The Regent World 33, 1 (2021) on Vocation

The latest issue of The Regent World, published Regent College, Vancouver, is devoted to ‘Vocation Reimagined: Being the Church in a Time of Uncertainty’. Here is the blurb:

‘For the world at large, this past year has been bleak. Many of us have had our lives uprooted by the pandemic, civil unrest, racial injustice, and more, which has led to ongoing and multi-faceted loneliness and loss. Yet, churches have not lost their way. In this issue, published in partnership with Regent Exchange, we feature the stories of individuals and churches who are reimagining their vocation as the people of God and contributing to the common good in a diversity of places and spaces.

‘As you read these reflections, poems, and case studies, we hope you’ll be inspired to keep serving God and those he brings to you. May we all experience this season as a time of forging new paths forward and looking to the future with hope – hope for our own lives, our communities, and the church at large.’

Individual articles are available from here.

On How God Provides

The below is an excerpt from an email written for the congregation where I am one of the pastors.

We know that God can provide miraculously. He’s done it on several occasions: manna in the wilderness, oil in a jar that doesn’t run out, small amounts of bread and fish which feed thousands...

Amazingly, though, in the normal scheme of things, he chooses to provide through a combination of the turn of the seasons, the rhythm of sowing and reaping, and a lot of hard work. It’s just as miraculous in its own way.

So, we pray ‘Give us today our daily bread’ (Matthew 6:11), but we don’t expect the bread suddenly to appear in the bread bin. (If it does in your household, please let us know!) God is still the ultimate giver of the bread, of course, but he provides it through a combination of farmers, bakers, truck drivers, and shop keepers. There’s a similarly long line of people between the rain that falls in the reservoirs and the fresh, clean water that comes out of our taps. No bread or water comes to our tables without the work, time, skills, and gifts of people who work on our behalf.

The 16th-century reformer Martin Luther recognised this, insisting that the farmer shoveling manure and the maid milking cows please God through their work as much as the pastor preaching or praying. As Luther made clear, ‘God is milking the cows through the vocation of the milkmaid’. He knew that so-called ‘ordinary’ men and women are agents of God’s providential care in the world. Our work – your work – is one of the ways God himself works in the world.

In these recent weeks, this has been pressed home to us with even more force.

If ever there was a time we needed dedicated doctors, paramedics, nurses, healthcare workers, microbiologists, economists, government leaders – and many others like them – it is now. They deserve our respect and admiration as well as our prayers at this time. But it’s also a time when the significance of the apparently more ‘mundane’ jobs has come to the fore – the people who stock the shelves and serve us in shops, the people who deliver our post, the people who empty our wheelie bins. God uses them all, working through them to bring about his own good purposes for society.

For us, too, whatever we find ourselves doing in this season, God continues to work through us to benefit other people – as husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, grandparents, friends, neighbours, and colleagues. Through us, in spite of the current situation and however we might feel about it, God is at work each and every day.

More from the Centre for Public Christianity (August 2019)

The Centre for Public Christianity has posted an audio interview with Mark Greene (full disclosure: long-standing friend of mine and colleague at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) in which he considers ‘our problematic experience of work, shares three key things that the research suggests make work enriching rather than soul-destroying, and tells stories of workplaces that are doing things differently.’

Centre for Public Christianity (August 2019)

The Centre for Public Christianity has posted an audio interview with Steven Garber (now of Regent College, Vancouver), ‘a fascinating conversation that ranges far and wide – from karma to stoicism, from Vàclav Havel to Peter Singer, from the Smashing Pumpkins to U2 – and delves into a vital question: what does it mean to be human?’

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22, 4 (2018) on Vocation

The current issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is devoted to ‘Reflections on Vocation’, with the below contributions.

In the Editorial, Stephen J. Wellum writes:

‘A crucial area in which we can demonstrate a practical difference between a Christian and our society’s view of humans is in the areas of vocation and work. It should not surprise us that how we view our vocation and the dignity of work is directly tied to our theology, especially what we think of God and ourselves as his image-bearers. From a biblical view, work is tied to the purpose of our creation and it is intrinsic to who we are as creatures and image-bearers created to rule over the world as God’s vice-regents. No doubt, our work has been affected by sin (Gen 3; Rom 8:18-25), but in Christ, God the Son has assumed our human nature to reverse the effects of sin and death for us by his cross and resurrection, and to restore us to what God created us to be in the first place. As we await the consummation of Christ’s glorious new covenant work, believers are to be about the task of growing in grace, knowing and enjoying God and one another, and living out what God created us to be as his redeemed creatures and image-bearers.’

Individual essays are available from here, and the whole issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Stephen J. Wellum

Editorial: Reflections on Vocation

Gregory E. Lamb

Living is Christ and Dying is Gain: Paul’s Reimagining of Human Flourishing in Philippians

Daniel S. Diffey

The Diligence, Justice, and Generosity of the Wise: The Ethic of Work in the Book of Proverbs

Nathanael J. Brooks

The Sluggard and Covenant Faithfulness: Understanding the Nature of True Virtue and the Call to Industry in Proverbs

Richard C. McDonald

“They were not Brought up in Idleness”: Matthew Henry, the Old Testament, and Work

Jacob J. Prahlow

Rules and Roles for Women: Vocation and Order in the Apostolic Fathers

Chris H. Smith, Jr.

Celibacy as Discipleship or Vocation? A Protestant Reading of Gregory of Nyssa and Thomas Aquinas

Book Reviews

Missy Wallace on Work and Passion

There’s a helpful piece here on the Gospel Coalition website in a new ‘Thorns and Thistles’ column, by Missy Wallace, looking at the question, ‘What if my work isn’t my passion?’

It pushes back a bit on the well-worn adage, ‘Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life’, with the main takeaway being that ‘both social science and also God’s Word refute passion as a major job-search criterion’.

Wallace offers the following four principles to bear in mind:

1. ‘“Finding your passion” assumes passion is a fixed and/or inherent quality, whereas social science research suggests it’s more of a developing and changing quality.

2. Passions, when channeled into work, often don’t translate to giftings.

3. Science reveals that turning a passion into paid work can cause it to lose its inherent pleasure.

4. Scripture reveals that even though God created us to take dominion and create productive flourishing, all work includes toil, regardless of its alignment with our interest and giftings.

She concludes:

‘I’m thankful we live in a world where discussion about vocational fulfillment and satisfaction is even possible, as the privilege of choosing work is a first-world opportunity that reflects a movement from scarcity to abundance. While God may enable us to work for him in our “sweet spot,” we must acknowledge and steward the gift of that choice, remembering that our only true fulfillment is in him.’

Read the whole piece here.

Myths of Vocation #4

The De Pree Center at Fuller Seminary has made available the fourth and final volume in their resource on calling – ‘Myths of Vocation’ – this one devoted to the myth that ‘It all happens right away’.

As they write:

‘[We] thought that because we sensed God calling us to particular kinds of work, our careers would unfold smoothly and without major obstacles. Now, almost a decade later, I realize just how wrong we were. I know now that we were operating under the dysfunctional belief that “it all happens right away.” This fourth and final volume of this series explores this myth in depth.’

The Center has produced a four-volume study guide series that includes pdfs with journal prompts, videos, and suggested practices. The resources are available via a pain-free sign-up process here.

Barna Group on Christians at Work

The Barna Group, in conjunction with Abilene Christian University, recently published a study on the current state of faith and work integration for US Christians – Christians at Work, the first in a ‘vocation project’.

They’ve made available some samples of the research:

Erasing the Sacred/Secular Divide

Though Christian workers more often associate religious and pastoral roles with being a ‘calling’ or serving the common good, it may not matter to most Christians whether they or someone else works in a ‘sacred’ or ‘secular’ space. In a new study, Barna asked whether it was better for a Christian to become a pastor or missionary, or to represent his or her faith well at work.

Balancing Career and Kids

As we continue our online series unpacking findings from Barna’s new study of vocation, we learn that men and women have an equal chance of feeling a sense of calling and fulfillment in their work – just not in every stage of life. In particular, working mothers face challenges when parenting and career mix.

The Church’s Role

A new Barna report on vocation shows that most Christians say they feel supported by their church when it comes to their career, claiming their local congregations help them understand how to live out their faith in the workplace.

What Faith Looks Like in the Workplace

In Barna’s recently released study on vocation, we found encouraging signs that Christians are living out their faith with integrity. In this release, we’ll look at the specific values and virtues that define today’s Christians’ work ethic.

‘Made to Flourish’ have posted two parts of an interview (here and here) with Barna president David Kinnaman on ‘the church and culture, discipleship, and how the church can navigate these conversations better in the future’.

Over at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles (also posted at ‘Made to Flourish’), Gage Arnold summarises ‘four takeaways’ from the survey, as follows:

1. Christians are doing away with sacred/secular language surrounding their work.

2. Christians are finding purposeful employment.

3. However, a majority are struggling to fully integrate their faith in their employment in a meaningful way.

4. Pastors are in a position to offer vocational guidance more than ever before.

Myths of Vocation #3

The De Pree Center at Fuller Seminary has made available the third volume in their resource on calling – ‘Myths of Vocation’ – this one devoted to the myth that ‘I’m called to one special thing’.

As they write:

‘Buying into this myth might lead us to center our hopes on the idea that God has a specifically special path and future for us, and, that along our special path, there is one ideal career that will feel like a perfect fit for the person God has made us to be. We’ll guide you through a process of how we got here, how we can reframe our understanding of this myth, and then how to engage in practices that might reshape your imagination of God’s calling in your life.’

The Center is creating a four-volume study guide series that includes pdfs with journal prompts, videos, and suggested practices. The resources are available via a pain-free sign-up process here.

Myths of Vocation #2

The De Pree Center at Fuller Seminary has made available the second volume in their resource on calling – ‘Myths of Vocation’ – this one devoted to the myth that ‘my calling = my job’.

As they write:

‘While God certainly calls us to our careers, we’d be mistaken to think they are the only or most important areas of God’s call. This myth, however, is prevalent for many of us today, especially in the Western world. In this volume, we’ll explore where this myth comes from and attempt to reframe our understanding of how our jobs fit in with our callings.’

The Center is creating a four-volume study guide series that includes pdfs with journal prompts, videos, and suggested practices. The resources are available via a pain-free sign-up process here.

Myths of Vocation #1

The De Pree Center at Fuller Seminary is putting together what looks to be a very helpful resource on calling – ‘Myths of Vocation’.

In particular, the series is looking at ‘four distinct yet overlapping myths’:

(1) If I check all the boxes, I’ll be fulfilled

(2) I’m called to only one thing

(3) My calling = my job

(4) It all happens right away

As they note, ‘many of us carry around a set of dysfunctional beliefs about what work and calling are supposed to look like’, which ‘are often larger cultural narratives we find ourselves trapped within’, and which we are forced to confront ‘whenever our experiences fall out of sync with the myths of vocation’.

The Center is creating a four-volume study guide series that includes pdfs with journal prompts, videos, and suggested practices. The first pdf is available now, via a pain-free sign-up process here.

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22, 1 (2018) on Vocation

The current issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is devoted to the topic of vocation, with the below contributions.

Individual essays are available from here, and the whole issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Stephen J. Wellum

Editorial: Thinking Theologically about Vocation and Work

Robert L. Plummer

A New Testament Professor’s Rediscovery of the Doctrine of Vocation

Megan DeVore

“The Labors of our Occupation”: Can Augustine Offer Any Insight on Vocation?

Leland Ryken

“Some Kind of Life to Which We Are Called of God”: The Puritan Doctrine of Vocation

Michael A. G. Haykin

English Calvinistic Baptists and Vocation in the Long Eighteenth Century, with Particular Reference to Anne Dutton’s Calling as an Author

David Kotter

Milkmaids No More: Revisiting Luther’s Doctrine of Vocation from the Perspective of a “Gig” Economy

Elizabeth Mehlman

The Work and Faith of Theological Scholars: Converging Lessons from James 2 and Luther’s Doctrine of Vocation

Andrew David Naselli

Do Not Love the World: Breaking the Evil Enchantment of Worldliness (A Sermon on 1 John 2:15-17)

Book Reviews

John G. Stackhouse Jr. on Why You’re Here

I wrote the following mini review for July 2018’s edition of Highlights, produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

John G. Stackhouse Jr., Why You’re Here: Ethics for the Real World (Oxford: OUP, 2018).

In short, ‘why you’re here’ is about vocation, understood as applicable to ‘everyone, everything, everywhere, in every moment’. There is the call of God on every human being, what we were made for. And there is the distinctive call God gives to Christians. Our human calling is to make shalom, our Christian calling is to make disciples. And the sphere in which we work out those callings is, as Stackhouse so helpfully reminds us, the ‘real world’. Living in a time where wheat and weeds grow together until the final harvest, a ‘Christian realism’ trusts God that will work through the various means he has given us, bringing as much shalom as possible but without thinking it’s down to us to build the New Jerusalem. Compelling and accessible, this is essential reading for all those who want to respond in hopeful faithfulness to the call of God on their lives.

Knowing and Doing (Summer 2018)

The Summer 2018 edition of Knowing & Doing – ‘A Teaching Quarterly for Discipleship of Heart and Mind’ – from the C.S. Lewis Institute is now available online (from here), and contains the following articles:

Joel Woodruff

President’s Letter: You Too Can Be an Evangelist like Billy Graham

In this President’s Letter, Joel Woodruff reflects on three biblical principles he learned from Billy Graham that he hopes to live out. He believes that if each of us were to follow these simple biblical principles as exemplified in the life of Billy Graham, we too would be given opportunities to become evangelists as we share the hope we have as sinners saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Lindsey Scholl

The Remarkable Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers, author of sixteen novels, ten plays, six translations, and twenty-four works of non-fiction, was an accomplished writer in multiple genres. In this article, Lindsey Scholl notes that Sayers had a hard-hitting, humorous, competent style, and argues that reading her would benefit many Christians today, particularly those inclined to use their faith as a cover for sloppy thinking. Scholl introduces readers to the body of Sayers’ work, and also to her colorful, confrontational personality.

Thomas A. Tarrants

The Place of Fasting in the Christian Life

Tom Tarrants observes that judging from recent research and anecdotal evidence, it appears that very few professing Christians in America think fasting has a place in the Christian life. He observes, however, that from the earliest days of the church, fasting has been recognized as an important way to draw near to God, deepen one’s relationship with Him, and seek His help in times of special need. Tarrants explains that if you desire a deeper, more intimate and fruitful relationship with God, or if you need His help in a time of real need, fasting is an important means of grace to practice. This article will provide helpful understanding and practical guidance for anyone who wants to experience this blessing.

Stan Wallace

Two Exceptional Women and One Extremely Fortunate Son

Stan Wallace always knew he was adopted, and nearly 55 years later would visit with his birth mother by phone and in person. In this article, Wallace shares lessons he has learned from the examples of his birth and adoptive mothers, and how his experience has helped him understand the meaning of adoption into the family of God.

Mark R. Talbot

The Importance of Vocation

In this first article in a two-part series addressing vocation and calling, Mark Talbot discusses the importance of a biblical view of vocation. He addresses the questions: What were we made for?, What are we made to be?, and How are we able to fulfill our vocation?

Jim Phillips

An Encouragement to Read Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ

Before there was Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest) or other noted devotional writers, a disciple longing to follow Jesus would read The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, written between 1420 and 1427. It has been said that Thomas à Kempis used or alluded to more than a thousand Scriptures. In this article, Jim Phillips encourages readers to pick up this classic book and benefit from wisdom that is relevant to all people, for all time, without chronological bias.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Poem: God’s Grandeur

In each issue of Knowing and Doing we include a poem as part of our desire to promote discipleship of the heart and mind. Poems stir affection, inspire devotion and stimulate emotions. No wonder the Scriptures contains so many of them! And by the way, C.S. Lewis loved poetry.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Short Reading from a Classic Christian Book: Five Ways to Prove the Existence of God

A short reading from a classic Christian book by Thomas Aquinas that we hope will be a blessing to you.

John Van Sloten on Work

John Van Sloten, Every Job a Parable: What Farmers, Nurses and Astronauts Tell Us About God (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2017).

I was asked to write a commendation for the above book – and was happy to do so. Now that the book is out, I’ve pasted the commendation below. It doesn’t really count as a review, but it hopefully provides a flavour of what to expect if this is a topic that interests you.

‘You’ll meet people you know in these pages – electricians, landlords, mechanics, accountants, nurses, hairdressers – and you might even recognise yourself. You’ll certainly see yourself differently – as a human being, as a worker, as someone through whom God’s grace becomes visible in daily life. What do our everyday jobs, even the apparently most mundane, reveal about God? John Van Sloten brings with him a pastor’s heart, an array of real-life examples, and a capacity to spot God’s presence in even the most unlikely of places. Journeying with him through the book provides a way of learning to do the same.’

Setting God’s People Free

‘It is only possible for the Gospel to reach the whole population through the active co-operation of all church people. We are convinced that England will never be converted until the laity use the opportunities for evangelism daily afforded by their various professions, crafts and occupations.’

That could so easily be a paragraph of promotional blurb from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, where I work, committed as we are to advocating a whole-life and comprehensive mission strategy through focusing on the ‘frontlines’ of all Christians.

Instead, it’s from a report by the Church of England Commission on Evangelism, published in 1945. Yes, 72 years ago. What was needed, according to the report, was a recovery of ‘the Apostolate of the whole Church’, where all – clergy and laity alike – are to witness to their Lord, and where such witness is seen as ‘the very essence of the Christian calling’.

It so happens that today – at the General Synod of the Church of England – a new report is being presented, one commissioned by the Archbishops’ Council and prepared by the members of the Lay Leadership Task Group.

It’s called ‘Setting God’s People Free’, and it’s available as a pdf here.

It speaks about us being ‘summoned... to a common vocation’, where ‘the whole people of God, clergy and laity, gathered and sent, are charged with continuing Christ’s priestly work of blessing, mediation and reconciliation on behalf of the whole of humanity, to bear witness to, and participate in the mission of God’.

Early on, the report identifies ‘the need for two shifts in culture and practice’ that are seen as ‘critical to the flourishing of the Church and the evangelisation of the nation’:

‘1. Until, together, ordained and lay, we form and equip lay people to follow Jesus confidently in every sphere of life in ways that demonstrate the Gospel we will never set God’s people free to evangelise the nation.

2. Until laity and clergy are convinced, based on their baptismal mutuality, that they are equal in worth and status, complementary in gifting and vocation, mutually accountable in discipleship, and equal partners in mission, we will never form Christian communities that can evangelise the nation.’

The report explores those shifts, looks at some ‘constraining factors’, and suggests eight ‘proposed levers of cultural change’. Unlike previous reports on this issue, going back to the one in 1945, this report offers some recommended next steps and priorities for implementation.

William Edgar on a Biblical Theology of Culture

William Edgar, Created and Creating: A Biblical Theology of Culture (Downers Grove: IVP, forthcoming 2017).

I’m looking forward to seeing the above book come out some time early in the new year. Meanwhile, to whet the appetite, there is a downloadable page of Q&A on ‘Culture, Christianity, Calling’ with William Edgar here.

‘Culture plays an undeniable role in the Christian’s vocational calling in the world. How might we engage our culture with discernment and faithfulness? Exploring Scripture and gleaning insights from a variety of theologians, William Edgar offers a biblical defense of the cultural mandate, arguing that we are most faithful to our calling when we participate in creating culture.’

Barna on Millennials and Work

There’s a brief report from Barna here on ‘When Millennials go to Work’.

It comes out of the US, and I’m never quite sure how it stacks up in the UK context, but I suspect there’ll be a fair amount of overlap.

Here are some sample paragraphs:

‘Although most Millennials agree their career is at least somewhat central to their identity, only a third say their career is very central. In fact, Boomers are more likely than Millennials to believe their career is central to who they are.

‘So what do Millennials deem most central to their identity? “Family” and “personal interests” are the top two categories. “Career” is actually one of the least likely categories to be named – the only category it beats is “technology.”

‘For [Christian] Millennials, “calling” is more than just about being called toward religious or ministry professions – they are thinking about whether they are “called” by God to their secular jobs as well. To be clear, most of them (69%) define “calling” not in a fixed, permanent way, but as something that can change over time as they age. This means they are likely thinking about whether they are called to their current work at this point in their lives, not for a lifetime.

‘A lifetime career trajectory is not an expectation for most Millennials; they anticipate changing jobs often and will likely do so in pursuit of work that better aligns with their passions. As Millennials become a larger and larger segment of the employee market, companies will need to shift policies and incentives to appeal to these desires. Training, mentorship, opportunities for independence and fluidity within roles will become important factors in employee retention.’

The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 19, 2 (2015)

The latest issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is devoted to ‘Theology and Economics’, with an interesting line-up of essays indicated below.

Stephen Wellum writes in the Editorial:

‘Living as we do in an increasingly secularized and relativistic age, the church, for a variety of reasons, has too often dichotomized the Christian life. Too frequently, we have artificially separated our spiritual life from our everyday life, and one of its consequences is our disengagement from society. But given that God has created us to rule over his creation, to work, to be salt and light in the world, and to apply God’s Word to our entire lives, Scripture reminds us that our Lord is not only interested in our spiritual lives, he is also interested in us as whole people. Biblical salvation involves every aspect of our lives in relation to God, the world, and to others.’

Individual essays can be accessed from here, or the whole issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Stephen J. Wellum

Editorial: Living All of Life to God’s Glory

R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Economics and the Christian Worldview: 12 Theses

David Kotter

Greed vs. Self-Interest: A Case Study of How Economists Can Help Theologians Serve the Church

Mark Coppenger

Stewardship of the Wetlands below the Golan Heights: A Study in Judeo-Christian and Muslim Contrasts

Gregg Allison

Why Are You Here? Heavenly Work vs. Earthly Work

John Wind

Not Always Right: Critiquing Christopher Wright’s Paradigmatic Application of the Old Testament to the Socio-economic Realm

Jason Glas

The Gospel, Human Flourishing, and the Foundation of Social Order

Pieter DeVries

Living in Truth: Unmasking the Lies of our Postmodern Culture

Work: Great Expectations?

An edited version of this piece was published in the September 2014 edition of EG, a magazine published by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, but I don’t think I posted it on the blog. I had been asked to write something on the frustrations that often come with work. I’m currently writing another short piece on work, and I may be redrafting or even reusing some of this material.

Perhaps you’re one of those people who bounces out of bed with a lightness in your step and a song on your lips. Your morning routine is purposeful but relaxed. You smile on your commute. You breeze into work, cheerily greeting your colleagues, looking forward to all that the day holds. Perhaps. If so, the rest of us are really pleased for you – though we secretly wonder whether you’re in deep denial or taking something that may or may not be readily available over a pharmacy counter.

For many of us, though, work can be a drag. Not all the time, to be sure, but with enough periods of frustration and futility and sheer hard graft to make us wonder about escaping to a simpler life without jammed photocopiers, rude customers, demanding managers, and unrealistic deadlines.

If God created work, we should expect it to be fulfilling, shouldn’t we?

Getting a fuller perspective on work

As it happens, we are created in the image of the God who finds satisfaction and delight in work, and who designed work to be fulfilling not frustrating, pleasurable not painful. But work – like all things – was impacted by human rebellion against God and alienation from each other.

Work itself is not cursed, but nor does it escape the distorting effects of sin, such that it has become ‘painful toil’ (Genesis 3:17). We’re able to enjoy the fruit of our labours, but only by the ‘sweat of [our] brow’ and by tackling ‘thorns and thistles’ along the way (Genesis 3:18-19). Here is a daily reminder that the world remains out of kilter with God’s design, where it’s possible to make too much or too little of work.

Getting a realistic perspective on ourselves

For instance, it’s possible to succumb to idolatry, where our job becomes the primary object of our passions and source of identity. Or we slide into idleness, wittingly or unwittingly, unable to see God’s purposes in work. Both are problematic. In seeking self-fulfilment through work, we risk forgetting that our purpose and identity is found first in Jesus, who then helps us make sense of our jobs. Or we risk not seeing that work has value in and of itself.

Ecclesiastes provides a voice for the frustrations we might feel – work can appear to be ‘meaningless’ (2:11, 17-23). Even so, toil is still seen as a ‘gift of God’ (3:12-13), to be enjoyed (3:22), which brings satisfaction (5:18-19) and joy (8:15). The key, in 2:24-26, seems to be not seeking delight in what one gains from work, but seeing good in the work itself, as from ‘the hand of God’.

Getting a proper perspective on Jesus

So, there is hope. Work is not just a way to pass time and make money, but a service we render to Jesus himself (Colossians 3:23). Working for Christ not only gives us a new master, but a new freedom to worship through our work, a new desire to serve others, a new confidence to trust God in our jobs, and a new motivation to work well – even during times of frustration and seeming fruitlessness. We have sufficient examples in Scripture – Joseph, Ruth, Daniel, Esther – to show that God works through us in difficult and morally ambiguous situations, often in spite of our flaws.

Work, then, is a crucible for discipleship, a place to grow as a follower of Jesus, even in the mundane tasks: writing an email, placing an order, servicing a boiler, tightening a bolt. Seeing our job as an arena to serve Christ won’t necessarily deal with all our frustrations, but it will put them into their proper perspective as we take our place as God’s stewards in his governance of the world. Think about that when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning.