I want to end the week thinking about grace. As I look at the list of posts or the label categories on the left, it's easy to see a list of do's and don't's:
- Do work as if you're working for God.
- Don't be selfish.
- Do stand out from the crowd.
- Don't be sarcastic or hateful in your speech.
It's easy to think “if I do these things and avoid doing those 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 steal your biggest client, 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 writing are in no way lists of do's and don't's. I don't want anyone to read this book as a Pharisaical law of how to act at work. Paul says that we have all sinned and are justified through God’s grace (Romans 3:23-24) and that following rules can’t save us (Romans 3:30; Ephesians 2:8-9). 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.
Don't think of these posts as rules for following God. Think about them as ideas from a fellow pilgrim.
Hey Johnny G.
ReplyDeleteFunny, I was just thinking about this very thing this morning as I was running errands. Living out your spiritual life at work can't be about rules or fake hoops to jump through or trying to force yourself to make your job something other than what it is. It is so much about being yourself, surrendering everything to God, and letting him just BE in you, with you, through you at work. That's it. It's so much more about letting go, an awareness of His presence with us throughout the day, and then that allows us to see our work in terms of God's work - that He cares about our careers and our daily labor, and will redeem it.
See how you got me going?
You're exactly right! Fruits of the Spirit don't come when you try to have joy or peace. They come when you're in relationship with God. That's true at work or in any other context. It's easier for us as humans to think in terms of rules or things to check off a list. So we need to be reminded that's everything starts and ends with God's grace. It's not about us, it's about Him.
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