I like to read. But I am a slow reader. This has left me with a growing stack of unread must-reads which sometimes feels like a metaphor for other areas of life. Elements in our work lives can feel similar. We often wish much of our labor could be different, better, or more.

I recently slowed down and re-read Kara Martin’s Workship: How to Use Your Work to Worship God. The resources she provides help keep us moving forward in balance with all that God desires, especially in our work lives. Read on as we explore her insights and how they provide a very realistic overview of how to have an integrated life of faith and work.

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 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.

However, we all know an idealized view of work hardly addresses the brokenness of our everyday experience. Read on as we conclude this series and see how God uses broken and unfinished people to accomplish his will and purpose in the world.

Last week we discussed the intrinsic value of work in that it gives us, as his image-bearers, the opportunity to reflect God’s creative nature in tangible and productive ways. This week in Part II, we explore how our work is directly connected to God’s primary call and purpose for our lives.

My background in becoming an aerospace engineer coupled with my early involvement in a solid Bible-believing church right out of college created a tension I spent several decades trying to reconcile. What does having Christ as the Lord of all of my life, as I learned in church, have to do with the daily grind of building complex aerospace products? In your case, you might be keeping an office organized, accounts efficiently managed, juggling day jobs with night jobs to make ends meet, laboring as a stay-at-home parent, or closing a large deal as a managing partner in a private equity firm.

What is it that relates what we are doing with our work lives directly to living in and for the Kingdom of God as Jesus commanded? Just how does God respond to our deepest questions about work?

At our recent event, Reimagining Work Vol. 8: Aerospace in LA, Kristen Yi, the VP of Finance / Controller of an independent film production company and one of our thoughtful panelists blessed attendees with a prayer of benediction written by our own, Steve Lindsey, to encourage them in their daily work.

In this piece, we’ll dive into 4 reasons why the command to live in wholehearted devotion to God and love for our neighbor is not only possible but is, in fact, achieved mostly through our work.