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Remarkable Work is Often "Unreasonable"

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Seth Godin, in a post from about a year ago:

The false choice of mediocrity

Too often, we’re presented with choices that don’t please us. We can pick one lousy alternative or the other. And too often, we pick one.

I was struck by Apple’s choice to put a glass screen on the original iPhone. Just six weeks before it was announced, Steve Jobs decided he wanted a scratchproof glass screen. The thing is, this wasn’t an option. It wasn’t possible, reliable, feasible or appropriately priced. It couldn’t be done with certainty, and almost any other organization would have taken it off the list of appropriate choices.

It was unreasonable.

And that’s the key. Remarkable work is always not on the list, because if it was, it would be commonplace, not remarkable.

Go, Be Warm and Be Filled, and Be Unemployed

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This is an intriguing post by Tom Nelson, author of Work Matters, over at his blog by the same name.

Here’s one of the best parts:

Some social observers are starting to refer to a younger generation facing chronic unemployment or underemployment as the lost generation. Presently it seems the church’s response in these troubled times echoes the empty words decried by the apostle James, “Go, be warm and be filled.”  Have we settled in for a respectable appearing faith devoid of works? Are we not in effect saying to so many, “Go, be warm, be filled and be unemployed.”

Could we spend more time praying and thinking how to extend a hand up instead of merely offering a hand out? Could we point a way forward so that a lost generation might become the entrepreneurial generation? What if a new generation of apprentices of Jesus would not only lift up the banner of justice, but also bring the rich truths of the Gospel into the economic sphere of life? What if a rising generation would push back against a spirit of entitlement and class envy? What if a gutsy go-for-it new generation would embrace personal diligence, disciplined responsibility, self-sacrifice, risk-taking and creative entrepreneurship? What if more venture capital, economic opportunity and intergenerational mentoring were available both in our urban and suburban areas?

Read the whole thing.

In Honor of those Who Work Hard in the Lord

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Sometimes in evangelicalism today, it can be looked down on when somebody works a lot, or works hard, or takes risks for the cause of the gospel. The first thought is not always “way to go,” but rather “you must be doing something wrong.”

The Bible does not share that perspective. Paul tells us that “his grace toward me was not in vain….I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:11) and “we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:9). Perhaps most of all, he holds up to us Epaphroditus:

Receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me (Philippians 2:29-30).

So if you find yourself working a lot, and working really hard, by all means do seek to work less and find the right balance in your life. I’ve even written a book to, in part, try to help you do that.

But, in the meantime, way to go — and, thanks.

The Call to Do Good and the Call to Work: Are They at Odds?

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That’s the title of my guest post from yesterday at the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics. I will be guest posting there twice a month on the connections between theology, work, and economics, along with how we can live out the biblical doctrine of work in practical ways.

I am very excited about the work that is being done by the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics. They exist to educate and inspire Christians to think Biblically about issues of faith, work, and economics and “to steward their whole lives in a way that benefits society and glorifies God.” Thus, one of their chief aims is “to awaken Christians to the strategic role their work plays in God’s loving and redemptive narrative in the world.”

One of the reason I’m so excited about the institute is that creativity, purpose, and freedom are three of the core biblical principles behind everything they do. Here’s how they put it on their site:

  • Each person is created in God’s image and, like Him, has a desire to be creative and fulfilled using their God-given talents through work.
  • As we explore a comprehensive Biblical view of work, we understand that our work – whether paid or volunteer – matters to God and is an integral part of His purpose in this world.  For many of us, this is a paradigm shift in how we view work.
  • Indeed, God’s call to Christians is to pursue excellence throughout the week – not just on Sundays – stewarding all that we’ve been given for the good of others and God’s glory.
  • Therefore, if this is true about work, we as citizens must cherish and sustain an economic environment that not only provides us the freedom to flourish in our work but also reflects the inherent dignity of each human being.

In my view, those three principles are precisely what needs to be at the forefront if we are going to truly recover the biblical doctrine of work for what it really is.

You can learn more about IFWE on their website and also read their blog, Creativity, Purpose, Freedom.

Is it Really Biblical To Love Your Work? A Closer Look at Ephesians 6:5-8

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I’m a firm believer in doing work you love. Not only is this an intrinsic good, it also enables you to be more effective at what you do — and thus serve others with greater effectiveness, passion, and clarity.

But someone might say “Since God can use us wherever we are, it doesn’t matter if we love our work or not. So let’s get rid of this silly quest to actually like what we spend 40 hours (or more) of our weeks doing.”

Sounds a bit spiritual, right? Or, maybe I should say, sounds a bit…over spiritual. Which is the first sign of the problem. So let’s take a closer look at Paul’s core passage on work, Ephesians 6:5-8.

Paul does indeed teach that the Lord can use us anywhere, and that we can find joy in our work no matter what it is (assuming it is lawful). His teaching to slaves here is to “do the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, not that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.”

So, no matter our work is, we can indeed find a way to take joy in it because we can do it for the glory of Jesus. Specifically for slaves, Paul’s counsel is: “If you are a slave, don’t worry about. Do your work with joy, knowing that you are ultimately serving God. Your ability to make an impact will not be lessened because you are in slavery; do all the good you can in your work, knowing that you will be rewarded abundantly for it from the Lord.”

This is a precious, fundamental reality. So, following from this, we might then say: “So it doesn’t matter, then, if we actually like our jobs themselves. Who cares if you have a job you like? God uses you anyway.”

This is where the fact that Paul is here addressing those who are in slavery comes into play. I’ve always been slightly uncomfortable with how everyone applies this text directly to modern-day employees, as though we can just take it over wholesale. The general principles certainly remain, but the fact that Paul is addressing those in slavery here does mean something.

This flips us over to 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, where Paul addresses the issue in some more detail. Here Paul teaches us that we are to live according to the condition in which God has placed us. Paul’s counsel to slaves is “don’t worry about your condition. I know it is hard, but don’t worry that it diminishes your relationship with the Lord. You can do everything in your condition to God’s glory, and he will be fully pleased with you.”

The thing is this: God pays attention to the specific contexts of our lives and seeks to give us counsel tailored to our unique situations. Whereas those in slavery didn’t have any say over their work and roles, those who are free do have a say. That’s what it means to be free.

That matters. If you notice the argument of the passage, Paul’s point is that it is OK to live according to the context in which we find ourselves. “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him” (1 Corinthians 7:17). If you became a Christian while a slave, that’s OK. Likewise, if you became a Christian while free, that’s OK to. You can keep living as a free person. “In whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God” (1 Corinthians 7:24). And part of what it means to be a free person is that you have control over what jobs you choose and which career path you want to take. You can make those choices — it’s up to you.

So Paul is not saying to free people “just put up with whatever you’re given.” That’s contrary to the nature of being a free person. Paul expects free people to live as free people. Thus, it’s OK to seek a job you love. Again, that’s part of what it means to be free.

Paul’s counsel to those who are free, then, is simple: live as a free person. It’s OK! If you want to work in a field you love and have a job where the bulk of the activities are things you find engaging and which challenge you, go for it. You don’t have to fall for the trap of the over spiritualizers who say that since some people (maybe them?) don’t like their jobs, you shouldn’t either. “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him” (1 Corinthians 7:17). For those who are free, that means living according to the fact that you have freedom over what you choose for a job. So if you prefer, then seek a job you love.

It’s OK. Go for it!

How the Gospel Affects Our Work

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Matt Heerema recently preached an excellent sermon on how the gospel affects our work. This is the first message in a series his church is doing on the doctrine of vocation.

Here’s a great section where Matt summarizes why it is so important to understand God’s design and purpose for our work:

If we don’t get this right then we will sense, as I’m guessing many of us do, a disconnect between our spiritual life and our work life, and we will fall into one of several traps.

If we consider our daily work as eternally meaningless then some of us might put zero thought and effort into a potential career in the marketplace that could very well be one or five or ten of the talents that our Heavenly Master is entrusting into our care!

Or some of us might buy into the World’s system of doing work, according to the world’s philosophies of how to conduct business and treat each-other, and if you are a believer this will likely cause you a great amount of guilt or confusion and distance from God.

Or perhaps you will simply resign yourself to the drudgery of a “meaningless” work life, gritting your teeth against the inherent worldliness and worthlessness of it all.

And in every case we will miss the joy, pleasure, and power we can experience when we realize our daily “mundane” and “secular” tasks can glorify God and expand His kingdom in real and ways. And I’m hoping that as a result of this series, we’ll learn to be encouraged that our daily work matters to Him and will count for something eternal.

And most of all, because of that, we’ll become equipped to live every moment or our life with a constant awareness of His presence, His help, His concern, and His pleasure with and for our work, and let us do all that we do for His Glory!

You can both read and listen to the sermon online.

Christians in Silicon Valley

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A good article by Andy Crouch in Christianity Today on how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are taking a leap of faith to create technology that makes you more human.

It turns out that there are lots of Christians in Silicon Valley, and it is very encouraging to see how they are thinking about things and what they are doing.

Here’s a key part that gets at the essence of what Crouch has found:

Like the other Christians profiled in this story, Saber and Munro are not in the least interested in starting or running a “Christian company.” And also like the others, they relentlessly ask how their Christian faith shapes the company they have founded and run.

That’s a conjunction that I find very interesting. These Christians have a holistic perspective. They realize that the gospel matters for all of life, and yet also realize that the gospel calls us to avoid being spiritually weird (for example, promoting yourself as a Christian company while doing bad work, and not realizing the mismatch). The gospel is to shape the things we do in real ways, not artificial ways.

This is a much better testimony to the gospel than the guy who hands out tracts at the water cooler but who nobody wants on their team because he doesn’t realize that God wants him to actually care about his job.

Here’s another great quote:

We see business as a powerful instrument for aligning the human experience with its original design….Poverty, sickness, environmental degradation—we think God cares about these things and wants to be involved. So we believe he will be present when we ask.

Well said!

Is There a Christian Way to be a Bus Driver?

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Justin Taylor gives a great answer to this question, which helps us all understand how any area of life or occupation we have — whether bus driver, marketing director, CEO, web designer, programmer, custodian, or anything else — relates to our faith.

Justin shows that the single question of whether there is a “Christian” way to do seemingly “secular” things actually breaks down into several questions. These are the questions he answers, using a bus driver as the example:

  • Does the Bible teach how to be a bus driver?
  • Does the Bible teach how to be a Christian bus driver?
  • Can a non-Christian be a good bus driver?
  • Can a non-Christian be a better bus driver than a Christian?
  • Is there a distinctively Christian way to think about the particulars of each vocation?

Here’s what it comes down to: the gospel changes three chief things concerning the way we go about work that is chiefly in the arena of common grace:

  1. Our motive
  2. Our standards
  3. Our foundation (source of strength)

That is a slightly different way of stating it than Justin, but it is based on the same principles and comes down to the same thing.

As Justin points out, the gospel does not chiefly change our methods. For example, the Christian bus driver doesn’t have to put on special glasses before hopping into the drivers seat, still stops at red lights rather than green lights (let’s hope), and turns left by steering the wheel to the left and not right.

Read the whole thing.

How Then Should We Work?

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I’m really looking forward to Hugh Whelchel’s recent book How then Should We Work?: Rediscovering the Biblical Doctrine of Work. I’ve had a chance to dip into it a bit, and one of its stand-out features is a very helpful, succinct, and clear history of the different views on work and calling through the ages. I especially love his summary of Luther’s recapturing of the biblical view, especially his points that:

  • Vocation is the specific call to love our neighbors. That’s the essential meaning of the doctrine of vocation.
  • We live out this calling in the world, not by retreating from it. “Accord to Luther, we respond to the call to love our neighbor by fulfilling the duties associated with our everyday work.”
  • “We can only truly serve God in the midst of everyday circumstances, and all attempts to elevate the significance of the contemplative life are false.”

Hugh is executive director of the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics, whose mission is to equip Christians with a biblical theology of work and economics. They are doing excellent work, and I highly recommend them and their work.