhythms of our work.
The work itself we do can actually be an expression of love for our neighbor because it provides the processes, resources, services, and products by which we live our lives.
Not only that, but it does this in an incredibly efficient manner for a large number of people every day.
“The work itself we do can actually be an expression of love for our neighbor because it provides the processes, resources, services, and products by which we live our lives. ”
We would be remiss to ignore this blessing built into our work. It’s a gift worthy of worship from our creator that our work can actually be a vehicle to tangible love those he has placed around us.
A recent study from Barna noted 82 percent of Christians see “acting ethically” as a Christian responsibility in the workplace, while only around 50 percent noted “speaking out against unfairness and injustice” and “helping bring grace and peace to others” fell under that jurisdiction.
So while ethics and evangelism are natural byproducts of Christian living, the Bible stretches us to see our work is primarily to be driven by contributing to the advancement of the common good (Jeremiah 29:7).
The gospel expands our view of good work to include things like using our platforms and vocational skills to engage our work with God and neighbor-love at the center.
An example of this might look like a software engineer, paid for their expertise in specific design skills, being mindful that the software they create helps computers run more effectively, creating opportunities for students and other workers to engage their own work more efficiently.
Or maybe it looks like an Amazon delivery worker, paid to effectively distribute packages in a timely fashion, being reminded that the packages they deliver with care and diligence help others live into their own callings.
Whatever our calling, workplace culture, or job assignment, the gospel gives us hope to reimagine our work, even that done for the least of these, as an avenue to glorify God and honor our neighbor—both near and far.
Gage Arnold is the Communications Director for the Center for Faith & Work Los Angeles. He is currently an M.Div student at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO., and holds a B.S. in Journalism & Electronic Media from the University of Tennessee.