I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to be one of the seven dwarfs heading off to work….you can provide the whistling! Smiles on their faces, excitement in their step, off to a meaningful day—in a diamond mine!!
No wonder they were excited. No wonder only one of them was called “Grumpy.” When was the last time you went off to work in your own diamond mine? Our jobs are typically not this lucrative. We wake up, drag ourselves out of bed listening to “all bad news radio,” and jump into our car to face a long traffic jam on the way to work. Max Anders concludes, “…for many people, work is drudgery, a meaningless necessity.” (Max Anders, The Good Life, 209). With little connection between their workplace and the rest of their life, is it really possible to earn a living and make a life—to honestly enjoy my work?
If Life’s So Good, Why Am I So Unhappy?
Your work can be enjoyable. The key is your perspective. I love the way Doug Sherman says it: “But unlike those who only work for their own ego gratification, you have a higher calling. Work, as God intended it, is a gift from the Lord to bring glory to Him. It is a gift, a high honor that you have your job. The psalmist says, ‘When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalm 8:3-6, KJV).
“But the point of this high calling is to bring glory to God, not ourselves. Thus your focus and perspective at work should be to bring glory to God by the way you do your work. Your integrity, the excellence you bring to your job, your ambition, and the quality of your peer relationships can all reflect the glory of the Savior.”
Paul echoes this truth in his own way in Philippians 1:20 and 3:14 when he says, “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death….I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Many times the difference between fulfillment and exasperation in the workplace is a sense of purpose. Sherman and Hendricks note, “many workers in the modern marketplace feel increasingly bored with their jobs and with life. This is the subtext of all the glitzy beer, hamburger, and travel commercials that show hardworking laborers building America and solving its problems. They portray the workplace not as it is but as we wish it could be—an engrossing, challenging, even uplifting human drama in which each of us performs our strategic role and fulfills a personal mission. Instead, for many, work is ‘just a job.’ Its value begins and ends with a paycheck.”
Your work is not a prison, but it will seem that way without a purpose. The Lord Jesus had a purpose. Even as a young man He said, “I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). Never forget that work was God’s idea. Please read Genesis 1:27-28. The key to enjoying this work is our purpose and perspective. Yes, I work to pay the bills and provide security for the ones I love. Yes, I work to give myself the wonderful opportunity to give and support others in the Lord’s work. But ultimately I work for the Lord. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” Working for the Lord doesn’t happen just while you are at church, but wherever He puts you. And when you see the real purpose—serving God—as the reason for working, you have the beginnings of a satisfying work environment.
On the journey with you,
Pastor Glen
Doug Sherman, Keeping Your Head Up When Your Job’s Got You Down (Brentwood, Tennessee: Wolgemuth & Hyatt Publishers, Inc., 1991), 62-63.
Doug Sherman and William Hendricks, Your Work Matters to God (Colorado Springs: Nav Press, 1987), 17.
