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Business
Do You Bring Meaning to your Work?
by
Mark Russell
As an undergrad student majoring in International Business, I loved both business and the Bible. I was eager to serve God and go into business. But I didn’t know you could do both.
My spiritual mentors saw in me the gift of teaching and encouraged me to go into “ministry.” They also said my interest in global activities (international business) should be channeled into cross-cultural missions.
Knowing no other alternative, I followed their advice—albeit temporarily.
Ever since, I’ve been on a mission to integrate God with the world of work. But I notice that getting this type of advice from spiritual mentors—to channel your gifts into ministry—Is not at all unusual. When it comes to meaning and purpose in life, people of faith, regardless of their faith, tend to look for it in cathedrals, churches, temples, mosques or wherever their community of faith gathers. What they listen to and learn there becomes their spiritual world.
There is one glaring problem with this approach, however. Namely, the amount of time people spend in their place of faith compared to where they spend the rest of their lives.
Even a devoted person of faith attends religious or spiritual events a mere 70-80 hours a year. In America the average workweek is creeping close to 50 hours or a total of 2400 hours a year. That means even a committed person of faith spends 30-40 times more hours at work than in their faith community.
If we are going to have genuine meaning in our lives it needs to flow into all spheres, and time spent at the workplace is the biggest chunk of time for the vast majority of us.
Many people have talked about meaning and work, but it is with a sort of passivity, as if they hope to stumble across it on their way to the water cooler. But if we are to have meaning in our lives, we have to be proactive. This means bringing meaning to work rather than waiting to find it.
For most people work is something of a necessity, which is done to get more money to buy more stuff. But for work to have meaning, it can’t just be a means to an end. It has to be something that has genuine value in and of itself.
For me it is quite interesting that the Hebrew and Christian Bible start with, of all things, God working (Genesis 2:2-3). God creates humans in his image to imitate and represent Him. God then immediately commissions the humans to work.
When you ask most people what is spiritual, they will tend to think of something like singing or praying or meditating or some other worthy activity. But the very first passage in the Bible demonstrates that it is our work that is of fundamental importance.
For us to live our faith with consistency and integrity it has to be spread throughout our lives—and that undoubtedly includes our work lives. If this is true, then we don’t have to try and find meaning at work, but instead can realize that work itself is meaningful.
Have you found meaning at work?
What helps you find meaning or what prevents you from it?
Editor's Note: This article is was originally posted on
The High Calling
and is posted here with permission.
The artwork above was found
here
.
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Comments
Marcus Goodyear
I regularly ask myself, "Am I finding meaning at work?" But lately, I've also begun to ask myself, "Am I finding meaning outside of my work too?"
Oddly, my work is helping other people think about the meaning of their work. But at the end of the day, I need to find meaning in the pile of Legos with my son, or the play rehearsal with my daughter, or the web work I do for my church. In the morning, I enjoy the quiet time running and the extra time loading poems onto my blog. I try to find meaning in Facebook and a glass of good beer on the back porch as the sun goes down.
For me, finding meaning in work is more about slowing down in my work. I need goals. I need to be productive, yes. But I also need to reserve enough space in my work that I can respond quickly to immediate needs of my supervisor, coworkers, and community. The more I remember the human community of my work, the more likely I am to find the meaning of it.
Deidra Riggs
Seeing the numbers, right up there in black and white, is an eye-opener! 70-80 hours compared to 2400 hours.
I wonder if this need to ask if we find meaning at work is a result of a general "habit" of segmenting our lives? You know, categorizing what we do and where we go as being either spiritual or secular, sacred or not.
L.L. Barkat
I wonder if meaning is the thing we should look for anyway. I like to find little moments of beauty and joy. These are smaller goals than *meaning,* though I suppose they are part of it.
Stephie
Mark, I was encouraged to read this by Marcus. :) I am currently not 'working' because of health issues, and sometimes it's difficult to feel that I am bringing meaning to other aspects of life. But I remember the words in the Bible where it says whatever you are doing do it wholesouled as if to God. I am encouraged by others and I hope that I am an encouragement to them. I've learned a lot from The High Calling members and articles like this one. Thanks!
Sam Van Eman
Good to see this article here, Mark. Proactive is key. I get used to daily patterns: an hour Sunday, 40 through the week, evenings with family...and lose the sharp edge of engagement I need. Moving along without thought of why each of these is valuable to the other keeps me ignorant, my life compartmentalized, and my faith impotent.
I can't say it's always this way. Community awakens me from time to time. Personal conviction to make a difference beckons, and the Scriptures provide reminders like the one you mention. But too often, what you're saying here is too true.
Dan Roloff
"For us to live our faith with consistency and integrity it has to be spread throughout our lives..." That is such a true statement and it takes intentional effort on our part to live that way.
It's easy to say that God is interested in everything we do. It is much more difficult to live as though we believe it. What we do matters to God.
I like the oft quoted phrase, "God's method is a man." That man was Jesus, God fully human. So every one of us that follows is part of that method because if we believe that God came to us fully human then he embraces our full humanity too.
laura boggess
So many good thoughts here. Being the weak human I am, I often tend to get stuck in these compartmentalizations. But when I live life in the Bigger Picture, I am able to see all of it as ministry--the work and the play and the ho hum of the day. Trouble is, keeping my mind on bigger picture things. Articles like these help me do that, Mark. It's important to keep talking about these things.
Ann Kroeker
Our work matters. So simple, so true, so important to remind ourselves as we go about our day.
Thanks for these thoughts, Mark,
Tom
I have worked for a combined total of 15 years at Christian ministries and more than that in several public and private corporations ranging from multiantional maufacturing to internet startup... dot.bomb if you will. I am with Mark - my work is my worship and an offering to God. (I also worship at a local assembly that gets far more than 80 hours of my time. :-) )
Charity Singleton
I feel like Deidra - those numbers say so much. I want my work to have value, to be a place where I am the whole me, and not just a worker bee. Just like when I am at church I want to be more than a parishioner. I am so thankful that we can become like and get to know God in all of the arenas of our lives, that "spiritual" is not limited to just a few hours on Sunday.
Ann Gordon
If we strive to become one with God, then we inhale and exhale with Him, and we live life in an attitude of prayer. The result is that we become a living example of Christianity. Is there any better way to witness our faith andto help others! What joy.
Kelly Sauer
I love this article, love that work itself didn't come "after the Fall." God never meant for us to do nothing; our hearts needed something to do.
I grew up thinking that the only way to work for God was to go into ministry. Anything else would require me to do double-time to keep up with Him and keep the meaning there. I always felt that I would have to tack Him onto anything I did that wasn't specifically about Him. But what Ann Gordon said here is so powerful - "we inhale and exhale with Him," doing whatever we do for the glory of God.
Glynn Young
What helps me find meaning at work is to constantly remind myself that life is not split into secular and spiritual spheres. It's all one sphere. Spiritual needs are just as great as work as they are anyone else.
The hard part is living my life at work so that people see the gospel.
Sheila Lagrand
"My spiritual mentors saw in me the gift of teaching and encouraged me to go into 'ministry.'"
Perhaps this advice makes sense when one is counseling a young adult just beginning to chart a course. But for the rest of us, it seems backwards.
Would it not be better for me to look at where I am at this very moment and find the ways to minister in that place? Work, the kitchen table, the bedroom, driving on the freeway....everywhere?
This post is provocative. I'll be reflecting on it.
Howard lawrence
I have found that seeing Gods activity in the work place and the neighborhood place and joining him there fully integrates my life. Loving our neighbors in these places and working to form "a people for His name" in both of these arenas is our simply calling (or sending).
Thanks for the article
Karis B
I would encourage those interested in this topic of integration and understanding marketplace ministry (our impact for the kingdom via business or career) read Annointed for Business by Ed Silvoso, and Convergence by Brett Johnson.
Julie
Amen. A few years ago, we wanted to have a "family motto" of sorts, and struggled with what it should be, what scripture to put over our door. Our son (10 at the time?), ran upstairs, after some back and forth in scripture and blank looks, nothing was working.
He came down with Zechariah 8:13 "You will be a blessing to others. Don't be afraid. Let your hands be strong, so that you can do my work."
We believe that the Lord gave him that scripture. It's deep.
Heather
As a teacher, I've always approached my work with a sense of purpose and meaning, but I have a tendency to separate out "ministry" from work. I want to be able to share Jesus with people and see lives changes and do something "radical," and all the while I'm working for Jesus in a very broken place, shining a light into dark lives. Working in an environment that is so molded by our culture, media and lack of godly input can be daunting enough, but when I realize it has spiritual purpose too, that changes everything. I want to be able to point to my Bible studies led, ministries started, etc., but God is pleased by the day in and day out ministry of just working in the midst of this dirty world and feeling His pain there too.
David W
It's interesting that we want so desperately to view work as meaningful. Aristotle definitely did not view it so. He had a low opinion of work and viewed that the meaningful things of life (art, philosophy) could only be enjoyed by the idle rich. For much of church history, menial labor was viewed as Adam's Curse and only ministry and the priesthood were worthy of work. Is meaningful work a product of culture, or rooted in a spiritual characteristic?
Megan
Mark, thanks for this because I struggle with it daily. I to studied international business and hope(d) that one day I'd "stumble" onto something with deeper meaning. Slowly God's showing me the importance of finding peace and your place in the machine. Great post!
Christian Overman
This message is for Mark Russell:
Excellent!
You might enjoy this:
http://maximizemeaning.blogspot.com
Blessings.
Christian Overman
Marcus Goodyear
David W, you asked, "Is meaningful work a product of culture, or rooted in a spiritual characteristic?"
I'm not a Hebrew scholar, but I think meaningful work starts in Genesis. The first thing we see is a God who works. He rests, too. Then he creates a garden and places people there to "work it." It's a different Hebrew word in 2:15, but the concept is similar. Adam and Eve are expected to labor in the garden and serve as God's subjects there.
David Miller has devoted much of his time at Yale and Princeton to exploring the Hebrew concept of Avodah, which is related to the idea of work in Gen. 2:15.
At TheHighCalling.org and the Foundations for Laity Renewal we begin with the assumption that being fully human means we are working productively somewhere. I think our culture would prefer we idolize work, rather than just try to find meaning in it. That is, we must always remember that our work has meaning because we bring meaning to it.
David W
@Marcus:
I guess this begs the question why we as individuals are the arbiters of whether work should be meaningful or not? Should I be the decider of whether my work as an accountant is meaningful? This seems to be a very Western Post-Enlightenment way of thinking - a product of culture? Or is there an declaration of meaning that comes ex cathedra.
Early Roman Catholics viewed work only as meaningful if it was clergy work. The work of making barrels and shoes was not a "high calling", it was a necessary consequence of the Fall.
In Genesis, God's work of Creation is good. He deems it to be good and therefore it must be good. Adam and Eve are tasked with work in the garden by God. The meaningfulness of their work stems from God, not their own derived meaning. After the Fall, the ground is cursed and they must toil to bring forth its fruit.
Personally, I want meaning in my work. But I wonder if the constant pursuit of meaningful work is a product of our times and ultimately just a justification of our self-interested need to scratch our mark on the universe.
Leah Heller
I enjoyed your article immensely. I have been pondering how to incorporate my accounting an my love for the ministry so it helps me to know that are people are wanting to have work be enmeshed with ministry. God bless you for speaking out.
Comments are now closed
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