Love @ Work is not Proud

“He takes no pride in his work”. Is he, then, a loving person according to 1 Corinthians 13:5? And is the converse true – that if I take pride in doing a good job, I am being unloving?

Pride is a complex thing. It has been said that pride lies at the root of all sin, because in one way or another sin says that we know better than God, which is the ultimate pride. On the other hand, as we saw last week in http://faithatworkplace.blogspot.com/2010/07/love-work-does-not-boast.html, there are certain kinds of boasting that are clearly acceptable. In the same way, there are aspects of pride that have their place in the workplace.

We are clearly called to do our best at work (“whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” Colossians 3:23). The big question is our motivation. Are we taking pride in our work product because of our gratitude to God for His gifts to us, and our desire to lay them at His feet for His service? I don’t think this has ever been my whole motivation, though perhaps there’s a bit more of it now than there used to be, by God’s grace. I do it because (a) I want to be recognized, (b) it makes me feel valuable, (c) I can show that I’m better than my rival, or at my best (d) because it helps someone else (so they’ll be grateful to me!). Sometimes all four come into play.

The problem with pride, above all, is that it sets me above the other person or, at its worst, above God Himself. I guess another way of putting this is that pride has a tendency to make comparisons. Pride says things like “I can do this better than you”, or “my job is more important than yours”, or “I deserve to be paid more than you”. In other words pride says I’m better than you, which hurts you and denies the reality of God’s creation of each one of us in His image.

Love takes quite a different approach. Love says “you are every bit as important as me, because God made us both, loves us both passionately, and even gave His Son for us both”. In the workplace, love says “what I do is important, but what you do is every bit as important”. Love takes pride in what we do together, because our employers are well served. Love points out that what I accomplish, and what you accomplish, are both possible because of the gifts and experiences God has given us.

So I take pride in my work and in my company. I take pride in the accomplishments of my team. But this pride is a pride in God, and in the people He has created (including me – there is no need for false humility). In particular the fact that God has chosen to build His Kingdom through you and me is indeed something to be proud of, knowing that it isn’t because of anything particularly special about me, but because of the extraordinary grace of God.