Bill had just made a career move that promised him more than he had ever hoped for—prestige, the chance to rub shoulders with notable people, a reasonable work week, and best of all a 50% pay increase. So, he was caught off guard with how empty he felt after the first month of his new job. In his own words, “At the end of the day, I simply do not have the impression that I’ve invested myself. There is no feeling of having accomplished something worthwhile.”
Bill put his finger on what is one of the most fundamental urges of men. Perhaps even more than security and peace, excitement and adventure, we long for a sense of productiveness in our lives—to know that we are spending ourselves doing something that matters.
I believe this fundamental longing is explained by Genesis 2:15 where God places Adam in the Garden to work it and to keep it. In particular, the Hebrew word for “work” is avad, which means to cultivate, to transform one’s surroundings, to impact the world around us. Men want their lives to be something more than a passing comet. Christian men want to hear “well done,” from the lips of their creator and master when they get to the end of the race marked out for them. The foundation of the podcast/blog, Mission Focusd Men for Christ is recognizing that IF we are to hear those words, we need to stay focused on our mission. No one achieves greatness by accident.
Last time we examined the unmistakable biblical truth that our vocational work matters immensely to God, and is, in fact, a calling from him. We saw that because God himself is a worker he created us in his image to be WORKERS and that serving God in our vocation is the means by which God cares for his creation. We noted that God intentionally left his creation unfinished so that we could continue to develop the potential built into the created world and shape the world and culture FOR God. We also saw that the very interdependence we experience with each others’ vocations means a mutual dependency in order to flourish. For this reason, doing our work well, is a true expression of the second greatest commandment, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Today, we turn to an examination of the impact that our race’s fall into sin has had upon our call to the workplace. Let’s look at God’s curse on Adam and Eve because of their treason. In Genesis 3, we read:
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (3:16-19).
This text tells us why the two great tasks of life—love and work—are so profoundly difficult and full of suffering. God ties the pain that now goes along with human love and marriage to the pain that accompanies our vocational work. Both child-bearing and farming are called “painful labor.” Sin affects not only personal and private life, but also public, social, and economic life, and especially work. Work is not, itself, a curse. Work is a good and glorious thing that we do to image God the Great Worker. But work lies under the curse of sin, having become painful, frustrating and hard, after the fall.
THREE WAYS THAT SIN CORRUPTS OUR VOCATIONAL WORK
A. First, work becomes painfully frustrating. Thorns and thistles will come up as we seek to grow food. Since gardening is representative of all kinds of human labor, we learn that all work and culture-building will be marked by resistance and opposition that frustrate our efforts to achieve our goals, and decrease work’s satisfaction. TIm Keller explains one aspect of this painful frustration:
In all our work we will be able to envision far more than we can accomplish, both because of a lack of ability and because of resistance in the environment around us. The experience of work will include pain, conflict, envy, and fatigue, and not all our goals will be met. For example, you may have an aspiration to do a certain kind of work and perform at a certain level of skill and quality, but you may not even get the opportunity to do the work you want, or if you do, you may not be able to do it as well as it needs to be done. Your conflicts with others in the work environment will sap your confidence and undermine your productivity.
But even during times when you are satisfied with the quality of your work, you may be bitterly disappointed with the results. You may find that circumstances conspire to neutralize any real impact from your project. You may have mastered the skills of farming, but famine, or flood, or war come in and destroy your harvest. You may have become an accomplished singer, but you are not able to generate an income from your talent because you are skillful in music but not in self-promotion, or because ruthless rivals find ways of blackballing you. And so you have to give up your music career (Every Good Endeaver).
The damage that sin does to our work accomplishments is not all OUT THERE; much of the damage is INSIDE OURSELVES. It is our own sinful nature that may cause our anger to wound those who work for us enough to quit, or our own lack of trust in God that causes us to allow our worries to lead us down fruitless rabbit trails that waste time, hurting our productivity.
A great deal of our motivation for work comes from being successful at it. It feels good to succeed, and Ephesians 2:10 tells us that before the foundation of the world, God created us to be successful at the good works he has shaped us to accomplish. However, the impact of the fall on our work means that often we will not be receiving the positive feedback of succeeding in our labor. Instead, obstacles in every direction impede our progress, difficulties of all kinds thwart our efforts, and repeated failures sap our motivation. In a fallen world, the pleasure of success is often missing from our work, forcing us to stay motivated in other ways.
That is when we need to remember what we studied last week—that we are in the workplace because God has sent us there on his mission—the mission to care for his creation, the mission to develop the potential of his creation, the mission to love our neighbor as ourselves through vocation, doing our part through our cultural interconnectivity so that we all may flourish. As Paul commanded the Colossian Christians, Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ (3:23-24). A friend of mine recounts a discussion he had with a frustrated car mechanic trying to convince him of the importance of his calling to be a mechanic.
I said, “At least you have a job that will make a difference in the history of the world.” He didn’t look at me like I was a nut. Actually, he seemed curious, so I continued, “All these people bring their cars to you for service so they have reliable transportation to go to work where they will earn the money that pays for the groceries, car payments, rent, children’s education, health care, and so much more. And then there are all the mothers who depend on you to make sure their cars work properly so they can safely drive their children to school, sporting events, and after-school activities” (Pat Morley, The Christian Man).
The fall causes work to be so full of frustration that we cannot sustain our motivation through occasional success alone. The painful toil expended, of pushing past thorns and thistles, is often NOT rewarded by success. So we feel like giving up. The perspective required to sustain our work motivation, therefore, is the truth that Christ has called us to the workplace as a way of caring for and developing his creation, and as a way of loving our neighbor. This first result of the fall is that our work often leads to frustrated goals rather than success.
B. The second result of fall is that even if it does eventually lead to some success it, work is HARD. We succeed only through “the sweat on our face” (Gen 3:18). Sweat is the result of exertion. Because of the fall, extra effort—exertion—is now required to do the work assigned by God to Adam and his posterity before the fall. Murphy’s law is a great summary of the effect of sin on our work: If anything can go wrong it will. The work environment, even the earth itself, remains uncooperative. The thorns and thistles of God’s curse in Genesis 3 reflect the broader curse upon all of creation, described by Paul in Romans 8:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now (vs 20-22).
Not only does the curse of the ground make work hard, sin’s corruption impacts all of the relationships at the workplace as well—with bosses, employees, coworkers, subcontractors, customers, competitors. But these very difficulties and frustrations in the workplace make work one of the primary places where God accomplishes another fundamental part of our mission, building godly character. We are called TO BE LIKE CHRIST. Paul tells us that all of the difficulties, pain, and hardship resulting from the fall, work together to reach God's goal of conforming us to the image of Christ: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:28-29).
For every way that sin has corrupted the workplace, there is an aspect of Christ-like character to be learned. An irritating work associate is the opportunity to learn patience. Being unfairly treated is the opportunity to learn to forgive. Being falsely accused is the opportunity to entrust your cause to the one who judges justly. Being unappreciated is the opportunity to serve others with a pure heart. Having a demanding boss is the opportunity to learn faithfulness (and maybe to speak the truth in love!) Working with someone who always puts you down provides the opportunity to learn Christ-like love. As Jesus said, If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them (Luke 6:32).
Indeed, part of our marketplace calling is show the Christ-like character that will shine as lights in the dark place of the culture. Consider what Paul said to the Philippians: Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (2:14-15).
The workplace is the place where we live out our calling to BUILD CULURE. Because of the fall, it is also the place where GOD BUILDS US ONTO CHRIST-LIKE MEN.
C. The third way that the fall impacts work is that work can easily become an idol. The term idolatry in Scripture, refers to relying upon something other than God to meet the needs of your heart and life. The power of idols is in the good feelings they promise to deliver. The truth is that work success has enormous potential to bring good feelings to us—those of respect, significance, self-worth, identity, prestige, power, admiration. Work success may also have the power to deliver wealth, which leads to another whole host of good feelings—financial security, enjoying a beautiful car, home, the pleasures of great vacations and travel. It is easy to see why many a man might keep on working, well past quitting time, serving the idol, Work Success, and becoming a workaholic.
Here is the best way I know of to keep work from becoming an idol. Be sure you understand your mission from Christ holistically, and find neither your identity nor your primary calling in your vocational work. Here is what I mean: When I set out to become a pastor, I was very worried that I would become a workaholic. I knew that the idol of success in my church planting effort would lead me to neglect my family, as many pastors have done. I knew that I had to do two things to keep from workaholism.
1) I needed to define my calling from Christ holistically—so that succeeding at my church was just a part of my mission, but so was growing in my love for Christ, loving my wife well, and discipling my children. I wanted to define my mission so that I would focus on building a relationship with my neighbor to lead him to Christ—even if he never came to my church. It had to be holistic. As I compiled the verses in Scripture that had to do with my mission as a Christ follower, they divided into 3 groups, which also corresponded with Christ’s three offices of prophet, priest, and king. Christ as priest, CALLS US TO HIMSELF to enjoy a love relationship with him. As prophet Christ empowers us to BE LIKE CHRIST, when it comes to our character. Christ as king, CALLS US TO EXERCISE DOMINION (to accomplish his agenda of righteousness) OVER EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES—not just work. I then organized my Day Timer around accomplishing the various aspects of my mission.
2) I sought to avoid workaholism by build the habit of meeting with my Christ, my CO once a week Sunday afternoon or Monday morning just to stay focused on my WHOLE mission—not just Shady Grove church. Vocational success offers so many rewards for our hearts, that we must keep it balanced with the other callings in our lives.
For Further Thought:
1. How has the frustration of work been getting you down? How can rethinking that Christ’s call is to the workplace add motivation?
2. Identify the two hardest things about your work. What character qualities might God be using these trials to build in you?
3. How do you need to balance the truth that your call to the workplace matters greatly to Christ and the reality that your mission is far greater than your vocation?
