Before sin entered the world… there was work in ruling, filling, subduing, taking care, engaging with and naming.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 1:26
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Genesis 1:28
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15
Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
Genesis 2:19
God’s work produced order (Garden), Beauty, and Abundance. Our work produces the same things.
Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food
Genesis 2:8-9
Engaging in work with your whole heart is one of the best ways to enjoy your days, get satisfaction from your accomplishments, and see meaning in your efforts. Work, at its best, is “love made visible,”
Arthur Brooks
Building Block 1: Work should be rewarding in more ways than one…
In 2022, for example, just 16 percent of employees were “very satisfied” with their work.4 Thirty-seven percent were “somewhat satisfied.” Everyone else said they were “somewhat dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied,” or said, “I am just glad to have a job.”
Arthur Brooks
Extrinsic Rewards (Pay and Benefits) are necessary but are not sufficient rewards.
Intrinsic Rewards:
- Earned Success gives you a sense of accomplishment and personal satisfaction
- Service to others gives a sense of purpose
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23-24
Building Block 2: Tread your own path
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10
There are different kinds of career paths:
- Linear: you select a career, you find a job, and you change jobs only when something better in your field comes along.
- Steady State: one job over decades, where one doesn’t advance much but increases in expertise.
- Transitory: jumps around all over the place based on non-job criteria, such as lifestyle, location, or social life.
- Spiral: A series of smaller careers where a person uses their skills and knowledge in one field and applies it to another
One measure of a right next step is that it excites and frightens you. A measure of a wrong next step is it makes you feel dead inside.
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of fait
Hebrews 12:1-2
Building Block 3: Whole life
“Workaholism (in some instances) develops as an attempt to reduce uncomfortable feelings of anxiety and depression.”
Academic Paper
What’s more, when it comes to work, people reward you for addictive behavior. No one says, “Wow, an entire bottle of gin in one night? You are an outstanding drinker.” But work sixteen hours a day, and you’ll probably get a promotion.
Arthur Brooks
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:10
Get the balance
- Do a “time audit”
- Schedule Downtime
- Program your active passtimes
Building Block 4: Be You, not your job.
Research shows that when people are reduced by others to, for example, physical attributes through objectifying stares or harassment, it can lower self-confidence and ability in tasks.30 The philosopher Immanuel Kant referred to this as becoming “an Object of appetite for another,” at which point “all motives of moral relationship cease to function.”
Arthur Brooks
Objectification is always wrong
So God created mankind in his own image,
Genesis 1:27
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
It is all too easy to lose your true self to a representation of yourself that is your job title or duties. You aren’t Mary, mother of three, or John, devoted husband; first and foremost you are Mary, regional manager, or John, senior teacher. This is what is called self-objectification.
Arthur Brooks
Put space between you and your job
If there is no Sabbath — no regular and commanded not-working, not-talking — we soon become totally absorbed in what we are doing and saying, and God’s work is either forgotten or marginalized. When we work we are most god-like, which means that it is in our work that it is easiest to develop god-pretensions. Un-sabbathed, our work becomes the entire context in which we define our lives. We lose God-consciousness, God-awareness, sightings of resurrection. We lose the capacity to sing “This is my Father’s world” and end up chirping little self-centered ditties about what we are doing and feeling.
Eugene Peterson
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
Hebrews 4:9-11
for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
Surround yourself with friends outside your professional circles
Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Luke 14:12-14
How will you invest 1/3 of your remaining days?
What all happy jobs have in common is that for you, the work is something better than just a means to a physical end. That is why we titled this chapter “Work That Is Love Made Visible.” This can be a tall order. There are days when your work doesn’t feel like love made visible, invisible, or anything else. The trick isn’t arriving at some far-off state of perfection, it is working toward getting better. To get happier, you strive toward the goal of making your work meaningful.
Albert Brooks
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
2 Corinthians 5:20
Small Group Questions
- How does knowing that work existed before sin change the way you view your work?
- What gives your work the greatest sense of meaning: achievement, serving others, or something else?
- How can you tell the difference between pursuing God’s calling and simply pursuing success?
- Have you ever found your identity becoming too wrapped up in your work? What helps keep Christ at the centre?
- What is one practical step you could take this week to develop a healthier relationship with work?