Spiritual Formation on the Job
As suggested in an earlier blog, the current exodus from work opens a door for churches. In that article, I briefly described seven Kingdom-of-God reasons for working. This will expand on the fourth reason: God uses our work to grow us up. I will begin with my personal experience and follow it with a biblical example.
Personal Experience.
My fear of public speaking began early and continued into my college years. The very thought of saying something out loud in front of a group of people made my knees go weak. But, knowing that God does not give us a spirit of fear, I asked him: please don’t let panic rule me.
In my twenties, while working for a state agency, one of my roles required me to testify before legislative committees on proposed bills. Doing so took me far outside my comfort zone. Yet, by preparing carefully for those assignments, I found that I could focus on the content rather than on myself. The locale for this answer to prayer? My workplace.
When I left state employment, I formed a consultant company to teach on-the-job writing seminars for various government agencies and corporations. Now my work required me to speak up before groups of 10 to 30 people for six hours a day. And so, much to my surprise, the boy who had anxiously recoiled from public speaking actually came to enjoy it. Once again, God’s deliverance from fear came through my work.
Biblical Example.
Joseph came into this world as Jacob’s favorite. Everyone knew he was daddy’s boy—including Joseph himself. One day he had dreams that pictured his brothers and parents bowing before him. When he shared with the family the details of his dreams, was he wearing his colorful coat from Jacob? He came across as the cocky kid brother. God, however, works to humble proud people. And he was about to use Joseph’s work to do just that.
Joseph’s first recorded work experience came when Jacob sent him out to check on his brothers. That assignment led his siblings to plot how to get rid of him, eventually tossing him into an empty cistern. His “rescue” from that pit came when his brothers sold him to some traveling salespeople who in turn resold him to an official in the Egyptian government.
Joseph’s second work role began when the official put him in charge of his entire household while he himself was otherwise occupied. Sadly, the official’s wife began sexually harassing Joseph, finally insisting that he sleep with her. Because he fled that scene, she falsely accused him of rape, and he landed in prison.
His third job, this one in lockup, may have resembled the role of what we today would call a jail or prison “trustee.” One website describes the modern role in this way: “Trustees . . . mop floors, do the laundry, re-paint the walls when needed, take out the trash, and unload trucks.” If Joseph’s job description called for comparable tasks, the work consisted of humbling chores always performed by nobodies. During these years, he interpreted dreams for two ex-officials in the Pharaoh’s government. Even though one of them promised to remember him favorably when released, the man completely forgot about Joseph.
Two more long, incarcerated years went by. And when the Pharaoh himself had a dream no one could interpret, the memory of the restored official suddenly improved. As a result, Joseph went on to his fourth job—Prime Minister of Egypt. And when his brothers came for food, they bowed before him (his dreams come true). Much later, after the whole family had moved to Egypt and after their father had died, the brothers feared Joseph would now make them pay for their hateful actions that had caused him so much pain.
To their surprise, he said: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them” (Gen. 50:19-21). The once-spoiled young man had lost his swagger and had become a self-giving servant of God.
What Can We Learn?
As these two examples—one personal, one biblical—demonstrate, God uses our work to transform us in the direction of Christ-likeness. For me, it was rising above “the spirit of fear and timidity” and into God’s gift of “power, love, and self-discipline” (II Tim. 1:7). For Joseph, through his work, God moved him out of his start as an over-indulged teenager. He became a mature adult who could see God’s hand at work even in painful circumstances. He now thought of others more highly than himself.
What “sculpting tools” did God use bring these changes about? Workplace situations: Stressful and painful work assignments. Pressure. Discomfort. Loss. Rejection. False accusation. Humbling roles. Broken promises. Suffering.
Eugene Peterson, in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, says: “I’m prepared to contend that the primary location for spiritual formation is the workplace” (p. 127).
Yes, God uses our work to grow us up, so that we may reflect God in the ways we carry out our various small parts in seeing that his will is done on earth as in heaven. Here is yet another Kingdom-of-God reason for working.
