Grace

In thinking about the themes of mercy, love, and thankfulness from last week, and forgiveness in the workplace, which I anticipate writing about in the near future, I think that perhaps something very important to remember is that we do these things, we try to honor God in our workplace because of His Grace to us. Even when your subordinates screw up, your coworkers back-stab you, and your supervisors treat you worse than you deserve, remember that they are also sinners in need of a Savior, that they are also imperfect. The parable of the unmerciful servant is convicting. We have been forgiven a debt that can never be repaid, no matter how well our job pays us. That's a powerful perspective to have. We have mercy on others and show love, even to our enemies at work because God has shown such an immense love to us.

I have another purpose for writing about grace. One might look at the last 80+ posts and see them very much as a list of things to do or not do in the workplace. "If I do these things and avoid doing these things, I will honor God in my work." So you try to live by those lists and everything is going well for the first few days until Joe comes in late and you yell at him for messing up your day. Or your coworker Sally tries to double cross you, so you let her have it. "Uh oh, I blew it. I'm not living by the lists." I want to really emphasize this--the ideas about which I'm blogging are in no way lists of do's and don't's. While the Bible is full of commands and admonitions, that's not the "way" to God. Instead, the ideas that I've written in terms of honoring God at work are things to do because God has forgiven you for not being perfect. He knows that you're going to mess up. That's why He sent Jesus to begin with.

I don't want anyone to read this blog as a Pharisaical law of how to act at work. Instead, think of these as ideas about how to honor God because of His wonderful grace.