Message:
I was in DC last week and had dinner with my son-in-law’s brother, Rob.
Rob’s work involves overseeing US involvement in Syria…he has had a variety of similar jobs working for different bosses with high speed jobs and titles.
We discussed some of what he has seen the ten or so years he has worked in DC…especially the people who seem to find their identity or meaning in their work.
One was a high ranking military leader who Rob met with in Bahrain and shortly after that man took his own life…we talked about the pressures of jobs and perspectives on work and life that would lead to something like this happening.
We talked about all the important people in history who had walked the streets of DC…who were long gone, largely forgotten.
We talked about how we must pay attention to what is actually real and true about our lives and our work…it is easy to get off track.
We are made for impact…the purpose of our lives is to know and love God…this is revealed primarily in us living for the good of others…love for God shows up most often in love for others.
The purpose of our work…is a subset of the purpose of our lives…work purpose is tied to life purpose.
There are Two Extremes people tend to take in regard to work.
Though most of the time we live somewhere in between these extremes…Often there is a particular wind that blows in our lives that tends to push towards one of them.
Sometimes, like we heard in Doug’s story…we move from one imbalance to another.
The extremes are:
- We work to live
Or
- We live to work
There is some truth in both statements, but neither are actually true in the extreme.
We do work to live…providing for ourselves and others is a blessing of work but not its purpose.
We can find meaning in work…God has made us creative beings…but work is not where we are to find our purpose.
*Really in both extremes we are trying to find “meaning in our work”
-Whether the meaning is the result of our work (finding meaning in providing for our families)
-Or the meaning is in the work itself
Let’s look at the two pole positions…why they lack biblical balance.
1.Work to live is where work has no real meaning other than to give me what I need or my family needs to survive.
It is a utilitarian approach to work.
The Soviet system, with it’s atheist foundation saw humans as machines.
Beauty, meaning, purpose…had little to no place in that worldview.
I was in Moscow a couple years after the Iron Curtain fell…it was built like you would imagine a machine would build a city for other machines.
Efficient…but not effective…because humans are not machines.
We do not do well without beauty, meaning, purpose…in our lives and work…it is part of our design.
Adam and Eve were placed in a garden…and were given creative work to do.
We are not machines, we do not work merely as machines.
Even in combat zones the military has MWR people and opportunities(morale, welfare, recreation)…why?
We are not machines, soldiers are better soldiers when this is taken into account.
We are not merely animals either…the squirrels in my yard are very diligent workers…they occasionally chase one another around…but then they get back to work.
Late summer they are especially busy finding and hiding food…to survive the winter…in order to make it to summer…in order to find and hide food…in order to survive winter…then they go where squirrels go to die. (the average squirrel lives about 2 years)
Sounds oppressive…but they don’t seem to mind…they are, after all, squirrels.
Be we are not…we are built for purpose.
On the other side of the spectrum, the opposite imbalance is where we live to work.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla tweeted recently:
“Nobody every changed the world on 40 hours a week”
Last year he worked 120 hours a week and slept on the factory floor.
He says he is now down to a sustainable 80-90 hours a week.
I would argue that nobody every changed the world in ways that matter working 80 hour weeks consistently.
To live to work is to miss the point of work and living.
We do not merely work to live and we do not live to work.
Our work is meaningful whether we believe we are “changing the world” or just being faithful at our posts.
Much like Paul wrote to a group of 1st century believers…
1Thess 4:11 Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Biblically the work we do as Christ followers is meaningful…but it does not give us meaning…Christ does.
This may sound like semantics but in practice it is not just words but life balance.
I don’t just work like a machine or animal…I am an image bearer.
I also do not to turn my work into an idol…a false image of God…it cannot give meaning, God alone can.
Our perspective on human work begins with God.
God did creative work: He created the cosmos from nothing…and he enjoyed the outcome…he said “This is really good!”
He didn’t need to work for survival and he didn’t need to work for meaning.
Why did he do it?
He is a creative being…he “worked” to create because he wanted to…then he enjoyed his work.
Then he rested from his work…not because he was tired but because he was finished.
He gave humanity work to do…not merely to survive and not to find meaning apart from him.
They were to trust him for survival and for meaning…and to do creative work as his sons and daughters…to enjoy it as he enjoyed it.
The fall affected this, but did not remove it completely.
The creative work came immediately after he made them…including the fundamentals of science: taxonomy…naming animals
As well as tending to and cultivating the earth.
This was part of being made in his image.
Then, humanity was to rest…to not work 7 days a week…this was built into the creation.
Humans can work 7 days a week…and sometimes have to…but the design was to rest in order for us to live with balance….work, life, worship balance.
During the Exodus…God, provided food for his people and they were to do the work of collecting it 6 days a week.
But on Friday, they were to collect enough for Sabbath (Saturday)…that day was different.
They were to trust that God would provide…and they were not to work like they were mere animals…or to worship work…they were to rest.
In their rest…they demonstrated their reliance on God.
The principle of Sabbath was made into strange things because people came to misunderstand its purpose.
There is a clear fishing line tied around the island of Manhattan…most people walking the streets don’t notice it.
However many observant Jews rely on this string to leave their houses on the Sabbath.
According to the human interpretations that emerged from God’s Sabbath principle…no one can do any work (like carry things) outside the domestic zone (home) to the public zone.
No one can carry house keys, wallet, or push a baby stroller…this meant that parents with small children could not leave the house on Saturday.
200 cities around the world have fishing line creating a city-wide “home”… it costs about 150,000 year to maintain this fishing line in Manhattan.
One woman said the “fishing line allows her to rest from worry”…she is not breaking the Sabbath.
Clearly this is not the point of the principle of Sabbath.
Jesus said “Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man”
The Sabbath as God intended gives lie to both the extremes:
I Work to live (No, Christ provides life…stop working today, trust and worship)
I Live to work (No, Christ is my life…stop working today, it is not where you find meaning.)
The Sabbath gives balance to our lives…we exist to worship.
Most days we worship through our work…the creative labor of our hands.
By the way…all of our work is creative work…not just people like Jamin…teachers, doctors, people in stores, parents…we don’t create from nothing, like God did…but we do create.
But one day…we are to stop…we remember…that though most days we work…work is not our life…Christ is.
Does this mean we are to do nothing on one day a week?
Sabbath was not a law meant to create burdens…it was a principle to remind us of how God has designed us as people.
Now because of the resurrection…most Christians worship on Sunday.
So on Sunday are we are supposed to lay around and do as little as possible…other than go to church? Some think so.
For me, to do nothing would not be restful or worshipful…it would be the opposite.
We are designed to stop what we are doing on a regular basis and remember the purpose of our lives.
We do not live to work and we do not merely work to live.
We live to honor God, and we honor God best by loving people.
The purpose of work is a subset of the purpose of life.
Work, like life itself is tied to the Great Commandment…which Jesus said sums up the will of God for our lives.
Matt. 22:37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
How work demonstrates love for God and love for others is revealed in many ways.
But balance regarding the role of work is essential.
We must not let work take the place of God in our lives:
-God provides for our needs(though he uses and blesses our work)
-God is where we find meaning(though he makes work meaningful)
In a work group I was in last week in DC…the lady next to me “cursed” then immediately got embarrassed and apologized to me in front of the group…because I’m a chaplain.
I Smiled, I told her it was fine, I’ve been around.
But I am often tempted to say to people, especially who are not people of faith, when they find out what I “do for a living”
“Hey, I don’t just do religious stuff…let me tell you why what I do is important.”
I want to argue for meaning in my work and life.
Stupid, I know…but so far I have mostly thought it and not actually said it.
Why? Why I do I want people I don’t even know to think that I am important?
Why do people who don’t know me…sometimes give me long narratives on why what they do is important?
Because we struggle with being people pleasers.
Some act like they don’t care what people think (I was with one last week)…but they do…he does…it was evident as I watched him and listened to him.
People pleasing (impressing or being impressed by others) drives much of what humans do.
Here is the verse that has been important to me over the years…I think about it often.
Gal. 1:10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ
Work brings meaning for many…it how some people keep score…Money. Prestige. Power.
Or find their Identity
“I am a singer, artist, teacher, mom, engineer…”
It may not be their work but something else they do or are that they find identity in.
“Veteran” “Dog owner” “Democrat” “republican” “I fly” I ski” “I am a musician.”
This is not, of course, all bad…but much of it is a sign of our struggle with being people pleasers.
This is the trap of looking to what we do some cases have done in order to have meaning in our lives.
When we look to our work for meaning rather than to Christ for life meaning…we are most often at least to some degree comparing ourselves to others.
We are living as “people-pleasers” whether we think we compare favorable or not so much…we are playing to the wrong audience…God’s opinion of us matters.
The proper response to being a people pleaser, and something I have to pray often is simply “Forgive me.”
Then turn your thoughts to “how do I bless this person rather than trying to impress or be impressed by them?”
When we live as people pleasers we are not pleasing God…because we are not loving people.
Balance is essential:
Work hard…but trust God with your life.
Enjoy the work of your hands…but find your life in Christ.
We are a servants of Christ…he is the one we are look to please.
He is pleased with faithful love for him and others…let this attitude drive how we look at and go about our work…whatever that work is.
Someday…what we “do” will change.
Children will be raised and gone.
We will stop flying for living (65) or teaching or designing or building.
We will lose the ability to do the hobbies that some find meaning in.
We may become ill or disabled.
We will all die
What happens when we can no longer do what we find meaning in doing…the work itself, or providing for others through the work?
We must tether all that we do…all meaning…to Christ.
There we are positioned to thrive in Christ through all the circumstances of our lives.
Phil. 4:11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Heard from Doug…conversation with Jamin…Jamin has totally different kind of “job” than most of us do.
Jamin
- Surely painting never feels like work?
- How is doing art different or is it from say what Doug does.
- How do you maintain perspective…not find identity in what you do?
- How do you see God getting glory in your art?
-Your painting and your writing isn’t “religious” stuff.