Faith@Work

Time @ Work – Not Enough or Too Much?

2011-03-06T10:23:00.000-08:00

Time – it seems like either we’re desperate for more of it, or it drags beyond bearing. Our work piles up on us and there aren’t remotely enough hours in the day, or we’re bored out of our minds and the hour hand on the clock seems to have some demonic brake holding it back.
Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity talks about time being variable (in ways I don’t remotely understand). That’s as may be, but for sure on a subjective level time goes faster or slower depending on what is going on in our lives, and in our workplaces. Since we had to lay off almost half our staff at the end of last year, I’ve been trying to work through year-end accounting and reporting, taxes, regular monthly reporting, tracking of a whole slew of things that used to be done by other people, on top of what I was already doing. (Writing this blog somehow didn’t make it the top of the priorities!) There simply aren’t enough hours to get it done. I don’t get bored at least, except ironically when it all gets to be too much and then the days drag unbelievably. But time just gets frittered away so quickly!

Interestingly, the Bible seems to approach time completely differently from modern Western culture, particularly Anglo culture. (Hispanic culture seems to be less obsessed with time. I understand that while in English a clock runs, in Spanish a clock walks. That explains a lot!) It is a given that we have a limited span of time in which to realize God’s dream for us. But the sense of hurry, frustration, and time wasted on the one hand, and of boredom on the other, don’t really appear much if at all. Jesus had a massive workload, but never seemed in a hurry (think of his reaction when the disciples tried to stop the blind man from calling out, or when they tried to shoo away children). He understood the need for rest and refreshment, even though in short supply. He gave absolute priority to times of prayer. There was a rhythm to his life that was healthy and right.

How can we be unhurried in the midst of panic and chaos? How can we use time not as a limited resource that we must hold on to for dear life, but as a gift from God like any other that is to be spent wisely and generously in the service of God and His creation, especially other people? I guess it comes largely back to peace. When we are at peace, the world’s turmoil will affect us in compassion and concern, but will not interrupt our daily, weekly and yearly rhythms of life. Conversely it is when we observe these rhythms that we can live in peace. By rhythms, I mean lives that honor our commitments to work and family and community without neglecting daily time with God to set up our moment-by-moment walk with him, weekly times with God’s people and corporate worship, and annual vacations - times away from the daily routine for refreshment and renewal in ourselves and our relationships.

For me, in the midst of responsibilities that I find overwhelming, and workload that is quite simply impossible to stay up with, peace would be impossible without these rhythms. I started this article last week, but am finishing it during a break – Oakland A’s Spring Training in Phoenix. I can’t take a complete break – I have worked quite a bit while I’ve been here – and yet it has been possible to spend chunks of time with my wife, renewing our relationship, and with God, putting things into perspective. We’ve had quite a bit of bad news related to work in the past couple of days, but while I am focused on God’s plan, I can be relatively in peace (even while thinking through contingency plans such as what to do if/when my salary stops coming in for a while).

Time – we don’t have enough or we have too much. At least that’s how it seems. But from God’s perspective we have just enough. Our span of life is in His hands. Our purposes are His to plan. It is for us to use time wisely and well – not manically, seeing how much we can DO, but with a sense of dedication to God, as we grow into what He wants us to BE. Time is a gift, like everything we else we have – a gift entrusted to us for His purpose, and in His great love for us. Time is a thing of beauty.

Armed @ Work – Shield of Faith

2011-02-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Besieged. That’s how I feel sometimes at work. Everyone wants a piece of me. Lawsuits, demands for information, angry phone calls, impatient emails.

That’s the obvious surface form of the siege. But under the surface, there’s another kind of attack – the “flaming arrows of the evil one” described by Paul in Ephesians 6:16. These are in particular temptations to lose hope, fear the future, compromise ethics, withdraw into our own problems, stop loving.

Paul’s solution is “the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one”. How does this help with what Paul had in mind, and in particular how does it help at work?

For the soldier of Paul’s time, a special concern was an attack that involved opponents soaking arrows in pitch, setting fire to them, and then firing them high over the opposing army so that hundreds of them at a time would come down upon the heads of the soldiers. The shields would (in theory) be interlocked over their heads so that the arrows would fall harmlessly and could be extinguished. For us, it seems these burning arrows can fall from any angle, and at any time. That means, the shield must be constantly up and protecting us. Often, it is when our guard is down the most that we are most vulnerable.

Faith is powerful indeed. It will extinguish arrows of doubt, replacing them with the certainty of God’s love and mercy. Faith will snuff out our sense of guilt, replacing it with gratitude for God’s assured forgiveness. And it is by faith that we will defeat fear, through reminders of God’s faithfulness and His perfect plans – fear is thus replaced by hope.

And now to the workplace. When I feel besieged, when it seems that things are all going downhill, I have a tendency to express my frustration, my doubts about the future, and my temptations to just quit and do something more “rewarding” (whether financially or personally, what I mean by this is usually self-centered, not God-centered). What impact does this have on the rest of the staff? Or on my boss, the owner of the company? Let’s be careful here – I’m not talking about the need for us to have faith in the company, or our business model, or our boss, or our future. These are, in fact, all just as uncertain as they feel. What I can bring to our staff is a faith in God that gives perspective, puts priorities in order, shows what is really valuable, and offers hope that God is in fact in control of His creation, and that His plans transcend any short-term financial crisis. This faith isn’t something for me to be proud of – it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, offered to all.

It is faith, ultimately, that helps me see that what I do here is truly worth doing, even if every plan fails, every negotiation falls apart, and even if in the end we collapse financially. Because I am called to this place, by a God who knows what He is doing! I am called to these people with whom I work, because God loves them beyond imagination. I am called to live a life of the Spirit, so that God will show the world His majestic glory, His righteousness, His mercy, His love, and His sovereignty.

Without faith, our lives lose meaning, and our jobs lose meaning too. For a while we may seem to be accomplishing something, but it is a house of cards, and will sooner or later fall flat. Only God’s work, performed through us, is truly enduring. That’s what we’re called to do in our daily work. If only we lived our entire lives in this faith, the burning arrows would be no more than warm pin-pricks on our shields.

Armed @ Work – Gospel of Peace

2011-01-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

Conflict in the workplace is commonplace. How do we fight it? With harsh words? Fight fire with fire? Too often we do. But the greatest weapon of all is the good news of peace.

Paul says in Ephesians 6:15 that we should stand firm “with [our] feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace”. Going to work with military boots on isn’t necessarily going to help with conflict resolution. So what does this verse have to do with the workplace?

A Roman soldier’s boots were designed to ensure stability in combat – protective without slowing him down, and spiked for a good purchase in difficult terrain. It is that stability that we gain when we’re armed with the gospel, the good news, of God’s peace (the “peace that passes all understanding” of Philippians 4:7, which was promised by Jesus in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”) This peace is the shalom of the Old Testament (eirene in the New), which speaks of rightness, reconciliation, completeness and security, not just absence of conflict.

When we walk into a difficult meeting, or are confronted by an angry investor, customer or employee, our natural tendency is to be defensive or combative (at least mine is). If our ego is being challenged, or our security, we will lash out and try to use aggression (or passive aggression) to defend ourselves. However, if we are at peace, knowing we are loved and valued by God, knowing that we are in the place He wants us, this reaction becomes unnecessary. When we are at fault, we can acknowledge it and seek to make reparation. When we are being falsely accused, we can calmly seek to set the record straight, and can accept the consequences, no matter how unfair, if this isn’t sufficient for our accuser.

A key element of this piece of armor is “readiness”. It is no good going into a meeting, discovering we’re under attack, and then trying to throw out an arrow prayer requesting peace. In my experience it just doesn’t work like that. The preparation comes from our daily walk with God, our routines of worship, prayer and Bible study, our fellowship with other believes who challenge and encourage us, and who accept us as people beloved by God. By such things, our feet become fitted with this readiness, the readiness that comes from knowing for sure the best of all possible news, that we are at peace with God, the creator and supreme ruler of the universe. How could anyone else possibly threaten us?

Mercy @ Work – Eviction

2011-01-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Is there a place for mercy at work? In particular, can a property owner afford to put off evicting a non-paying tenant, when investors and lenders have to be kept happy? Surely mercy in business is quite impractical?

Mercy takes a number of forms, some of which may not be the most obvious. We have an interesting example just about to close. We had foreclosed on two pieces of land. One had on it a run-down ranch-house, quite uninhabitable and clearly a drain on the property’s value. The other, smaller, piece had on it a mobile home, with a family of six, paying no rent. The owner was a surveyor with the local county, but was laid off when the recession started, and has pretty much given up. When we received an offer to buy the smaller piece of land, one condition was that we evict this tenant. Instead, working with the tenant and our broker, we worked out an arrangement in which he would prepare the house on the other piece of land for him and his family to live in, and would continue to improve it, in lieu of rent. We provided the raw materials and he has provided countless hours of labor (as has the broker, as an act of service). He and his family now have a home for at least a few months, and breathing room to refocus on job-hunting and rehabilitation. We have a house also in process of rehabilitation – the broker estimates that our $5,000 of materials outlay has already likely increased the value of that property by $100,000.

This was a refreshing opportunity that worked out much better for everyone than we imagined, but they are few and far between. There have been other times when we have had no alternative, and have had to proceed with eviction in order to be able to prepare a property for sale. If we don’t do this, we fail in our financial responsibility to our investors.

If we have a tenant (or a borrower) who has a viable plan to resolve the problem (e.g. buying the property, or starting to pay rent, or paying off a loan), then we can and must work with them within reason. There are many lenders and property managers who will see the other party’s problem as an opportunity to seize property or get increased income. We try very hard not to benefit on the backs of others. Determining when the alternative of waiting or working with them is very hard sometimes though – only too often we’ve been spun stories that have no foundation in either practicality or even intention.

Sadly, more often than not, even after we’ve worked with people, we end up having to go through with the foreclosure or the eviction. We wish it were not true. Often we will then get sued by them. I don’t think we’ve ever lost one of these cases, but of course they take up time and legal expense. We understand though – they’re often desperate. There are opportunities to show mercy here too, though we don’t always feel inclined to, given the nature of the invective poured out on us.

Mercy is hard in business. But then I have to ask “how much harder must it be for God to show mercy to us?” How much more have we offended Him, disobeyed, rebelled, cursed and angered Him? He evicted Adam and Eve from Eden because of their disobedience – do we deserve any less? And yet He welcomes us into His Kingdom. Amazing mercy and love!

Armed @ Work – Breastplate of Righteousness

2010-12-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

Don’t you just hate “righteous” people? Don’t you sometimes want to take a pot-shot at them, or uncover some dastardly deed from the past?

And yet, in the armor Paul says we need to wear on a daily basis, the second “with the breastplate of righteousness in place” (Eph 6:14b). The question is what do we mean by righteousness? Is it the same as “self-righteousness”? Actually no, in many ways it’s the exact opposite. I’m struck by the words “in place” in the Ephesians verse – not that this is what Paul means, but there is a place for righteousness of the right kind.

In the Bible, righteousness and justice are almost interchangeable. And both of them essentially speak of doing the right thing for the right reasons or, even more fundamentally, acting as God would. For a Christian, right can only be absolutely defined in terms of God’s character – what is right is what is good and pleasing to Him – His will (see Romans 12:2 – “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” It is no coincidence that the precondition to knowing this will of God – the right way to act – is to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, rather than conforming (moulding) ourselves to this world’s patterns.

The self-righteous person is in fact conforming to this world’s ways – I am right, I have rights, I am entitled to seek self-justification. The truly righteous person is seeking to be transformed back into the image of God, following Christ’s example. This means seeking justice (even at personal cost), making the right ethical and compassionate decisions, and in all ways modeling the humility, love and grace of Jesus.

How does this act as a breastplate in the workplace? This piece of armor is, of course, designed to protect the heart and other vital internal organs. For the Romans and Greeks, as well as for us, the seat of the will and emotions was in this area and Paul surely had this metaphorical meaning in mind. Our heart needs to be protected against temptations to play safe, or to take the easy path, or even the path that will maximize benefit for ourselves. The only antidote is the protection of seeking God’s righteousness in every aspect of our lives.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Romans 12:2 (and am preaching on it on Sunday) – it is truly something of a life verse for me. The change in me – the metamorphosis (which is what the Greek word for transformation is here) – must be radical. The change from self-righteousness to God-righteousness is one I can’t afford to continue without. After all, what soldier in his right mind goes to war with no breastplate (aka bullet-proof vest)?

Armed @ Work – Belt of Truth

2010-12-21T09:49:00.000-08:00

“Does this dress make me look fat?” Every man knows how dangerous this question is from our spouse or girlfriend, but what about from a colleague? Should we always tell the truth at work?

In the armor recommended by Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, the very first item is the belt of truth: “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist” (Eph 6:14a). How does truth protect us from attack in the workplace (whether spiritual or any other kind)? There are times it seems as though the truth is the enemy.

“Did you finish that report I told you must be done today?”
“Well no – actually I was watching the basketball on espn3.com”

This hardly seems calculated to win us any battles. Obviously there is a different solution to this one. The truth will not be our friend if we are not living lives of integrity.

But actually I don’t think this kind of truth is really what Paul is talking about. I’m not saying we shouldn’t tell the truth in this sense – lying is certainly not going to protect us in the long run, regardless of the situation. But truth in the Bible is for the most part not about factual accuracy, but goes much deeper. It is about the ways things really are – and more specifically the way God has laid things out. It is about His sovereignty, His grace and mercy, His love, His justice, His compassion. To put it another way, truth is what we find in the Word of God (Jesus himself said, during his great “high priestly prayer”: “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

A belt surrounds us, protects our vulnerable (and for some of us rather outsized) middles, and provides a sense of security (not least that our pants won’t fall down!) Truth is the same way – it is always safe, can always be depended upon to guide us to the right decisions, the right attitudes, to integrity. “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105).

So what does it mean to wear the belt of truth at work? It means being familiar with God’s Word, and with His idea of what is good and right. It means being so familiar that God’s precepts are a vital part of who we are, that we have absorbed them so fully that they shape our every action, thought, motive and attitude. We need to be quite simply so immersed in the truth, the Bible, that we find ourselves meditating on it at unexpected moments, repeating verses to ourselves in times of need and of joy, turning to it for comfort, wisdom, and hope. God’s words to Joshua sum it up: “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (Joshua 1:8)

Next time you go to work, don’t forget your belt – it could be embarrassing!

Armed @ Work – The Whole Armor of God

2010-12-08T14:12:00.000-08:00

I just learned (and didn’t want to know) that my boss, the company owner, keeps a licensed firearm in his office drawer. It is true that some of our borrowers get pretty desperate if we have to foreclose, but still … On the other hand, I know how desperately I need to be spiritually armed while I’m here.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul says: “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes … [and] so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:10-12) To stand firm under attack, to remain faithful when tempted, to proclaim the hope of the Gospel when all is falling apart around me – this I want to do. So the next few posts will look at the individual pieces of spiritual armor.

But, you might say, this passage is talking about spiritual warfare, not business. I would respond that you have fallen into the common trap of wanting to separate worldly matters from the spiritual realm, which is something the Bible never does. If, as I believe, there is such a thing as spiritual warfare, then it surely takes place where we spend most of our time, which for many of us means at work.

If there is spiritual warfare going on in the workplace, then it is most likely focused on the Lordship of Christ – His spiritual enemies will work toward getting us to follow our own (or their) desires and inclinations rather than being submitted to and ruled by the Spirit within us. I don’t know how to distinguish between actual spiritual attack and the impact of my sinful nature. But in either case the result is temptation to anger, selfish ambition, pride, greed, injustice, and so on.

What Paul offers in this great passage is some protection. Just as it would be foolhardy to walk into a battle zone without appropriate protection and weaponry, so it is foolhardy to enter the spiritual battle zone at work without preparation. This is very practical stuff and hopefully I can learn something as I study and share on each item: belt of truth … breastplate of righteousness … readiness that comes from the gospel of peace ... shield of faith … helmet of salvation … sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:14-17).

Does my boss need a gun in the office? I hope not, though we’ve had some pretty out of control borrowers, and in truth it isn’t impossible. This is a just in case precaution, against the remote possibility of a homicidal client. Do I need spiritual armor? For certain, yes, because the enemies of God, personified in the Bible as the Satan, will most certainly do what they can to prevent God’s will being carried out where I work. I need (and you need) the full armor of God at work.

Justice @ Work – Apathy or Action?

2010-11-30T09:41:00.000-08:00

You see something at work that just seems wrong. What do you do about it? Do you look the other way, to keep yourself out of trouble? Can you do anything about it anyway?

One of the great things about being a “big fish in a small pond” is the opportunity to get involved, to fix things that are broken, to right injustice, and to influence a whole corporate culture. When I was a much smaller fish in a much bigger pond (Bank of America) though, it seemed like there was nothing I could do to address things that weren’t right. So it was tempting to be in denial, even going so far as defending my employer when I had sincere doubts about what they were doing.

The Biblical call in Micah 5:8 “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” is well known. But it is much more comfortable for us to think of this as something remote – writing letters to our US Senator about atrocities in Darfur, for example. If we have to apply it to our daily lives things get much more dangerous. The reality is that any time we confront injustice we are taking risks.
So we need discernment along the lines of the great serenity prayer:

     God grant me the serenity
     to accept the things I cannot change;
     courage to change the things I can;
     and wisdom to know the difference.

We need to know when to simply accept that we cannot impact injustice, and when to take the risks inherent in acting against it. I think of our reactions to injustice, whether at work or elsewhere, at four levels.

Apathy. When we turn away, or deny, or tacitly or actively defend injustice, we are being apathetic – literally not feeling for the victims of injustice. Can this ever be right? I don’t think so. Acceptance that I cannot change things does not require that I have no feeling toward those who are impacted.

Awareness. I may not be able to change anything but I need to be aware of the impact of injustice on those around me. I may not be able to change the personnel policy of a large company to provide adequate time off, or to pay appropriate wages to thousands of people. But I will be contact with those who are impacted, and I can show compassion. Later on, as I rise up the company, or if I join a smaller company, I can remember these lessons and have a real impact. This is exactly what has happened for me in, for example, improving the vacation policy for my smaller company.

Activism. Even though I can’t directly change unjust practices, I can help with raising awareness, and I can petition those with the power to make changes. Most companies have opportunities, through mailboxes, public meetings, or corporate email, to raise concerns without fear of recriminations. In some cases, we may have to rely on “whistle-blower” laws to protect us – this is extremely uncomfortable but there are times we know it to be right.

Action. When we are in a position to directly change unjust practices and policies we simply need to do it, regardless of the impact on the company’s bottom line. Now that I am in a top executive position in a small company, this comes up constantly. Doing the “right thing” rather than the most profitable thing is a constant challenge and conversation among our senior leaders. But it can be very difficult (such as whether to lay off some staff in order to protect the jobs of the rest, and who to lay off).

The bottom line is that we serve, and are made in the image of, a God of justice. He demands it of us and equips us to administer it in all sorts of ways. Apathy is never going to be an acceptable answer (that is what Micah’s prophecy complains about), but we need to be constantly aware of injustice around us, getting involved through activism when it will make a difference, and taking action when we are in a position to do so. What if all Christians did this?

Love @ Work Always Perseveres

2010-11-12T16:26:00.000-08:00

“Love always perseveres” according to 1 Corinthians 13:7. How do I square that with having just today laid off half our staff? Wouldn’t love have found a way? We’ve tried, but it’s not quite that simple.

We’ve been struggling (as I’ve recounted in other posts) for more than three years to survive through the economic downturn that hit our commercial mortgage lending business so hard. Despite our best efforts, and some heroic financial and legal sacrifice by the company’s owner, our cash issues have become greater and greater.

Despite having already reduced in staff substantially (releasing contractors, not replacing people who leave, and some prior lay-offs) we are still unable to make our payroll beyond this month. Therefore we have had to tell six of our eleven staff that they are being laid off or (in a couple of cases) must work radically reduced hours. Each is a person I have sought to show love to, and each is a person for whom I have genuine appreciation, value and honor. Each is seriously impacted by these changes and we feel as though we have let them down.

Have we given up on them by laying them off? How far does this “love always perseveres” go in the workplace? A dictionary definition of perseverance is “steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.” Thomas Aquinas qualified this though, defining perseverance as “the long persistence in any kind of difficult good.” From a Biblical perspective the “good” is an important element.

Would it be good, for example, if we were blind to our inability to make payroll in December without this action, and ended up with nothing for anybody at the end of the month and the need to close our doors completely in January? I don’t think so. “Good” in the Biblical context includes a consideration of the good of the community, and it also considers far more than material well-being.

I do know that it would not be loving perseverance for me to hand out severance notices and say goodbye, without another thought for our employees’ welfare. Some things are straightforward – each impacted employee needs to know they have my support in their job search, as a reference, reviewing resumes, talking over opportunities, and in any personal way in which I can help. There are practical limits obviously. But above all, though perhaps not so easy, perseverance doesn’t stop loving just because circumstances change. It is implied in the string of “always” statements in 1 Corinthians 13:7 – love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. In our prayers, our encouragement, our availability, our belief in our staff, even if things don’t go well for the business, we show a persevering love.

We cannot give up seeking the good of our work community (including clients, investors, etc). We cannot give up seeking the good of our employees who have to be laid off – offering hope and support and prayer for them in any way within our power. Pray for me that I may show a group of struggling but wonderful people a persevering love.

Power @ Work

2010-11-09T14:18:00.000-08:00

As I picked up the spoon for the ninth time from the restaurant floor, carelessly tossed there by my tyrannical eleven-month-old granddaughter, I was struck by how innate the desire for power and control seems to be. How quickly children learn the enjoyment of being in control! And can there be any greater control than that exerted by a little girl over her grandpa? (Could you resist?)

Sadly, that innocent desire never seems to completely die away, and morphs into far more dangerous forms. Despite various efforts to overcome these urges, I confess to feeling a certain delight when team members rush off to do my bidding, or employees come to me for permission, or approval, or even disapproval. As I think about bosses I’ve worked for, just about all of them sought some form of power and control. (It also seems as though men tend to wield raw power, while women specialize in exercising control. Perhaps this is a figment of my chauvinistic imagination, but it seems that way. It could be cultural, or could be truly a matter of gender differences.)

We talk of pride being the most basic of sins – remembering that Satan said to Eve that “you will be like God” (Gen 3:5). But perhaps it is also about power – after all, isn’t Satan encouraging humankind to cast off the shackles of God’s control over us so that we can be truly in control? For many people, perhaps in the end for all of us, power in its various forms is as attractive as fame or fortune.

The problem is that we were made not to exert power or control over one another, even in the workplace, but to love. Even the spiritually esoteric psychotherapist (and contemporary of Sigmund Freud) Carl Jung saw that the two are mutually exclusive. “Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other.”

But surely God manages it? Well yes, but His version of power is quite different from ours. It isn’t manipulative, self-seeking, or destructive. Because of His grace, His power made and sustains His good Creation, it is redemptive, it is sacrificial, and it is unselfish to an extreme. It is, after all, by His astonishing power that Jesus became human, and was ultimately raised from the dead, conquering sin and its inevitable consequence, death.

Of ourselves, we will not exercise power in God’s way. And yet, God has indeed given us power, and has even called us to exert control over Creation. When he said to Adam and Eve “fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Gen 1:29), He gave us power as His partners in Creation – our call to daily work – but He expects us to use it in His image (Gen 1:27). Made in His image, our use of power was to be driven also by love, grace and mercy. Love was to be paramount. How far short we have fallen!

The good news is that there is a way back to God’s intention. If we have the Spirit of Christ Himself in us, as is true of all who have been called by His Name and surrendered to Him, then we can again walk in the image of God. The power we are given can be truly exercised in love. Our motivations, actions, thoughts, and words as managers, leaders, team members or indeed customers or suppliers can be driven by God’s original mandate to care for Creation, and for one another, by using the power He has given us, in the way that He would have us use it – in love for Him and for one another.

Success @ Work

2010-11-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the SF Giants World Series victory parade. What a great experience! Vast crowds lining Market Street got to watch this unlikely group of players who conquered the world (well America anyway) in the baseball classic. Success excites everyone. But what is it?

Well, you might say, it is winning of course! The Giants proved that. Closing the deal, beating the analyst forecasts, getting the top sales rating, achieving the promotion. Our culture craves success, and our culture defines what its idea of success is. In a competitive culture, success is defined by beating the opposition. I win only if you lose. Obviously it isn’t quite that crass in the business world – you and I can both be successful provided we meet or exceed our goals. But if our goals are mutually exclusive, then one of us will succeed and one will not.

What is Biblical success though, and how does it translate into the workplace? The first reference I find is in Genesis 24 when Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Success is prayed for or talked about five times in that chapter. It represents completion of a God-ordained task. When Rebekah is found as a bride for Isaac, Abraham’s servant has been successful. There is no particular wealth in view here, no public acclaim, no victory parades. And yet … through this successful trip, God has carried out the next stage of His covenant promises to Abraham, in establishing a nation for Himself through Abraham’s progeny.

For us in business, the definition of success does include the meeting of business goals. But if the business goals are not consistent with God’s plans for us and for our business, or if they are not in line with the intentions God has for us in the workplace, we will not be successful, no matter what our colleagues tell us.

Which defines success for you? Is it the temporary adulation of your colleagues (because you know they’ll forget by tomorrow)? Is it the fatter paycheck at the end of the month or year? Or is it even having everyone tell you that you’ve made a difference in your community? Or is it not really about what other people think at all? Which would you prefer – a victory parade for an afternoon, or hearing our God say “well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23)?

As I write, the victory celebrations are still going on at San Francisco’s Civic Center. But this time next year, unless they can do it again, most of us won’t be Giants fans any more and the faithful will be complaining as they always do. Meantime, God’s faithfulness and acceptance will continue forever.

Bible @ Work

2010-11-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

What does a motley collection of history, poetry, prophecy and advice columns from thousands of years ago have to do with the modern business world, with all its technology and sophistication. When it’s the Bible, the answer is everything!

By the way the advice columnist in question was probably mostly Solomon – the Proverbs read that way, and probably have as much to say about business as any book in the Bible. But then by some counts the Bible talks about money even more than it does love. While I’ve been writing this blog, it has become more and more apparent just how vibrantly, relevantly and critically the Bible speaks to my workplace. It talks about business relationships, negotiations, contracts, ethics, employee justice, budgeting and planning, and much more on a practical level.

But even more, it provides a foundation for work itself. Our purpose is tied up with God’s initial calling to humanity to be workers in imitation of Him, the greatest Worker. Our individual calling is into all of life, including our daily occupation, to be His priesthood – those who become the place where heaven and earth come today, those filled with the Holy Spirit. Our perspective is to be God’s, informed and led by the Spirit of Christ who lives within us. This radically impacts our view of work.

Regular readers of this blog will have seen previous postings that addressed these topics (especially the Theology @ Work series). I’ve also found it very helpful (though very challenging) to work through some Biblical lists – the fruit of the Spirit, the attributes of love – applying them to real situations in the workplace. In case you’re interested in looking back at any of this, the cumulative blog document is organized by topic and posted in Google Docs at https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B0z67UIBKzjZOWQ0NTY0NmUtMGJiYS00NmU3LWE0MWEtNzRiZTdmNmZjODgy&hl=en. The blog web site also has a link to the archive. Here’s the list of major topics:

Discovering God @ Work – my voyage of discovery of God’s presence in the workplace
Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – an attempt to explore how each part of the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 plays out in the workplace
Theology @ Work – an ongoing series laying out the beginnings of a Biblical foundation for faith in the workplace
Justice @ Work – an ongoing series exploring various topics of justice and ethics
Prayer @ Work - occasional topics related to prayer in and for our work
God’s Perspective @ Work – trying to see the workplace through God’s eyes
Love @ Work – attribute-by-attribute exploration of love as described in 1 Corinthians 13
Church @ Work – reflections on the church’s role in the Christian’s work life
Miscellaneous topics - individual posts prompted by a passage of Scripture or an event at work

Some of these topics are still being added to, and others will come (for example the “whole armor of God” from Ephesians 6). Bottom line – I’ve read lots of management and leadership books, but none that remotely came close in value and depth to the Bible.

Love @ Work Always Hopes

2010-11-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

"They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more." (a line from the nihilist 1960s play “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett). Our world desperately needs hope, and love in the workplace must offer it.

I struggle with this in the midst of an extended real estate downturn, as we see blow after blow to the our prospect of recovering our investors’ money (not to mention fees that would pay our payroll). The obvious answer is that I say to our employees and investors that money isn’t everything, and that it will all work out OK in the end – just trust in the Lord. But I’m sorry, that just doesn’t work for me. I don’t mean it isn’t true, just that this isn’t an environment for glib statements. Still, if we are to offer love to the people we work with, we have to be able to offer hope – that surely is one of the greatest gifts love has to offer?

The Bible acknowledges the sense of futility that can come from a dependence on human effort, particularly in Ecclesiastes (a book most students of the Bible have grappled with at one time or another). “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Eccl 2:11) says the Preacher (possibly the ultimate over-achiever Solomon!). But in the end, even the Preacher concludes “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (Eccl 12:13-14).

How is this a message of hope for our colleagues and business partners? Quite simply that it is a matter of perspective. What we see, in our financial desperation, is the end of the world. But clearly that’s not what God sees. When others around us see their self-worth challenged by failure, love reaches out to them and declares the value God places on them. When others see the loss of material possessions as the end of all that matters, love shows that God (in part through us) has a present and future hope that transcends things and offers relationships – even relationship with God Himself through Jesus. When others fear death (their own or their loved ones), love boldly proclaims the hope of the resurrection – the confidence that God is not limited by mortality and death, but brings renewal – new life, new bodies, a new heaven and earth (1 Corinthians 15, Revelation 21).

However, coming back to the glib response – it is not sufficient for me to tell someone not to worry about loss of job, when I have a retirement fund in reserve, meaning I’ll still have food on the table if I’m out of work, while I know or suspect that they do not! We need to be sensitive to the reality of the present for others, without losing sight of and being driven by God’s greater reality. This isn’t easy, but keeping God’s hope to ourselves is distinctly unloving!

Love @ Work Always Trusts

2010-10-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

“But he promised …” or “she said she had a buyer lined up” are not good excuses in my business for failing to address a borrower’s delinquency. Compassion and reasonable forbearance may be acceptable within reason, but simply taking a borrower’s word for it – particularly when most of our borrowers are real estate speculators – isn’t considered to be very smart business practice.

"Love … always trusts” says 1 Corinthians 13:7. Always? Isn’t that a recipe for being walked all over, being constantly hurt or disappointed, and opening ourselves up to being ripped off by all and sundry? On a business level, it just isn’t how things are done is it? Gone are the days when deals were struck with a handshake and the “word of a gentleman”. So what on earth is Paul talking about?

Perhaps a good place to start is asking whether Jesus took this approach? Did He always trust what was said to Him, or entrust Himself to others? How about John 2:23-25 (emphasis mine)? “Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.”

So most likely this isn’t about blind, naïve trust – we need to know what is in a (wo)man. Perhaps Jesus’ statement to the disciples “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16) is helpful. Trusting in this context involves looking for the best, expecting others to be honest and ethical, but still taking the necessary precautions in case they are not.

In business, the precautions involve legal documentation of the consequences of non-performance in a contract. For example, if a borrower doesn’t make the loan payments promised, they stand to lose the property against which they have borrowed. I’ll take a shot at the current residential foreclosures debate in an upcoming Justice @ Work post, but the key here is that it is prudent to in some way insure against dishonesty or failure to keep promises to minimize the damage.

On a personal level, there are precautions we should take too. “Love always trusts” suggests that we should expect the best, but prepare for the worst. Some people have been hurt and disappointed so much that they have become gun-shy, and feel that they’d rather never take the risk of trusting another person. I have been fortunate on the other hand, and have suffered relatively few personal disappointments and as a result tend to assume another person is trustworthy regardless of evidence to the contrary. Either extreme has its dangers. Trust without precautions may be an unnecessary risk, but failure to trust runs all sorts of other risks (failure to build relationships, loss of business opportunities, etc). If we are “shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” we will have our eyes open, and take all reasonable precautions, but at the same time we will believe in the other person and take the risk of allowing them to show their trustworthiness.

With this balance, it is indeed not just possible, but mandatory, for love to always trust.

Vacation @ Work – Return

2010-10-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

Why is it that vacations seem to lose their effect so quickly? Just an hour back at work and it’s as though I was never gone! In fact, it’s a real struggle not to spend the last couple of days thinking about what might be waiting for me on my return to work.

Am I the only one who feels like nothing got done while I was away, and that the clear instructions I thought I’d left somehow didn’t get followed? Or that no old crises were resolved but several new ones have arisen? Or that the activities that had plenty of time to complete have now become emergencies because no progress was made.

No wonder returning to work is so hard sometimes. In my case, I found a complex deal not advanced, a legal issue not noticed, negotiations with a tax authority on a go-slow, and hold ups for a cash influx that would cover our end of October payroll. None of this is really so out of the ordinary. The question is how do we handle it?

In theory, I returned from vacation refreshed, reinvigorated and ready to go. In practice, I must confess that this deluge of disappointment got me down within an hour of my arrival back. When I say it got me down, what it really did was to drag my eyes down – looking at the immediate challenges and issues and no longer looking to the sovereign, gracious God who called me here in the first place. How easily we can fall sometimes!

Where was my gratitude to my colleagues for keeping things going (even if not in the way I would have done them) so that I could take time off? Where was my acknowledgement that if things didn’t get finished, they wouldn’t necessarily have done if I’d been here (certainly true of some of them)? Why was I not prepared to admit that it was my poor preparation and delegation that had led to some of my disappointments? You’d think I’d learn.

OK enough self-flagellation! There are several lessons here to be learned I think.

Vacations provide an opportunity not just to relax and rest, but also to refocus ad recharge. This is done by taking time with God, extending devotional times, walking or sitting with Him, talking through difficult spiritual matters, and sharing love with others.
Preparation for vacations is important – providing clear statements of expectations from others (and making sure they’re reasonable)
Preparation for return to work is more than just forcing stress and worry under the rug till we get back. We must expect surprises and approach them with the healthier perspective our vacation should have provided.
While we are on vacation, others are trying to take up the slack – their stress and workload have gone up. Recognizing this with gratitude is far better than complaining about shortcomings.

Hmm – perhaps I should take another vacation in short order so that I can try these things out.

Vacation @ Work – Camping

2010-09-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

Just two work days to vacation – I can’t wait. I need this break so badly. But why? Aren’t vacations a modern invention? Not according to the Bible.

The stress level lately has been so high that even 11 hours on a plane to London is amazingly attractive. But part of me feels like if I was “giving everything to God”, if I was fully experiencing His peace, then I wouldn’t need a break so badly. However, since I’m no paragon of virtue, vacation is very much a necessity.

As it turns out, this is quite biblical. I was recently researching the Jewish feast of Succot, known as the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. (This was for a sermon on Nehemiah 8 and John 7, both of which occur around this festival). It lasts 8 days, starts and ends with a party, and in the middle everybody goes camping. Seriously! Take a look at the instructions in Leviticus 23: “Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” (v 41-43). This vacation is a time to refocus on God’s gracious provision for us, a time to get our perspective back – our Sovereign God is in control and will provide for our needs as we fit into His plan. The Jews were to live out the memory of their wandering in the wilderness when they were absolutely dependent on God, but He came through with everything they needed.

We need a break from our daily work for several reasons. For some of us, the work environment is very stressful due to business conditions, or difficult boss or co-worker, or a sense of being out of our depth. For some it is very tedious and mind-numbing. For some it is physically exhausting and for other mentally exhausting. In all these cases we need a break, a rest – a time for our bodies and minds to heal and to be rejuvenated. In our vacations we should be seeking re-creation – renewal of minds, bodies and spirits.

But just as much we need to be restored spiritually. No matter how hard we try it seems as though work concerns swamp our relationship with God, and vacation allows us to step back from it and put God firmly back in the center of our lives. There is time to reflect, to rebuild relationships with Him and with friends and family. There is time to simply enjoy Him and His creation.

Some people don’t take their vacations, and think they’re heroes. I am not supportive of this attitude in my staff – I strongly encourage them to take decent vacations and not to carry over a whole lot, because I haven’t met anyway who couldn’t benefit from a good vacation. How the vacation is spent will of course impact its value – but I can’t influence that.

As for me, I’m off to England in autumn – camping of course – not!

Love @ Work Always Protects

2010-09-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

There’s nothing better than a juicy piece of gossip at the water cooler is there? Except, of course, when it’s about you. Then harmless gossip suddenly looks like hateful slander.

The NIV translation of the first part of 1 Corinthians 13:7 says that love “always protects”. The King James and many derivative translations have “bears all things”. Apparently the original Greek word stegei actually means “covers” – it is derived from a root word meaning “roof”. There are a few ways in which love covers all things. God has shown us what this looks like with His own example toward us.

Love holds secret those things that would have a negative impact on others, unless it is essential for some reason to share them with someone else. Love does not gossip. Period! God’s example: He covers all of our faults, failings and sins because of His grace. In other words He forgives us so thoroughly that He acts as though we had not sinned (even though the consequences of our sins will generally still get played out).
Even deeper, there is an allusion to the Hebrew concept of covering as a form of redemption. Love will carry the burden (hence “bears all things”) and will protect others from the implications of their actions (“always protects”). This appears in the idea of the kinsman-redeemer (Leviticus 25:25) which is better known in the story of Ruth (4:1), who provides a cover for Ruth by purchasing her from poverty and loneliness to be his wife (and a direct ancestor of the Messiah Jesus!). God’s example: He provides a Redeemer – one who will take the most serious consequence of our sin, which is eternal separation from God, and buy us out of it.
The word is also used with the sense or bearing with, or forbearing (e.g. 1 Thessalonians 3:1,5). God’s example: it is obvious that God is constantly bearing with us – our rebellions, our tantrums, our stubborn pride. We’d need to be pretty self-delusional to deny this!

When we see wrong in another at work, whether directed at us or not, we have a responsibility as bearers of God’s image, and as those redeemed by Jesus, to behave in the same counter-intuitive ways:

We will not gossip about other employees, whether we’re sure of the facts or not. We will in fact restrict our communications to those that are strictly essential to the good of the employee and the company. This isn’t always an easy judgment, but it is much narrower than most people’s practice would imply.
We will forgive and in that sense cover over wrongs done to us, on the grounds that we have been forgiven far, far more by the gracious God who made us. (See e.g. the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:23-35).
We will bear with the ongoing faults of others, just as we need God (and actually other people) to bear with ours. Oh boy this is hard isn’t it? How hard must it be for God to love us though – surely in response it makes sense for us to seek through the Holy Spirit in us to move in the direction of doing the same?

Justice @ Work – Rationalizing

2010-09-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

What is the biggest challenge to justice in the workplace? Is it greed? Or selfishness? Or hunger for power? Much less obvious, but insidious and almost universal is rationalization. I suffer from it – so probably do you.

Raymond Chandler says “However toplofty and idealistic a man may be, he can always rationalize his right to earn money.” How true! Rationalizing is a technique we use to convince ourselves that some action or outcome that we might otherwise find morally questionable is in fact OK. For example a person evades paying taxes and then rationalizes it by talking about how the government wastes money (and how it is better for people to keep what they can). Or I excuse the difference between what I earn and what our receptionist earns by any one of a number of things:

We’re in a capitalist society in which prices (including labor) are driven by supply and demand
The company would be impacting far more by my leaving than hers
She’s become accustomed to living on much less than me
And so on

I’m not sure why I started writing this, because it is really uncomfortable. There is no Biblical mandate that requires financial equity – that is that requires everyone to own or possess the same amounts. What we are given is entrusted to us by God to be used for Him anyway.

My point here is that we can find an excuse for any action whatever if we want to. So how do we catch ourselves from going down what my boss calls “the slippery slope”. I am fortunate in having a boss who is very ethical (almost to a fault in that he pushes an ethical point so far in favor of one group that it damages another group – it is often a zero-sum game). Given the extreme financial challenges we’re facing – he as owner and I as his operations executive – we have plenty of scope for going down a path that is expedient but not ethical, that skirts the law, or that benefits one party at the expense of another.

There are rarely straightforward answers. He is open to my perspective on Biblical justice (though doesn’t necessarily agree) – but that’s not always clear-cut either. What we do have is a willingness to challenge each other, pointing out the beginning of the “slippery slope” and pulling one another back. I’m very blessed. So my recommendation is that, whatever your work situation, you try to find someone with whom you can talk through business decisions, large or small, to challenge you and hold you accountable to stop rationalizing.

The other approach is always to seek to see situations through God’s eyes. This sounds impossible, but to a degree I’m convinced it is not. “Pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) means keeping our communication channels with God open in everything at all times. Combined with daily, in-depth, Bible reading and study we can truly see God’s perspective to the extent our limitations allow. And God does not rationalize!

Love @ Work Rejoices with the Truth

2010-09-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32).
“There are few nudities so objectionable as the naked truth.” (Agnes Repplier).
Discuss.

The Truth is a tricky beast. Yes I know I’m supposed to love it, but there are times when (a) I’d rather not know, or (b) I’d rather nobody else knew. Whether it’s truth about me or you, both apply.

Of course Jesus was talking about a different kind of Truth wasn’t he? Wasn’t he? Well at least it was Truth about God, about life, and about reality. His Truth goes so much deeper than factual stuff. But it is hard to deny that the factual stuff is a part of Truth.

OK so let’s explore this idea that “love … rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). First it is in opposition to last week’s phrase “love does not delight in evil”. In a sense it is like one of those proverbs that uses poetic parallelism to give a positive and a negative way of saying the same thing, like “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother” (Proverbs 10:1). It emphasizes the point, just as our present clause does.

We should expect, therefore, that this is the flip side of the coin from not delighting in evil, and so I believe it proves to be. Not only do we not have little internal parties when our rival falls flat on his or her face, but we DO have such a party when our rival has pulls off something that improves their position. OK it was hard enough damping down our enthusiasm for the other person’s failure, but surely we don’t need to get all pumped up because they did something well do we? Or do we? Well of course we know the answer.

I don’t know about you, but I often draw the line when their success impacts me negatively. It would be like a soccer team all jumping for joy when the other team scores on them! I mean, come on – have you ever seen that?

The other aspect of this is in our truth-telling. I’m not sure about “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” (I have some sympathy for the “naked truth” quote at the beginning) but truth without embroidery, exaggeration, or avoidance. There are times the truth, particularly about someone else, is unnecessary. If it is necessary there are ways to tell it – compassionate, confidential and constructive would be good words to apply. Without these, the truth easily becomes the “evil” of the previous phrase.

Underlying all these, though, is Jesus quote – “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. His Truth shows us the reality of who we and others are, how much we are valued and loved, how rich are God’s plans for us (both together and individually), and just Who is really in charge. Now that is truly Truth we can rejoice in, Truth that transforms every action, word and even thought in the workplace.

Justice @ Work – Restoration

2010-09-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

I had dinner at an amazing restaurant in Charlotte, NC on Saturday. The King’s Kitchen employs solely the “unemployable” and devotes all its profits to feeding the poor in Charlotte. The employees are typically people trying to reenter the workforce after prison, or addiction recoveries or other major problems, or else at-risk youth. It was opened by a local master chef (Jim Noble) earlier this year and is an amazing picture of the merging of gifts, talents and resources for God’s Kingdom. Appropriately it is a “Soul Food” restaurant – providing far more for the soul than the eponymous Southern cuisine. See http://www.kingskitchen.org/ for more information and, if you’re ever in Charlotte, visit – you’ll find that the service in particular is quite outstanding!

Chef Noble was determined to combine his great culinary and restaurant management skills with his passion for justice. Unfortunately I just missed the opportunity to meet him – a broadcaster friend had interviewed him and been blown away by his faith-driven passion for the marginalized in society.

It raises for me a really significant question of justice in the workplace – that of restoring those who have in some way failed in their duties to society. Our faith is all about restoration isn’t it? Without God’s mercy and grace we wouldn’t have a chance. Paul’s letter to the Romans is particularly clear on this point, but really it is one of the key messages of the whole of Scripture. Who are we, then, to deny restoration to those who have failed in the workplace?

It isn’t always that simple though. How do we balance business risks against grace? If someone has failed in the past, aren’t we risking our company’s money by giving them another chance? I recently supported the hiring of an attorney who had been suspended by the state bar association, had gone through all his required rehabilitation steps, and was trying to reenter the legal profession. Unfortunately, he isn’t performing well at all. There was a risk that doesn’t seem to be paying off – does that make my decision wrong?

In a more general sense, we face this challenge all the time. In a way it is related to the question of forgiveness, which I’ve written about elsewhere (http://faithatworkplace.blogspot.com/2010/08/love-work-keeps-no-record-of-wrongs.html). We face the same tension of our business responsibilities and our desire to show love to the individual. As managers we have a responsibility to our employers, our employees and ourselves to do everything we can to coach through challenges, to address performance issues and to overcome weaknesses before we give up on someone. As colleagues, peer coaching is equally important (and often terribly underestimated in value).

Bottom line – nobody, thank God, is beyond redemption. But redemption may involve a change of job or responsibilities. For those staff at The King’s Kitchen, who are doing such an amazing job, restoration means a completely new career, a new way of living. For us as managers and colleagues, the same may need to be proposed and made to happen. Even if we are forced to part ways with an employee because there is no alternative in our company for them, the approach must be one of helping them to see and seek true restoration in a different environment. In our loving actions and prayers, may we be able to help!

Love @ Work Does Not Delight in Evil

2010-09-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

Do you get a secret thrill when your business gets one over on a competitor? Or, closer to home, when a rival for a promotion makes a big mistake? Come on, be honest!

Our natural self-centered first reaction is to rejoice when something goes wrong for someone we view in some way as a competitor or, as 1 Corinthians 13:6 puts it, “delight in evil”. In this context, we’re talking about something going wrong for someone else. Of course things do go wrong for other people. Of course we are entitled to do what we can (ethically and morally) to accomplish business and personal goals. But our attitude toward our opponent is to be one of love, not hate. When Jesus says (John 6:35) “love your enemies, do good to them”, I don’t think this just means people who are actively attacking us. Even more it means the people who are in our way, or who don’t like us (or we don’t like).

We can get quite conflicted can’t we? When someone else wins the promotion, we wish something had happened to slow them down. Conversely when something does happen to someone else, we rationalize our celebration by thinking that they obviously didn’t deserve it, we are clearly better than them, or they’re better off as they are. Where is our compassion? Where is our love?

This can be a factor for managers too – one of the toughest parts of management is dealing with difficult or poorly performing employees. How often have we wished something would happen that would cause such people to resign, or have to leave, or else would give us clear grounds for dismissal? I inherited an employee many years ago, an experienced programmer who had all sorts of bad reports against him from various people. My job was to go through a process to terminate him. So I started with him, of course, and let him talk about what was going on. Then I started to listen to what other people had to say, and it began to dawn on me that there was more to this than met the eye. Fortunately, before I went through the disciplinary process I realized that this was a very talented man with some communication challenges, who had received no support whatever from a manager who was in fact “delighting in evil” – grabbing onto the bad reports he’d received as ammunition to get rid of what he saw as a difficult employee. This programmer became my star performer, my number one ranked team member. He also went from being morose and dissatisfied with work and life in general to a cheerful and actively contributing member of the team. I’ve experienced this scenario several times during my career and can attest to the joy of reversing the situation and discovering and unleashing the potential in discarded employees. It doesn’t always work out that way of course, but we are bound to try.

As so often, this comes back to how we view our colleagues as unique, valuable, gifted individuals, loved to the extreme by God. When we see people that way, even if we can’t resist some jealousy if they succeed ahead of us, we will not rejoice in evil. We will instead be concerned and compassionate, and will seek justice on their behalf if necessary. In fact, if they deserve a promotion ahead of us (and we often know it) we will speak out on their behalf. When was the last time you did that?

Church @ Work – Teaching

2010-09-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

I suspect that Jesus’ disciples, especially the Twelve, started to look like him, walk like him and talk like him. Not always. But enough that they could be picked out in a crowd.

That’s the impact of a special kind of teaching called discipling. In the old Jewish Rabbi-disciple model (like similar models in several cultures) the goal of a disciple was to become just like his/her master/mistress. (Sadly these were mostly male but the model clearly supports female teachers and adherents). Rabbi means teacher. Disciple means learner, but in a very intense way.

How do we learn to be natural, consistent and transformational as Christians at work? When we’re surrounded all day by people who don’t necessarily believe as we do, where priorities are far from being Kingdom priorities, and where values are distinctly worldly, it is hard to be a disciple. Yes, we have the Bible, and prayer, and perhaps a small group with other people where work sometimes comes up as a subject. But to look, walk, talk and act like Jesus we need far more than that.

Isn’t this where the church comes in? There we are in fact surrounded by people who, at least in principle, also share Jesus’ values and priorities, or at least want to. In the early church, Christians learned about these things at least as much from one another as from their private devotions. This wasn’t always easy - just look at the conflicts between the early leaders (e.g. Paul and Peter, Paul and Barnabus), and the descriptions of church conflicts in 1 Corinthians and other letters. The church is designed to be a crucible, where faith is tested and refined. It is designed to be a place where the members of the Body of Christ come together in dependence on one another and on the Head of the Body, to worship, to grow, and to serve.

Teaching takes many forms in this context. It occurs in the classroom, where we can have in-depth discussions of the things in daily life that we are really called to struggle with. Those of us who teach in this formal way have a wonderful opportunity to present a basis for workplace faith, to work through real issues, and to help one another grapple with specific problems. Teaching also occurs in one-on-one contexts, as we become used to sharing one another’s burdens, most of which occur in daily life and many of them in the workplace. In some context or another, we are all teachers.

Teaching also starts very young – typically with preschoolers and kindergartners. Hopefully we’re not quite ready to send them out to work. But this is where the foundations are laid – the idea of God’s unique purpose in creating each one of us, the beginnings of awareness of His Kingdom and His role for us in it. That continues through elementary, middle and high school with increasing awareness of calling, challenges and the like.

In all our teaching, let’s be inclusive of the whole of life, and especially the way we are spending the bulk of our days – at work, or school, or other calling. Let’s share with one another what it means to be called by God to this, to be privileged to be part of His Kingdom purpose. Let’s share one another’s burdens as we talk through real daily issues. Let’s help one another as disciples of the Master to increasingly look and act like him at work.

Love @ Work Keeps No Record of Wrongs

2010-08-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

Jesus told Peter that he should forgive not just seven times, but seventy times seven. But surely an employee can’t keep making the same mistake? How does this square with workplace realities?

There’s a delicate distinction here that we could easily hide behind in the workplace. I had an employee once who consistently failed to carry out an important part of his responsibilities adequately. We would discuss it, he would seem to show understanding of the failure, then turn around and fail at it again. This got very frustrating – needless to say that I as his manager bore the responsibility and the consequences of this failure, particularly since it was something I couldn’t just pick up and do myself or give to someone else. Ultimately disciplinary action was unavoidable, and he had to find a job to which he was better suited – this was just a not fit for him.

The distinction that is really hard to make is between the managerial accountability for effective employee performance, and the personal responsibility for the individual employee. Because this employee’s repeated failures impacted me professionally, each time it occurred I got more and more frustrated, and it impacted my view of the person. I kept a record of his wrongs, not just as a manager but also as a fellow-human. The first was OK, and the second was not. Disentangling them is really hard though.

The different roles in which we inter-relate with people make some of these statements about love quite difficult to work through. In a non-work relationship we often have a hard time treating each new “wrong” as though it were the first – forgiving for the 7th or the 490th time. Hurts don’t go away just like that and with the best will in the world they build on one another to the extent that we simply don’t know how to treat the 7th occurrence the same way as the first. Perhaps that’s not the point though. God has observed and been offended or hurt by each one of our sins, our disobedient acts, our ignoring of Him, denying of Him and all the other ways we turn our backs on Him. And yet, His forgiveness of our latest slight is every bit as full and unconditional as the first. It is this behavior we are to model, and this behavior that is represented in keeping no record of wrongs.

At work we cannot ignore this call to model true agape love, 1 Corinthians 13 love, even while we meet our occupational responsibilities. I guess it is a variant on seeing the sin not the sinner … in this case seeing the person behind the worker, and valuing God’s image behind the imperfect employee. It’s a struggle sometimes, particularly when we’re under deadline or performance pressure, but it’s a struggle that can be addressed by prayer. Note to self …

Technology @ Work – Dependency

2010-08-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

My computer had a huge temper tantrum yesterday, throwing all its toys around, then locking its door and refusing to come out. In the absence of an effective locksmith all I could do was obliterate the room and start again. A day and a half of reformatting, reloading, hunting for keycodes, forgetting passwords and the like and I should be back in action. Mostly. (There’s all the web favorites, lost documents, etc to maneuver through yet).

In the meantime, even though my trusty IT department (Harold) is doing all the work for me, and has set up another PC for me, my productivity has gone down to next to nothing. All the tools I depend on, several of the files I need – I am all but lost! And this even with web access to email – if I lost that, withdrawal would be complete. Because, yes, I am utterly dependent on technology to do my job. Bereft without it, I am frozen into inaction.

Do you remember the days before this addiction? (No of course not, you’re too young. Well take my word for it, there were such days!) Those were the days in which we were OK with sending out a letter (typewritten or even hand-written) and waiting three or four days for a response. Those were the days in which research was something done at the local library, over hours or days with the help of a friendly librarian, not committed to Google (usually quite uncritically). Those were the days when we were dependent upon the mental resources God had given us, and the help of colleagues who sat in the same office, and admittedly sometimes by telephone. There were no “virtual communities” – we were it.

What have we gained and what have we lost? Is technology moving and changing so fast that we don’t have time to stop and seek God’s intervention and wisdom? Are we so swamped with information that we’ve lost the ability to step back and see things in perspective, a proverbial inability to see the wood for the trees? Or is this simply a matter of viewing the past through rose-tinted spectacles?

I think I’ve concluded that the Biblical virtues of patience, love, faith, grace and wisdom (among others) are technology-independent – unlike us. These virtues are learned the hard way regardless of the speed of email and the volume of Google searches. But they were just as hard before computers. And no more or less necessary. Perhaps we have deluded ourselves into over-valuing technology, but if it wasn’t this there would be another excuse – the reality is that sin does not like God’s way and only by being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2) can we be truly dependent on the only valid object of dependency – God Himself.

Love @ Work Is Not Easily Angered

2010-08-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

When I discovered that she hadn’t completed a vital task a couple of months previously, and as a result had seriously jeopardized a multi-million dollar transaction, anger was inevitable. Or was it?

In this case, there was a history. It wasn’t that clearly defined tasks didn’t get done (albeit late). But if thought was needed, or initiative, it seemed “Suzi” (name changed of course) always took the “easy” path – “you didn’t tell me to do that”. How frustrating it was – a senior, experienced person with more knowledge than me, not prepared to think through the implications of what we were doing.

But this time it was really serious. We had taken an action that needed to be carefully documented and recorded, followed to the letter of our agreement with the other party. Now it might all go up in smoke! So my voice started to rise as, incredulously, I repeated back that we really had not completed our part of the deal, even though I thought I had expressly requested it. Yes I was angry and I was getting ready to express it in full force to Suzi. But something held me back: why was I angry?

This anger expressed several things that had been building up over time:

Disappointment that employees didn’t have the confidence and initiative to explore beyond the letter of instructions – that they wouldn’t take initiative, or realize their potential
Fear that our deal would unravel
Fear that I would look bad – that I would have failed – if the deal did unravel
Frustration that my incomplete knowledge of how such a transaction should work had led to my giving incomplete and somewhat vague instructions
Guilt that I had not followed up to make sure that everything was completed successfully

In other words, most of my anger had more to do with me than with Suzi. Other than the kind of “righteous anger” that responds on God’s behalf to injustice, I suspect most of our anger has more to do with us than the other person. Our hopes are dashed, or bad memories stirred up; we’re caught in a lie or an error, or blocked from achieving our goals. There are so many reasons. I’ve struggled with anger at different times in my life, and it always has welled up from within me, like acid reflux escaping the lower esophageal sphincter, rather than being externally caused. The acid, it turns out, was already there!

So “love …”, which focuses on the other rather than on us, “is not easily angered” (1 Corinthians 13:5) because the other is not generally the primary source of anger. Except in the cases of true injustice, where our concern is truly for God’s glory or other people’s welfare, anger is not an appropriate response to love. More to the point, when we love, and are focused on the other, we simply aren’t going to get angry. I continue to pray for this grace, to love more and more as Jesus does.

By the way, on this occasion by God’s grace I didn’t explode. A little later there was a “coaching opportunity” as we talked about having the courage and initiative to think through the implications of the whole transaction rather than the specific assigned tasks. But far too many times in the past I have had to go back and apologize, by which time it is too late and the hurt has been inflicted. Love must not be easily angered because anger causes untold damage.

Love @ Work Is Not Self-Seeking

2010-08-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Children can be unsubtle about demanding their own way. Their worlds revolve around themselves. Adults are supposed to be more mature, and see the needs of others. But sometimes I think we’re just more subtle about our self-seeking!

1 Corinthians 13:5 says that “love … is not self-seeking” (NIV) or “does not insist on its own way” (RSV) or as Phillips translates it, “does not pursue selfish advantage”. Jesus said to his disciples: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23) This self-denial seems to be at the heart of this attribute of love. It is this self-denial that causes many to turn away from a complete, radical following of Jesus.

Love shows itself most in relationships. It shows itself in subtle ways sometimes, because while it is love that drives our motivations, sometimes our actions initially suggest love when our real purpose is something else. Our role model is, as always, Jesus. And, as always, His example is radical and extreme. Paul puts it best in Philippians 2:5-8 (likely quoting an early Christian hymn).

    Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
    Who, being in very nature God,
        did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
    but made himself nothing,
        taking the very nature of a servant,
        being made in human likeness.
    And being found in appearance as a man,
        he humbled himself
        and became obedient to death—
            even death on a cross!

This is as far from self-seeking as anybody has ever been. Setting aside all the privileges of deity, all His riches, all His power, all His rights, Jesus went to the opposite extreme. Note how the passage starts – Paul says this is how we are to be! Love, flowing out from the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in us, should have this same attitude. Whatever our role at work – whether executive or assistant, professional or laborer, artist or mechanic – we are called to seek the welfare and good of others and if necessary deny those things for ourselves.

Why would we do this? Because as followers of Jesus, we have given up our rights to ourselves and offered everything to Jesus. And this is what He wants from us! He wants us to become like Him, in every part of our lives including (especially) at work, and this is what he is like! Getting there will take a lifetime, but how about starting intentionally to pray for the grace to move forward on the road to authentic Christian love? How about asking the Spirit to draw our attention to times we are being self-seeking, and then asking for Him to free us from our sinful selves so that we can stop. By His power and grace alone, all things are possible!

Church @ Work – Preaching

2010-08-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

How can preachers speak to the challenges of our daily work when they don’t have “real” jobs?

This is the second in a series of posts on how the church could be (but for the most part isn’t) helping each of us to grow in our understanding and Christian living in the workplace. The question posed here isn’t an entirely fair one of course, for several reasons – pastors clearly have very “real” jobs, many pastors have significant workplace experience, and many preachers are not pastors (present company included). But many of us feel a disconnect between the pulpit and the shop floor, between the Word as preached on Sunday morning, and the life as lived on Monday morning. Is this inevitable as my first question suggests?

There are several ways to address this question. I was trained and licensed 30 years ago or so in the Church of England as a Reader, a lay minister able to lead services and preach and be otherwise involved in pastoral ministry, but intentionally as someone whose Mondays looked like everybody else’s. The CofE recognized this need, and so implicitly acknowledged the gap. (It was also a way of dealing with significant shortages in parish priests, but that’s another story). Many of my closest friends have been pastors, and this has issue been a frequent topic of conversation. I’ve heard frustration from congregation members too, and appreciation for those preachers who are able to talk about their significant work experience from the pulpit.

But we can’t lay all the blame on the system of professional clergy that our churches have largely adopted, or on the seminaries, or on the pastors who either haven’t spent long in the workplace or have forgotten what it was like. We have a responsibility too – listening to God’s Word isn’t just about being spoon-fed, but also about grappling with the Word, asking God through His Spirit to show us how it applies to our situation. For example, even though I have been in the daily workplace for decades, my experience is radically different from that of an artist, or a construction worker, or a trucker. My challenges are just as far removed from them as are those of a pastor in his or her work. Preachers must learn the art of application of the Word and pass on that art, teach its principles, to congregants.

However, those of us who preach can raise levels of expectation. We can continually draw attention to God’s 24x7 plan and debunk any ideas about Christianity being a Sunday religion. We can draw on our practical experiences to demonstrate the applicability of Scripture to all of life, generalizing in ways that help us all to see how the Scripture sheds light on our unique situations. When Paul says to Timothy that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (1 Tim 3:16-17) he is not just talking about “holy work” or “church work” but all of work which, as Genesis 1 says about God’s own work is “very good” (Gen 1:31). If our preaching does not hit home on Monday, then it isn’t really very useful. This doesn’t mean we switch away from theological depth, or from intensive Biblical exegesis and exposition though. I would argue strongly that if our theology and our preaching do not interpret, shape, encourage and challenge in daily life situations, we’re wasting our time, no matter how academically interesting our studies!

So here’s a challenge to myself (and other preachers who read this): I need to add a success criterion to my preaching that every person in the church is in some way taught, rebuked, corrected or trained in relation to their daily work.

Love @ Work Is Not Rude

2010-08-09T13:21:00.000-07:00

“Love … has good manners” (1 Corinthians 13:5 Phillips). Sounds reasonable enough doesn’t it? Except that somehow at work, I seem to find all sorts of reasons to be bad-mannered to others.

There are all sorts of behaviors tied in with this. The Greek word translated “rude” in the NIV (aschemoneo for those who care) has the sense of “to act improperly, dishonorably, indecently.” What does this look like at work? When I get frustrated with a customer service representative at a vendor and raise my voice, or make the issue personal, I am being rude. When I am short with an employee who is trying to explain why something went wrong, I am being rude. When I use language that is not normally acceptable in “polite company” in our culture, I am being rude. And so the examples could continue through this whole post.

Why is this rudeness a problem? After all, it is generally just a matter of words. Other people must understand how stressful and frustrating my job is – they should make allowances. Right? Well that would be nice, but it isn’t a reasonable expectation. Why not? Because of what I am doing to each of these people in the way I react to them. I am failing to show the respect, honor and courtesy due to a person created in the image of our gracious God. In fact, I am in a sense dehumanizing them, and down-valuing them. This is quite the opposite of love.

Love will look at every other person as an individual with unique value, as someone whom God considers of exceptional importance. I have developed some bad habits in my lack of love. Perhaps a particularly insidious one is my rudeness with people on the phone. I think it is perhaps subconsciously easier for me to be rude when I can’t see that there is a real person on the receiving end. Not that my rudeness is restricted just to the phone – any time things don’t go my way, I’m likely to take it out on whoever I happen to be dealing with. Usually it is someone who has no control over the situation, which further compounds the rudeness.

My solution is similar to that proposed in previous posts on this topic – through prayer, I need to learn the habit of seeing others, as it were, through God’s eyes. That’s why prayer is critical – that two-way communication is the primary time that God opens my eyes to His perspective. Without it, my vision of others is seriously flawed. This is a challenge for me. Perhaps it is for you too. If so, I invite you to join me in putting on this seemingly rather trivial but actually very important aspect of love!

Church @ Work – Not!

2010-08-06T17:05:00.000-07:00

Do you go to church to discover how your faith affects your daily work? Do you get support, guidance, and encouragement in your work-life issues from church? Most people would say a resounding “no!”

Why on earth would this be? Surely, if we spend something like 40% of our waking hours at work (far more than we spend on any other activity), you would think our churches would place the highest importance on the workplace, particularly in teaching, discipleship, etc. Yet, with a few shining exceptions, we will rarely hear a work-related sermon, we don’t see teaching on our calling and role as Christians in the workplace, we have nowhere to go to raise work-related issues or celebrate God’s presence at work. Our worship services hardly ever even acknowledge the fact that we go to work. Even our small groups tend to be focused on more esoteric (or more social) activities, although here we can find far more diversity and there are groups in which people find some support for their daily work.

At different times, the church has tried to address this. I’m no church history expert, but I’m told that Luther, for example, was adamant about the absolute integrity of all of life under God, with daily work to be specifically integrated with the rest of Christian life including worship. Calvin felt similarly. The Second Vatican Council addressed this issue at length, and various Catholic organizations have tried to follow up. However, in most churches of all denominations, what we do Monday to Friday barely warrants a mention.

Some authors blame the clergy-laity distinction that arose in the early church, was fought to a degree by the Reformers, and rose again in the past couple of hundred years with the rise of the professional clergy. This caused several issues. It set “spiritual” calling above normal callings, so downgrading most of our occupations to something less important – hence questions about whether we’ve ever felt a call to “full-time Christian ministry” as though those of us in “normal” occupations weren’t already full-time ministers. It also, meant that those leading the church, those called to equip its members, often had limited experience themselves of the daily workplace, and were also barely prepared by their seminary education to overcome this limitation.

Other authors blame our ongoing cultural influence from Greco-Roman philosophies which impose a divide between sacred and profane, between spiritual and secular. The Bible has a much more holistic approach than this, but many interpreters of the Bible have nevertheless bought into the idea that daily work is a necessary evil, and that the world of the mind and spirit are much more important.

Whatever the reason, it seems to me it is time to start actively and intentionally raising this issue in our churches. I’m trying to think through what a holistic church-work relationship might look like for the average believer. This little series of posts will try to work some of it out. Comments welcomed!

Love @ Work is not Proud

2010-08-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

“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.

God’s Perspective @ Work – Stress Management

2010-07-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

It’s been a very stressful week. In the middle of it, my doctor asked me how I manage stress. Good question – how would you answer it?

The answer I gave was a somewhat pat one – true on the whole, but I wonder how well I really live up to it. I said it was a combination of prayer and seeing things somewhat from God’s perspective – seeing that the business decisions I’m involved in aren’t the end of the world, and that there’s a bigger context. That satisfied him (though he still gave me a leaflet on managing stress which I duly assigned to its rightful place). But I’m not sure if it satisfied me.

We’re in the middle of a complex series of Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, and our plan is coming up for confirmation. What this means is that everyone who is opposed to us, including some who will benefit enormously from the plan did they but know it, is attacking us. We are also dependent upon some critical events occurring for the plan to be viable, and that has been challenging. My boss has had a run of particularly unpleasant things happening to him (in the business context) and so he is more stressed than usual. As a result, despite prayer and head-knowledge of God’s perspective, I’ve been snappy and irritable all week. Ask my boss. Ask my wife!

Yet, I think my answer is still right. This is a character issue, a learned-habits issue. I have still not got to the point where I am habitually seeing things in the light God’s sovereignty and love. I still don’t automatically bring things before Him in prayer as they happen – it is only after I catch myself stressing out that I do it. When I do, the stress level does go down – you’d think I’d figure out the connection wouldn’t you? The problem is partly not having the right habits (I’m reading NT Wright’s latest book “After You Believe” which has some really great commentary on building Christian character by building the right habits – worth a read!)

It is also partly that I want to take responsibility for outcomes and results that properly belong to God. Being responsible is one thing. Taking too much responsibility is another. We are called to be the right kind of people (in the image of God, bearers of the Holy Spirit), which will lead to us doing the right things. We are not called to make sure that the results are what we want them to be. Making this distinction is hard in a business setting, because others don’t see it that way. If we are unable to recover our investors’ money, despite doing everything right, then they will blame us. I’m not sure God will though. I should be satisfied with that!

Stress results from worry, lack of perspective, or setting unreasonable expectations for ourselves (others can try to do that, but we have a choice to accept them or not). The solution is some combination of better knowing God, and our place in His Kingdom, and habitually bringing everything before Him in prayer, both formally (quiet times, prayer groups, etc) and informally (arrow prayers, bathroom prayers, etc). Only then will we really see and adopt His perspective on our work.

Love @ Work Does Not Boast

2010-07-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to be successful in business without trumpeting your accomplishments? If “love does not boast” (1 Corinthians 13:5) then are love and success incompatible for the Christian worker?

This troubles me in a couple of ways. Firstly, it isn’t clear to me what boasting has to do with love – of all the things that we might have expected God to say about His kind of love (agape) this would be way down the list for me. OK I know that boasting, as we typically use the word, has a negative connotation, but is it unloving? We’ll get to that in a moment. But in the meantime, the other problem is that the Bible clearly says we should not boast (e.g. Jeremiah 9:23 “This is what the LORD says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches”). On the other hand Paul, in “selling himself” to the Corinthians against their criticism, simply says he won’t “boast beyond limits” (2 Cor 10:13).

There are times for us to make a case for our accomplishments, so that they might be effective or so that our plans might be put into action for the greater good of all concerned. There is a case for laying out what we’ve been responsible for, in a resume for example, or in a legal defense. So what is it that the Bible is prohibiting? I see a few things.

Boasting in things that are not in God’s plan – things that are evil, or unjust. (The Psalms have several examples of this).
Overstating our case, so that we pretend to be more than we are.
Taking credit ourselves for the things God has done, or for which He has equipped us to do (e.g. 1 Corinthians 4:7 “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?”).
Claiming to be in control where really God is, e.g. of the future (Proverbs 27:1). This is further stressed as a primary boasting evil in James 4:16: "As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.”

If we look at all these things, and keep them in mind in our work, we can then add another dimension – the impact such evil boasting has on others. If I represent myself as capable of more than I am, I may push out another, more qualified candidate. If I claim all the credit for a good piece of work, then I may deny legitimate credit to others. If I claim to be the one in control, then others may be pushed out of positions of responsibility. Such actions clearly do not exhibit love.

The bottom line has to do with truth. I need to be realistic in communicating my accomplishments and abilities, doing so at all only when necessary for the good of others (which certainly includes things like job applications and project acceptances, since others would benefit if indeed I am the right person). When I do communicate, I need to think about the impact on others of my statements – if I stick to the truth then others should be well-served, but if I exaggerate or elaborate, they may be hurt. Love will be most concerned about this. Therefore, “love does not boast”! I’ll try to remember this.

Justice @ Work - Loyalty

2010-07-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

Does loyalty to our boss require that we risk being tainted by their bad reputation? I was tested on this yesterday.

Last night, I represented the company at a three hour meeting of 120+ of our investors. They have lost large amounts of money in the Real Estate collapse and they’re angry and scared. They blame my boss, the owner of the company. To a degree their blame is valid – he acknowledges that he made a number of mistakes and misjudgments. But it so easily becomes personal – accusations of fraud, personal enrichment at investors’ expense, and various kinds of malfeasance were flying freely in the meeting. In the past I was advised by others to distance myself from him so that I wouldn’t be “tarred with the same brush”. Wise advice, it would seem – why unnecessarily have my reputation tarnished through “guilt by association”?

But last night I felt I had to speak out (my boss wasn’t there). I acknowledged his and the company’s mistakes, but had to speak of his integrity and strong, if sometimes misplaced, code of ethics. What investors often don’t realize is his unstinting commitment to do whatever he can to restore their investments over the coming few years. Or the sacrifices he has made – far from being enriched, he has lost everything he had, including many millions of dollars of his personal fortune spent trying to save these same investors who are accusing him of greed and selfishness. He still refuses to give up fighting for them, despite the class action law suit they have filed against him. I said all this, and the eyes were rolling, the smirks widening, and the murmurs growing. Did I change anyone’s mind? Of course not! Did the mood of the meeting improve? Not a jot.

Did my reputation suffer? Actually, no I don’t think so. For all the sniggers and disagreements, the bad-mouthing stopped and we returned to the more important business of the meeting – what to do in the future, not what has happened in the past. I think the reaction was that I was sincere but misguided (“well of course you’d say that”). But most important of all, I think justice was served.

I had never thought of loyalty as a matter of justice, but last night it was very much so. What was being said was unjust, despite the circumstances. To leave it unanswered would have been unjust. The calumny must be responded to. The Psalmists often complain to God about the lies that are told about them. The book of Job is full of his “friends” purporting to understand Job’s motives. The prophets experienced it all the time. Loyalty requires that these wrongs be righted, and that challenges to reputations be redressed. Loyalty stands up for one’s boss, or friend (think of Jonathan defending David before his father Saul). Loyalty will not stand by and allow the other to be slandered.

Was there a risk in my loyalty yesterday? Yes, there always is. But a person of faith is familiar with risk – faith is a matter of risk after all (if the outcome is certain, then it isn’t faith!) I’m glad I spoke up. Justice demanded it!

Theology @ Work – Grace

2010-07-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

All of the theology in the Bible – all of Christian theology – can be summed up with a single word: Grace. All of our calling, whether in the workplace or elsewhere, is summed up as a call to exhibit this same Grace.

These are pretty sweeping statements aren’t they? Am I overstating the case? Consider these facts:

From the beginning of Creation, God has given and humans have rebelled. God has forgiven and humans have fallen again.
Every gift that humans have is given by God, with nothing that we can possibly give in return.
It is only out of God’s kindness, mercy and undeserved and unrepayable favor that we continue to live, that we have relationships, that we can approach Him in worship, and that we can enjoy His creation.
For God to give us purpose in His Kingdom, for Him to call us to participate in His work, for Him to promise that in time we will reign and inherit in the Kingdom of His Son, are such outrageous promises that we can scarcely believe them.

Kindness, mercy, loving-kindness, undeserved gifts – these are all partial translations of the most common Biblical words that we more generally translate “grace”. In the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible:

Hen (Hebrew derived from hanan meaning to favor or grant mercy) relates to God’s decision to show favor to Noah (Gen 6:8), Lot (Gen 19:19) and Moses (Ex 33:12-13).
Hesed (Hebrew derived from hasad meaning to be good or kind) goes a step further, relating to the astonishing love of God toward His people in general (e.g. Ps 107:43, Is 63:7).
Charis (Greek from char meaning well-being, pleasant, delightful) is used in the New Testament to speak of the most amazing gift of all time, the sacrifice of the Son of God, the Messiah, for the salvation of the people of God (e.g. Acts 15:11).

The Bible is essentially an account of God’s dealing with His people – Israel and the Church. To that extent it is quite simply an account of His grace. Again and again we read that God’s action for and with us is an act of grace – whether it is forgiveness, or equipping and growing, or calling to His Kingdom.

Our calling to the workplace is equally a matter of God’s grace. Everything He wants to accomplish through us is a matter of grace – His grace given to us and to be passed on to those around us.

It is many years since I read Philip Yancey’s book “What’s So Amazing About Grace” but I am still impacted by it and strongly recommend it to anyone who has not read it. Simply put, he argues that in far too much of our daily living, in our relationships, in our evangelism, we demonstrate our lack of understanding for and appreciation of God’s grace. It is time to bring grace back into our daily lives. It is time we showed grace in all its glory in our workplace, offering unconditional love and acceptance, giving of our selves beyond any “duty”, and most of all point the way to the only Source of true grace.

Love @ Work Does Not Envy

2010-07-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

“It’s just not fair – she has everything going for her.” “If only I was as strong as him.” Have you ever had any thoughts like these? I know I have. It just shows how little I love.

The third attribute of love in 1 Corinthians 13:5-8 is that it does not envy. How is this a sign of love? I think it has to do with being prepared to accept the other person – not necessarily in absolute terms, but in relative terms. What do I mean by this? When I see somebody with an amazing intellect, for example, I can admire them and give God glory. At that point I still accept them, and do not lack love (though at that distance I don’t know them well enough to love either). It changes when I am working with them. If, for example, that towering intellect has pushed me off a local team pedestal, so that people start to go to that person for answers instead of me, then the envy will set in.

It’s ironic really – now that we’re working together in a team, I have the opportunity to love. But it is that same closeness, that working relationship, which leads me to the opposite of love – in this case, to envy. If I can’t have that kind of intellect, then I wish the other person didn’t have it either. There are so many things wrong with this attitude, of course. I am denying God’s wisdom in creating each of us with unique gifts, abilities, experiences, and calling. I’m doing this doubly in this case – wishing God had not gifted the other person as He did, and wishing God had not gifted me as He did (in my case second-guessing the attributes God chose for me).

A key element of envy is personal insecurity or dissatisfaction. If I am content with who God has made me to be, then I will not envy. Why would I want to be like somebody else if I’m confident that God knew what He was doing when He made me? (By “made” I’m talking about every aspect of my personality and gifts at birth, my experiences, sufferings, growth, and relationships that have been used by God to shape who I am now). It’s an example of how a precondition to loving others is loving oneself. My reason for envying my intellectual, or physical, or musical, or [fill in the blanks] superior is a lack of love for God’s creation – myself.

This comes out particularly at work. Many of us feel defined by our successes and accomplishments at work. This is so dangerous. We’ve been called by God to the workplace for His Kingdom purposes, not for our personal aggrandizement. Our self-esteem is not ultimately going to be satisfied by our work, but by realizing God’s love for us, His gracious acceptance of us, and His amazing plans for us to serve Him. If we don’t love ourselves, if we are insecure in who we are, or if we look to work for self-fulfillment, then we will be prone to envy. Next time I catch myself envying someone else, I need to bring it before God and acknowledge what is going on. I need forgiveness and healing and God offers both. How about you?

Justice @ Work – Layoffs

2010-07-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

I’ve just had to tell someone her job has been eliminated. It just doesn’t seem fair.

The thing is, we’re finding it harder and harder to make payroll, and we’re running out of ways to raise cash. There are things down the road, but increasingly the risk is they won’t come soon enough. But the person I just laid off has been loyal, hard-working, has been paid less than her market value, and has accomplished a lot for us. How can laying her off be right?

She is angry and hurt. This is particularly true since someone less experienced than her was retained in the company and is taking over both people’s responsibilities. I’d be angry and hurt too.

I have all sorts of rationale for the decision, including that the person remaining is best fitted for what we need going forward. After all, isn’t a big part of management matching the strengths of team members to the needs of the organization they’re serving? But it’s hard to ignore what the other person has done over the past few years for the company. (I can relate to her feelings too, because it happened to me a few years ago). I can rationalize too that she is so well-qualified, that finding another job should be easier for her than just about anyone else in the company.

What does justice have to say about this? Fairness isn’t really the point – if we got what was fair, none of us would be here in the first place. But justice – or righteousness, which I define as “doing what God would do” – is another matter. It isn’t a simple decision. If I hadn’t done this, we might have ended up missing a payroll altogether, then another, then ultimately collapsing. Several people would have been out of work, including sole bread-winners and immigrants dependent upon their employment with us to keep their legal status.

I wish the Bible was a handbook on justice. It provides some principles, but most of all it provides the character of the God whose righteousness is to be followed. What would this righteous God do? I am honestly not sure. All I can do is try to balance the needs of the company and all its constituents (investors, borrowers, clients, employees and owner) and the personal and family impacts of a lay-off. I think this was the right decision. I have peace about it after prayer, but seeing the pain and hurt is still really hard. Management sucks sometimes!

Guest Blogger Sara Goetz – Business Commitment

2010-07-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

For a while now I’ve been telling everyone that Sara Goetz Photography is a venture of faith first, and a business second.

I’ll just pause here for a second and wait for the spiritual applause to die down. At least, spiritual applause is what I always sort of expected when I uttered those words.

I felt so proud of myself, as if I had committed to something so super spiritual, I was bound to have won the favor of God. I mean, wouldn’t God willingly and happily bless that kind of attitude? I was proud of myself for the seemingly huge steps of obedience it took to embrace that calling.

But that pride has dissolved into humility.

This weekend He uttered – no – He whispered (which is very different) something new in my ear that stopped me in my tracks. “What if it isn’t your business that is a venture of faith? What if what I really want is for your whole life to be a venture of faith. Do you think you could do that?”

Oh boy.

The reality of what God was asking hit me in the face the way a baseball slaps the glove of a catcher. And I’ve been a Christian for like, my WHOLE LIFE. It took my breath away. And my pride.

You see, when God originally talked to me about a “venture of faith” I thought he was talking about my business. But God is quickly showing me it’s about my life. As a follower of Christ, “Ventures of Faith” are not reserved for some of the endeavors in my life. No, no, no. Instead, it has to be that my life IS a venture of faith. Photography is a venture of faith. But so is my marriage, my motherhood, my friendships, - all of my endeavors and relationships. If I can separate the things in my life that are ventures of faith from the things that aren’t, I’ve missed my calling. I’ve missed the boat.

And I desperately don’t want to miss the boat. I want to be on that one when it sails away.

When I meet Jesus I want to hear Him say, (And I scripted this out for Him as a little joke between Him and me…), “You did it, Sara. You didn’t miss a thing I had for you to do or a blessing I was ready to give. You did it right, and you made me proud. Come on, let’s check this place out! It’s amazing…”

And if I really want to hear those words, I’m realizing, I need to start viewing EVERYTHING as a venture of faith. I need to understand that there is nothing in my life that can or should exist outside of the umbrella of faith.

Delegation @ Work in God’s Image

2010-07-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

According to Genesis 1, God made humans in his own image. If we bear God’s image, how best can we carry that image to the workplace? How about delegation?

Let’s face it, God not only could have done everything Himself but by any standards of success should have done (the ultimate application of “if you want something done …”). However He chose not to. Why? I’m not entirely sure, but clearly it has something to do with how much He loves us. Despite our constant and repetitive failures, He has persevered with us. Despite the rebellion and complaints and self-centeredness of His people, He has continued to show us grace.

But He also knows that, on our own, we simply aren’t going to get it done (“it” in this case being the restoration and re-establishment of His New Creation, His Kingdom). So not only did He call us to this seemingly impossible task, but He encouraged us, equipped us, restored us, and was unbelievably patient with us.

Those of us who are managers or supervisors, or members of any kind of team, can model this extraordinarily gracious attribute of God in the way we delegate. Delegation in the workplace has many purposes, including sharing of workload, leveraging the gifts of a team, and developing members of a team. It is sometimes done for other, less constructive reasons (for example dumping unwanted work on others, pushing off responsibility, or exercising power). So a few thoughts on how we delegate:

Consider our motivation for delegation (or for not delegating). Are we seeking the best for the rest of the team? For the company? For the person to whom we’re delegating?
Are we delegating tasks that, while potentially a stretch for the delegate, are within their grasp and will lead to long-term growth?
Are we encouraging others to whom we delegate, emphasizing progress made in learning and growth, and sharing responsibility for mistakes and failures?
Are we providing the tools, training and support necessary for others to learn and carry out the delegated tasks and responsibilities?

Ecclesiastes 4:12 says “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” In the same way, our workplace activities will be successful to the extent we don’t try to do them alone, but work in partnership, in community as God intended for us. Delegation is a key way to accomplish this, and a way in which we can live out the image of God that we bear.

Guest Blogger Sara Goetz – Charging For Ministry?

2010-07-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

How can it be ministry if you charge?

I’ve realized since we started Sara Goetz Photography that I erroneously have believed that you can’t be doing ministry if you are charging money.

How could anything that charges clients/customers a solid amount of money have a place in God’s kingdom. After all, if we want to serve people we shouldn’t charge them, right?

God is showing me exactly why it is important for me to run my business as a business – with the intent of making money – instead of running it as a charity. I am honoring God through my business by not giving away my services. Here’s why:

By associating a solid price with my services I can attract the people who really want my services and are willing to invest. We have a better working relationship and they are happier at the end of our transaction because we were a good fit for each other. That was evident by the fact that they were willing to pay me what I believe my services are worth.
By associating a solid price point with my services, when I do offer my services gratis I am actually giving them something incredibly valuable. The blessing of receiving and giving the gift of service is automatically higher. I can bless them with premium service & products because I have a solid business that allows me to serve.The money my business earns is allowing my children to be educated in a Christian school – something we feel God is calling us to do. Running our business as a business: charging good money for a quality service, is opening the doors for us to be obedient.

I cannot expect my industry to simply “gift” me the equipment, training, and experiences I need to improve my craft and business. If I gave away my services I could never improve and would eventually my skills would offer God and His Kingdom very little.

I am learning that business and faith does not have to equal giving away your services/product. I can honor God and make money.

Love @ Work Is Kind

2010-07-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how much the attributes of love in 1 Corinthians 13 overlap with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Turns out that’s really good news!

Good news why? Because I don’t know about you but I find it pretty hard to be patient, kind and all the rest. And because the fruit of the Spirit is what it says it is – not something I drum up by being extra-specially nice, but something that the Holy Spirit exhibits through me if I can only set my ego aside.

I am not by nature a kind person. Does that mean I don’t naturally love others. Actually in the way the New Testament uses the word, yes it probably does – but then that’s true for all of us. Jesus is the only truly, naturally, unconditionally kind person who ever lived. But by being filled with His Spirit, we can show that same kindness. Sometimes I catch myself thinking kind thoughts or doing kind things pretty much despite myself! And I thank God for having made His home in me!

So this kindness thing – how does it work at work? When I see other people around me – be they colleagues, employees, lawyers or investors – if I’m in tune with what the Holy Spirit is seeing, I see people with needs, including the need to be appreciated, to be helped, encouraged, comforted or simply listened to. More and more as I pray for them, I do see them as God does (to a very limited extent of course) and I see their needs and love them. Jesus was always doing that – seeing people’s needs and loving them. The rich young ruler, for example (Mark 10:21 says it explicitly), or the woman taken in adultery, or the Samaritan woman, or Levi. In each case he showed great kindness – understanding, being gentle even while in each case asking repentance of them.

Kindness doesn’t sweep bad things under the carpet, or hold back from speaking truth. On the contrary truth is an essential part of kindness. So when I give a performance review to an employee I try to speak truth with kindness. By praying for the person beforehand, seeking to understand why some things are not working too well, and seeing them in some way as God sees them, I find myself offering kindness and thus allowing them to hear what needs to be said. That’s just one example of course – opportunities for kindness abound in the workplace and I know I miss most of them. I just pray that I will become better at seeing them and being kind – ultimately this is an aspect of love that the world, and especially perhaps our workplace, desperately needs.

One last thought. There was a fad a few years ago for committing “random acts of kindness”. Nice though this was, we’re talking about something different I think. 1 Corinthians 13:4 speaks of kindness as an attribute of love, not something that can be randomly exhibited. Love defines a relationship much more than a casual encounter, and kindness is a part of that relationship. So may there be nothing random about your acts of kindness – instead may God’s love be evident!

Theology @ Work - Fulfillment

2010-07-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

OK so we’re called to partner with God in the workplace, as a part of the building of His Kingdom. But where is that all going? What’s the point of it all?

I’m almost at the end of this little blog post series on the theology of work as it impacts our daily work calling. We’re privileged to be a part of God’s kingdom-building vision, created and equipped by Him, called and redeemed by Him, bearers of His image and temples of His Spirit. But while we are thrilled by this honor and inspired by this purpose, there are certainly times when we look at the pain and suffering, the struggle and stress, the sin and evil around us, and we have to ask “when does it all end?” If we’re honest, there are days when all of us question God and ask Him if He is really sovereign, if He is really in control? And if He is, why doesn’t He just wrap up the whole experiment and start again?

However, the whole of Scripture looks forward to a fulfillment of God’s vision, of His dream, in which Creation is not just restored to its original pristine Eden condition, but is revealed in all its glorious potential. This vision is hinted at in Genesis, uncovered in God’s chosen people (blessed to be a blessing to all nations as in Genesis 12:1), promised in the prophets (most fully in the last couple of chapters of Isaiah) and offered as the ultimate hope for a suffering church in Revelation 21 and 22.

Our daily work is a part of God’s progressing of His Kingdom toward that ultimate fulfillment. Reformed theologians like to talk of the Kingdom as being “already now, but not yet” – that is we are living in the midst of it even while it is still in formation and what it will ultimately be has yet to be fully seen. This is our joy! We work for justice today, because the Kingdom in fulfillment will have no injustice – simply the perfect justice of a holy and merciful God (Revelation 21:7-8). We work today for healing because in the Kingdom’s ultimate state there will be “no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4b). We offer hope to all our colleagues because “the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 21:3-4a).

This is what we are made for. This is why we work. This is what God has equipped us for, called us to, and inspired (breathed His Spirit into) us for. Every relationship, every project, every contract, every keystroke, every brick laid, every blade of grass grown – all are contributions to the ultimate Kingdom of all kingdoms – the Kingdom of God. Wow!

Guest Blogger Sara Goetz – Lies About Success

2010-06-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Two lies about success:

Success should come overnight
If it doesn’t, you don’t deserve to be in the industry.

I know it’s ludicrous. Even typing the words makes me say, “duh! That’s ridiculous!!!!” inside my mind. But I have been held captive by these erroneous beliefs and want to call them out for what they are – lies that interfere with the work God wants to do through our businesses and in changing our lives.

You may not be quite as impressionable as I am. It might be easier for you to stand unmoved against the tide of instant success or be strong in the midst of your peers seemingly running laps around you. But I get discouraged. And I begin to doubt myself. So I look for the truth. Here’s what I find:

Success is obedience to God in everything we do.
It is God’s will – not other’s perception of our worthiness – that determines our place in the industry.

Again, I am a champion of a strong business plan, powerful branding, frugal spending, low overhead, and responsible risk taking. But I am a slave not to our cultures affinity with instant success but rather a slave to obedience to God. My worthiness, deservedness, and success is redefined in light of the objectives God has for my life.

Obedience, not instantaneous success, is the objective. And it is an objective that is connected with eternal success & blessings. I’ll take that over instant success any day.

Love @ Work is Patient

2010-06-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

We’re quite prepared to love others so long as they shape up quickly to our expectations. “Love is patient” says 1 Corinthians 13:4. That’s not the kind of love most of us experience on a daily basis is it?

After the roaring success of my series on the Fruit of the Spirit @ Work (success, that is, in helping me to see how far I have to go yet) I thought I’d write a related series on love, from the famous “love chapter” of the Bible - 1 Corinthians 13. Starting from the top … “love is patient”.

Actually this is also part of the fruit of the Spirit and I somewhat addressed it in http://faithatworkplace.blogspot.com/2010/04/fruit-of-spirit-work-patience.html. Focusing a bit more on how this is an attribute of love (the “agape” kind that is unique to Jesus and those who have His Spirit) gives a slightly different twist though. In the workplace, it says a lot about how we look at our co-workers, and it comes from looking at them through God’s eyes, as it were. We see people who are created uniquely by God, who have challenges that are different from ours, but no less difficult. We see people who have different personalities, skills, motivations, and experiences. We also see people who are no less (but no more) fallible than us – in other words, people who are equally prone to sin.

When we see these things, it is easier to be patient. When an employee doesn’t immediately respond to some coaching, we will take the time to find out why. Of course, it could be that they simply refuse and then consequences may be necessary – but even then, it is in the realization that their sin is no worse than ours. When a colleague doesn’t pull their weight, leaving us more than our share of the work, patient love will tell them how we feel but without rancor and without condemnation. Patient love is perfectly entitled to ask for more help, but is willing to forgive, and to forgive, and to forgive. If work that needs to be done isn’t getting done, we may have to take other action when it becomes clear nothing will change, but we do it as constructively and supportively of our colleague as possible.

This gets difficult. I have an employee who struggles with getting done things that are new to him – he tends to put them to one side rather than focusing on determining how to approach the problem, or asking for help. We’ve talked about this before, and my boss has lost patience. If my love for him is to be patient, I need to take the time (patience by definition seems to include giving some of my time) to help him understand the issue, to encourage him to have the confidence to try, and to stay on top of his progress. I started that today. By God’s grace (but not my own efforts) I can continue.

If we’re to exhibit the love of God at work, and it is clear to me that we’re called to do so as a part of our Kingdom mission, then we need to be patient. And that’s just the beginning …

Theology @ Work – Redemption

2010-06-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

Do you want to know why your daily work is important? Think redemption!

We Christians talk a great deal about “redemption”, we call Christ our Redeemer, and some of us also talk about God’s plan to redeem Creation. But what do we mean by redemption? Interestingly, although all these themes are found in Scripture, they often use words different from redeem or redemption. These words are almost legal terms – speaking of buying back something that had been pledged (in a time of poverty, for example), or of the buying back and freeing of slaves.

Paul probably speaks more about this image of Christ’s working being the price for our being bought back, and most Christians focus on the individual aspect of freedom from slavery to sin that is a key part of our salvation. This is vital of course, but if we look at the whole sweep of Scripture, it may have even more to do with God’s plan to buy back all of Creation. We’ve seen in these posts how God created a heaven and earth, and creatures within them, that were “very good”. We’ve seen that the corruption of sin, typified in the Fall, has moved all of Creation away from God’s purposes. Israel was created and chosen as God’s people, with the goal of “blessing” all nations – I believe in large part that means pointing them back to God’s intent for them, and working on the restoration of what He had made. Israel failed (largely) but from them came the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who became the “ransom” or redemption price for all who would turn to Him, so that from Him the Church would be created and take over the task of “blessing all nations” – that is the task of working in partnership with God to restore, to recover, to redeem all of God’s Creation.

That’s what our daily work is all about. We’re on a mission of redemption, made possible because we have individually and corporately been redeemed through the sacrifice of Jesus. When Paul says that “we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10) he is saying that as new creatures, redeemed and restored to His original intent for us, we are to do “good works” (restoring a “good” Creation) in His Name. Every daily activity is a part of this call. It is our job to bring back the lost, to recover the potential God put in all of us, to restore the beauty of Creation – in short to build the Kingdom, the work in progress that will become the “new heaven and new earth” (see Isaiah chapters 65 and 66 and Revelation 21 and 22).

Is that important enough for you?

Guest Blogger Sara Goetz – Business as Transformation

2010-06-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

What if business wasn’t just about making money. What if it was about transformation?

In 5 years of steady growth with our business I know this for certain: God did not invite me into Sara Goetz Photography to change the photography & small business community – although, I would have really liked that.

He invited me into small business ownership so that He could change me.

God has used our small business to grow me up, to teach me about faith and priorities, to confront my weaknesses, and to strengthen my marriage.

In sum. He has made Sara Goetz Photography into a sanctifying experience. Really! It’s true! Only God could use a business as a means of sanctification. Who would have guessed?

Sara Goetz Photography will never simply need more office space, faster computers, or a bigger marketing budget. Well it might, but none of those things will in and of themselves help me to fulfill God’s purpose for this venture in my life.

Instead, it requires that I continually lay it down at the feet of Him who has the imagination, vision, and resources to let it make me more into the woman I was created to be.

We have not neglected a business plan, abandoned revenue goals, or neglected profit margin. We have all of those and we have set high expectations for what our business will do financially for our life. We do not give away our services. Instead I strive to make offering our services about becoming more like Christ – about being changed. So that the art and practice of Sara Goetz Photography is a worshipful experience that pleases the heart of God – and begins to change my heart to be more like His.

After all, what good is a successful business if I am unchanged before God?

Introducing Guest Blogger Sara Goetz

2010-06-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting a few pieces from my friend Sara Goetz, who owns and operates a photography business in the San Francisco East Bay. Since I have never run my own business, I don't have a good insight into the challenges facing entrepreneurs and small business owners. Sara has been giving this some thought, and has written some very helpful, honest and through-provoking pieces on the exercise of faith in a business owner's own workplace. Her own blog can be found here: http://www.blog.saragoetzphotography.com/. Thanks to Sara for these contributions!

Distracted @ Work

2010-06-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

The Faith @ Work blog has gone a bit quiet recently – I confess to having been focused on my daughter’s wedding (it was awesome!) This raises the question for me about distractions in general.

I don’t know about you, but I find it pretty hard to stay focused on any one thing at work. To some degree it’s a good thing – we have so many balls in the air that if we just watched one the rest would all drop. But multi-tasking and allowing distractions to take charge are not the same thing. Multi-tasking has its own dangers – to use an IT memory management analogy – we can easily end up “thrashing” – spending so much time switching between tasks that there isn’t enough time to do the tasks themselves. A bigger issue, at least once we’ve learned some basic time management techniques, is completely non-work distractions to take over.

I love sport, and the sport I love most is cricket. At any point in the day there is usually an interesting cricket match going on somewhere in the world and I confess that I often keep track of them. This actually works in my favor while it stays in control – it is a stress reliever and quick pause from intense activity. But the risk is that I get too engaged in the cricket (or currently the World Cup) and work suffers. How do I keep this in balance?

Then there are other issues and anxieties – the broken sprinkler system that caused flooding of my back yard and a neighbor’s while we were away for the wedding, for example. Or family conflicts. Or sermons to be written or church issues to be concerned about. There is a place for each of these, and keeping balance between all of the demands on my attention is a struggle. Does my faith have anything to say about all this?

I believe the spiritual fruit of self-control comes into play here (see my post from last month - http://faithatworkplace.blogspot.com/2010/05/fruit-of-spirit-work-self-control.html). Paul says “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Even though ripped a little out of context, this speaks so well to what I need to be able to do at work. This isn’t easy, and it probably can’t be done simply as an act of the will. I need to develop the habit of seeking the release of the Spirit’s fruit of self-control, so that He in me will give me the ability to control my thoughts to focus on the Kingdom work I have been given in the workplace.

Memorandum to self: start examining distractions, offering them to God in prayer, and getting them under control by the Spirit.

Prayer @ Work – People

2010-06-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

Marilyn Manson has a song called “Don’t Pray For Me”. Is that how most people feel? Should we be praying for co-workers whether they want it or not?

Manson’s song lyrics go something like this:

Don’t pray for me
I don’t need your sympathy
I don’t want your god protecting me
Don’t pray for me
I don’t want your empathy
I don’t need your savior saving me
Don’t pray for me

I’ve found, though, that the vast majority of people really do want to be prayed for, whether they believe in the power of their own prayer or not. Surprisingly many have the approach that though they don’t have faith in God, they have some kind of faith in our faith in God, if you see what I mean. So more and more in the workplace, I find myself listening to needs, concerns, worries and fears of my colleagues and employees, and more and more I offer to pray for them. Usually they’re not comfortable with me laying hands on them and praying the middle of the office! I’m not sure I would be either! But they are genuinely grateful for the prayer, and seem to then welcome conversation about prayer and the God to Whom I’m praying.

The key, of course, is the motivation – are we praying out of genuine compassion, concern and love for our co-workers, and in genuine belief that God loves them much more, or is this just a way into some religious dialogue? If it’s mostly the latter, they’ll see it a mile off (trust me, I know from my past!) I’ve found that regular prayer for colleagues and staff (I routinely pray for each of our employees by name and as specifically as I know how every Wednesday) changes my attitudes and relationships, and leads to more openness on their part, and more opportunity for me to bless them. This works especially well for those I don’t get on with terribly well – my need to pray for them is all the greater!

Prayer changes things – and relationships!

Contentment @ Work

2010-05-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

“God has yet to bless anyone except where they are. And if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being right, we will simply have no place to receive His Kingdom into our lives.” (Dallas Willard)

A new blogging friend Bradley Moore invited me to comment on his recent blog posting on “the Myth of Calling” http://shrinkingthecamel.com/2010/05/11/the-myth-of-calling/ and it’s got me thinking. How many of us are waiting for just the right call, so that we can be in a job with which we can be content? Or perhaps our rationalization isn’t quite so sanctified … perhaps we admit that we’re waiting for a job in which we can have fun, or be paid well, or be recognized appropriately.

The trouble is that we’re doing ourselves out of blessing! I described in http://faithatworkplace.blogspot.com/2010/03/discovering-god-work-part-2.html how it took me a year to recognize that I would do best to accept that I was where God wanted me, and that in fact He was pouring out His blessings on me right where I was. You’d think I’d learn wouldn’t you? But I still catch myself sometimes thinking “if only” or “what if” kinds of thoughts. Then today I came across the Dallas Willard quote that starts this post. Well duh! What a commentary on “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)! Or on Paul’s “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11).

I think I’m going to have to post Willard’s words somewhere around my office or, better still, somewhere in the front of my brain!

Theology @ Work – Kingdom

2010-05-27T12:44:00.000-07:00

“For you I'd wait til kingdom come” go the Coldplay lyrics. Implying forever, or until the end of the world. Because that’s when we’ll see God’s Kingdom come, or so popular expectations will have it. But popular belief, as so often, is wrong.

When Jesus started his earthly ministry, according to Mark he announced his arrival with these words: "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15). Here and throughout the gospels we hear that the Kingdom has already arrived through Jesus, and that we’re invited to be a part of it!

In my last couple of Theology @ Work posts I explored our role and calling as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and as priests. Both of these are intermediary roles, in which we become the place where heaven and earth come together (as N.T. Wright so helpfully puts it), and in which we bring others before God in our intercessory prayers, while at the same time offering the grace and hope and beauty of God to those around us. But the Old and New Testaments both speak of our calling not just as a priesthood, but as a royal priesthood. For example Exodus 19:6 includes a promise to God’s chosen people that “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. 1 Peter 2:9 then picks up this promise and applies it to followers of Jesus, His church: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” The royalty spoken of here isn’t a statement about us, but about God. We are the priests of His Kingdom – His present reign and rule over all of His Creation.

When Jesus announced the arrival of the Kingdom, he did it in full knowledge that his followers would be the ones he would use to bring the developing Kingdom to fruition. We are the ones he has called to carry out the work of redemption – buying back not just people, but all of creation, so that it is fully and perfectly back in tune with God’s original intentions for it.

That was a long pre-amble for a short application, but what does this have to do with work. Absolutely everything! In the workplace, everything we do, every word we speak or write, every motivation and ambition – all are in the light of the present reality, and developing hope, of the Kingdom. This is our context and perspective. As priests and workers in the Kingdom, we are accountable to the King Himself, equipped by Him, empowered by Him, and authorized by Him, through the presence of His Spirit. My next bankruptcy filing needs to reflect this. The coaching session with one of my staff members needs to be in this context. The ethical debate with my boss is a Kingdom debate.

It may take us each a lifetime to work out what this really means (it’s the primary quest of my blog) but we can help one another. May God be glorified as we seek to live Kingdom lives at work.

Faith @ Work is now part of High Calling Blogs

2010-05-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

The Faith @ Work blog has been added to a terrific community of blogs related to the High Calling of Christian living, including many on living out faith in the workplace. I am honored to be a part of that community. Click on the badge at the left to see more.

God’s Perspective @ Work – Frustration

2010-05-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

How many attorneys does it take to file a bankruptcy plan? I don’t know yet, but apparently ten is barely enough! Hence my frustration …

Actually this isn’t even the original Plan – it is an amendment that has to be filed today. We had nearly two months to do it, and we’ll probably just make it by the skin of our teeth. The trouble is there are so many parties at interest in this case that it really does involve at least ten attorneys. They are apparently all used to leaving things to the last minute, assuming that they are correct about everything, and forgetting that getting two attorneys to agree on something, let alone ten, is a lengthy process.

Yes, I’m frustrated. So what do I do about it? Look up, is of course the answer. I don’t know about you, but in the midst of chaos and stress, I still find it hard to do – at the very moment I need God’s perspective the most, I am least inclined to look for it! I’m writing this in a momentary pause in the pressure, as a way to direct my attention back to the Sovereign God, the One who called me to this position in the first place, the One who rules over His Kingdom. Already this is looking much more petty and insignificant than it was earlier today. I am accountable to do everything I can to get this filing completed (and it will happen), and I am accountable to continue to value and develop relationship with all those I work with, including all the attorneys! (Yes, Dorothy, even attorneys have souls!)

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) is a verse that I need desperately right now. Being still doesn’t mean stopping everything, but rather holding this Spirit-given stillness and knowledge of God over everything I’m doing. Another word for it is “peace” – the knowledge that all is and will be well in God’s Kingdom, that every gift and talent and experience He has given me that got me into this job in the first place, is given solely for His service. I lay them at His feet, and commit to the front of my mind as a meditation, almost a mantra, this saying. “Be still and know that I am God!”

OK back to the panic, but in peace!

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Self-Control

2010-05-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

With all the work crises, tough decisions, failures of others to deliver, and of course my own shortcomings, I sometimes lose self-control. This is only natural. Isn’t it?

Self-control is the last (but not least) of the fruit of the Spirit. It is one that I find rather ironic. Why should we need to Holy Spirit to control ourselves? In fact isn’t that a bit of a contradiction in terms? Yes and no. The nature of my sin is that without help I don’t have complete control. The more I try to exert control over myself, the less I seem to be able to. Paul talks about this struggle extensively in Romans 7: for example verse 17 “what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” He says it isn’t that I don’t want to be able to control my tendency to sin, but just that sin takes control unless something is done about it. “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:18-20).

In a way, self-control (or the lack of it) summarizes our success in our failure in exhibiting all of the fruit of the Spirit. When I blow up at an employee because a deadline hasn’t been met and I have to face the music, I am also failing to exhibit gentleness, kindness, love, and a host of other fruit. This is because the Spirit is no longer controlling my life and so His fruit is no longer in evidence. When panic sets in because all the circumstances working against become overwhelming, even though others don’t necessarily see my panic, the fruit of the Spirit (e.g. joy and peace) will again not be evident.

So in the context of the fruit of the Spirit, self-control really means Spirit-control. Paul’s antidote to the struggles of Romans 7 is in Romans 8. “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” (Romans 8:9) He states quite clearly that in reality we are under the control of the Holy Spirit, not sin, if the Spirit is in us. Scripture all over the place (e.g. much of John’s gospel) assures us that our salvation results in the gift of the Spirit so we should be free from the power of sin. But we also know the reality that this is a work in progress and, like the rest of the fruit of the Spirit, we will experience and exhibit it to the degree we grow in everyday knowledge of God and in surrender to the Spirit.

Self-control isn’t something we do, but something the Spirit gives us. It is a paradox – the more we try to take control of ourselves, the less we’re able to. The more we allow the Spirit to take control, the more self-controlled we’ll be. Perhaps this is part of what Jesus meant when he said “Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33).

Theology @ Work – Priesthood

2010-05-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

Priests don’t belong in the workplace, right? Though the armed forces, medical facilities, prisons and the like may have chaplains, there’s no place for religious professionals in your work place or mine. Or is there?

In my last Theology @ Work post (Temple) I pointed out that we have, according to the New Testament, become the “temple of the Holy Spirit” – the place where heaven and earth come together. Part of our calling as followers of Jesus is to be that place to which people can come and see this coming together of the divine and human realms, the Kingdom of God. The New Testament has another word for this role – “priest”. From the earliest books in the Bible it is apparent that in some way God intended all His people to be priests – not necessarily in the official capacity of the Levitical priesthood, but in the general capacity of being intermediaries between God and people – presenting God to the people, and bringing the people’s requests before God, at least until the relationship with Him is established and they no longer need a priest.

Jesus provided the way for this intimate relationship to be created, and it is by our dying and rising with Him in His crucifixion and resurrection that we are able to approach God safely, knowing that we are justified by Him (i.e. that His sinlessness makes us right with God). As a result, we’re able to fulfill the role of priest with those we move among who have not yet arrived at relationship with God through His Son. Just as Jesus is declared by the author of Hebrews to be a “priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7:17), the king-priest to whom Abraham paid homage (Genesis 14), so we are also to become a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2). This is a serious and challenging calling, but one that we are authorized and enabled to take on because we are in Christ.

Every time we in some way exhibit Jesus to others around us, we are fulfilling this role, particularly as others are drawn toward Jesus in some way through us. In the same way, every time we bring the concerns of others to God in prayer, we are fulfilling the calling to be priests. We are the connection point with God that everyone needs (and most people actually want). We are, as temples of the Holy Spirit, the go-between people, linking humanity and deity, linking heaven and earth, drawing others to Jesus. This is every bit as true at work as anywhere else – not through our words or even our actions, not because of overt (and sometimes obnoxious) proselytizing, but simply because we are privileged to be those in whom the Spirit dwells. In a sense, as priests, we really are “religious professionals” – our calling, our profession, our occupation as Christians is indeed that of priest, in whatever context God has placed us. What a calling!

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Gentleness

2010-05-11T17:32:00.000-07:00

Gentleness is not my strong suit. Ask anyone who knows me. Besides, the times I’ve tried to be gentle with people in the workplace I’ve generally been slapped down by my boss. Is there a place for gentleness at work at all?

When it comes to our behavior at work, this is another counter-cultural, and perhaps even counter-intuitive fruit of the Spirit. After all we are employed to get the most out of people and relationships, and that means being demanding, setting the bar high, expecting a hundred percent (or more!) When someone isn’t performing to our expectations, we need to get tough with them. If someone has problems that are affecting their work, we may show some compassion, but we can’t allow their personal issues to impact our work output.

But gentleness isn’t necessarily counter-productive. I have been in many situations where all that is needed is a soft word, a few minutes of listening, or an understanding smile. Perhaps a colleague’s boss has been particularly tough on them. We may agree with the issue, but we value the person and understand they are hurt – the gentle reassurance may be just what is needed to remedy a situation.

My biggest challenge is as a manager, when a member of staff doesn’t seem to be listening well, or doing what I want, or meeting my expectations. I have a tendency to get frustrated and that leads to anything but gentleness. In an effort to make expectations very clear, I become blunt and formal, rather than seeking to understand and empathize with whatever is going on in the other person. There are times to be direct and firm, but that in no way prevents us from also being gentle. I need to post Ephesians 5:1-2 by my desk: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Being gentle doesn’t come naturally to most successful business people – it isn’t what got us where we are. Sometimes we’ve needed to be pretty tough, and we’ve mistaken our resulting success as an indication that gentleness is a sign of weakness. But if we consider Jesus, the gentlest man who ever lived, and also clearly the strongest man who ever lived, gentleness is really a great sign of strength. In fact, that’s one the best definitions I’ve heard: gentleness is “strength under control”, with the other person’s well-being firmly in mind. I pray that the Spirit will help me to exhibit gentleness as we try to work as a team through our current financial, business and legal difficulties. Otherwise people are going to be unnecessarily hurt and everyone will lose.

Theology @ Work – Temple

2010-05-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

British theologian and churchman N.T. Wright has a beautiful picture of the Temple as the place where heaven and earth come together. If we are (according to Paul) the temple of the Holy Spirit, what does that mean to us in the workplace?

God’s interaction with humans goes full circle in the Bible. It starts in Eden with God walking the garden with Adam and Eve – symbolic of constant, intimate communion. Heaven and earth are originally intended to be completely intersecting with no real differentiation. Then, after Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden that bond, that presence of God, is broken. Later, after God’s call and blessing to Abraham (so much like our own), and later on the call of Moses, He provides for His special people of Israel a succession of ways in which heaven and earth can come together again – places where God will meet with His people. Initially in the Tabernacle, during the wandering of the Jews in the wilderness, it is mostly just through Moses that this takes place – the people are too afraid to draw close. Then after the Temple is built (by Solomon – see 1 Kings) the High Priest is allowed in the Holy of Holies one day a year, but the people know that in some way God’s presence it there – heaven meets earth, if only very partially.

In Jesus, the imagery of heaven’s interaction with earth is made complete as God Himself takes on humanity fully, and in Jesus we see heaven and earth coming fully together – but still His disciples are just observers. The prophets, and Jesus Himself, have talked about a time coming when the original intended relationship between heaven and earth, God walking in Eden as it were, will come to full fruition. When Jesus announces the Kingdom, He is also announcing the beginning of the fulfillment of these prophecies.

The next step is taken at Pentecost, when the church is formed and the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is now what one author calls the “Go-Between God” – the very Spirit of Jesus Himself, given to us so that in us, heaven and earth will be brought together. In fact, Paul picks up the language of the Old Testament when he says “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Do you hear this? When you and I go to work every day, we are the place where heaven and earth come together, God’s temple, a place for others to approach to see and encounter God!

Now we are called to partner together with God in His world, in our everyday lives, in all of our relationships, tasks and calling, as He moves His Kingdom toward the final joining of heaven and earth as laid out in Revelation 21 and 22. As the temples of the Holy Spirit we are increasingly the places where heaven is meeting earth, where God is being seen in action, and where the hope of nations can be encountered.

Hope @ Work

2010-05-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

“Hope is not a strategy” as an old boss of mine used to say. What he meant was that hoping for the best was no substitute for proper planning. But is he always right? Is there a role for “hope” as the Bible defines it?

It seems as though we constantly have to strike a balance when we try to live out our faith in everyday life. God is sovereign, and yet we have free will. God’s grace brings forgiveness, and yet we are accountable for our actions. And I would say that even though hope comes from God, we still need to plan. Hope isn’t a substitute for planning, but it is a gift that is very much missing from a number of work environments. I see at least two ways in which Biblical hope comes into play.

The first, and perhaps more obvious one, is that hope provides perspective. The Bible is full of deferred gratification (which runs so counter to our present culture). Paul puts it like this in Romans: “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (5:3-5) In other words, things may seem really bad right now, but that’s because we’re seeing them narrowly from our point of view, at this point in time. But there’s a bigger perspective (even for someone who doesn’t believe in God’s sovereign grace). There’s the hope that difficulties now will turn out later to have been a blessing in disguise, or at least not as bad as they seem. For a Christian who believes that in “all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28) this is doubly true. When we display this kind of hope (confidence in the future) we have an impact on those around us. We who believe in God’s Kingdom are called to share the hope of redemption and restoration that God is working all around us.

The second aspect of hope is one of attitude. We can approach challenges with an air of resignation, or annoyance, or even despair. Or we can approach with a “can-do” attitude that says we will do what can be done to address a situation, to learn from it, to adapt to it, and to see good grow out of it. This attitude is infectious, and is a gift that can be most easily given by one who knows the “hope of the ages” (Jesus) because of the overriding hope we find in Him.

Hope is one of the three enduring gifts, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13 (the others being faith and the greatest of all, love). It is gift we can share with all those with whom we work, in our perspective and our attitude.

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Faithfulness

2010-05-03T09:14:00.000-07:00

Whatever happened to the idea of loyalty at work? To be called a “faithful employee” would be considered an insult in most circles. Even employers don’t seem to value faithfulness. But God does!

The seventh aspect of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 is faithfulness, which in the Greek had the sense of trustworthiness. For us, two questions come to mind. First of all, we are to be faithful to what or to whom? Clearly the Bible expects that we will be faithful first and foremost to God, as a response to His faithfulness to us. At the same time, since this list describes the fruit that results from the Holy Spirit’s control over us, it is something others should see. So the second question is what does this look like in the workplace?

God’s faithfulness, which through His Spirit can be exhibited in us, shows itself in His steadfast and unshakeable love, and in the absolute certainty that He will keep His promises. For us to be faithful to God in the workplace, and thus to the employers or marketplace to which He has called us, means that we will show the kind of self-sacrificing love God has shown to us without condition, and without wavering. Self-sacrificing – that is putting the other’s interests ahead of ours. As an employee we won’t jump ship just because we have a better offer from elsewhere. As an entrepreneur we won’t renege on agreements made with a customer just because we’ve seen a new business opportunity that would be more lucrative or more fulfilling.

Better offers don’t come along that often though. So perhaps the most common way in which we would see the fruit of faithfulness exhibited is simply through keeping our promises. If we make a commitment, whether to our boss, or co-worker, or client, or supplier, then we will keep it. Trustworthiness is a rare and highly valued commodity in most business and trade environments. As it turns out, it is really good for business! But even more than that, it is a small way in which we can exhibit the character of God.

Faithfulness in the workplace is not weak or to be despised. It is noble, strong and, I admit it, something very difficult. There are times I want to bail. And there are times I make commitments I shouldn’t have made. At other times the commitment was reasonable, but I don’t have the energy or resources to follow through. I’m praying for faithfulness to be more evident in me at work, by the Holy Spirit’s power – I can’t do it alone!

Theology @ Work – Blessed to Be a Blessing

2010-04-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Many of us feel enormously blessed by our relationships, by what we have, by God Himself. But why have we received such blessings?

The first few chapters of Genesis provide a foundation for all of the rest of Scripture, from creation of the universe, to creation of humankind in God’s image, to our calling to partner with God in Creation. This is followed by three examples of evil in the world, a consequence of God’s decision to give us free will: our rebellion in Genesis 3; then our wickedness in chapters 6-7 (leading to the Flood); and then our arrogance in chapter 11 (the tower of Babel).

But then, in a startling and pivotal few verses, we see God’s answer to the problem of evil. Rather than wiping everything out and starting again (as Genesis 6:6-7 suggests He was sorely tempted to do), God decides to use the flawed people He had made to gradually and eventually bring Creation back to a glorious version of what it was originally intended to be (ultimately described in Revelation 21-22).

Genesis 12 starts like this (emphasis mine) The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." This promise and call to Abraham (the combination of promise and call is typically called a covenant) is the foundation for the whole of the rest of the Bible. God blesses Abraham so that Abraham will in turn bless those around him. The people of Israel, God’s chosen people, are blessed enormously with the same intent – that they will spread God’s blessing to those countries and peoples that surround them. The Church is blessed through Christ so that we can bless all around us.

We, as workers, are blessed by God quite simply so that those around us will be blessed. In our call to the workplace, we are called to share and spread God’s blessing – His grace, love, peace, compassion, provision, forgiveness, value – without limit, without exception. This is how we partner with God in restoring His Kingdom. Israel largely failed to recognize this call and to live it. The Church has often lost sight of it. How about us?

Prayer @ Work – Success

2010-04-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Should we pray for success at work? When things go well, should we give the credit to God? How intimately is God involved in the details of our working lives? The key is our definition of success.

This question was prompted by 2 Samuel 22, which I read again this morning. The 21 chapters leading up to this song of praise recount how David established his position of power as Israel’s king, defeating enemies from within and outside Israel and uniting the 12 tribes in a way that had never been true before and would never be true again after his son Solomon. These chapters include much bloodshed (so much that God wouldn’t let David build the Temple) and seemingly senseless annihilation of large groups of people. From the Psalms we know that David continually sought God’s intervention and help in this process, and at the end of it, in 2 Samuel 22 (and Psalm 18) David praises and thanks God for being on his side.

So, should I pray before I go into a negotiation that God will give me success? When one of our business goals is met, or a property is sold, or an investment is received, should we give the credit to God? I am reminded again of the dilemma we try to put before God (referenced in an earlier post) – the football dilemma. Two Christian schools are playing football against one another. Both of them pray for a victory. What should God do? From a Kingdom perspective the outcome of the football game isn’t significant, but the impact it has on the players, coaches, support staff and spectators is. In the same way, when we are pursuing business goals, the goals themselves are often secondary to the impact on people, communities, and Creation. Sometimes our goals are specifically geared toward justice or mercy or stewardship, in which case a direct prayer for success makes sense (understanding that we have a very limited view that is bound by time, space and our own limitations). But in general success has to do with what is right and good, and that’s what we should pray for.

For David, success in his mind may have been winning a battle, and he praised God for it. But God’s perspective was greater than that, as later history showed. It had to do with consolidation of His chosen people, the model for the Kingdom that Jesus would usher in fully a thousand years later. It had also to do with establishing David as the fallible model for the infallible Messiah – Jesus. In our case, success may be much bigger than our business goals. But it is good for us to examine our goals, and ask whether we can in all conscious ask for God’s blessing on them – did they come from Him in the first place, and are they righteous and in line with our understanding of His will. Then praying for success makes sense, and giving God the glory and credit for success when we see it will make perfect sense.

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Goodness

2010-04-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

What is goodness? It’s one of those things that defy precise definition, and yet we feel we know it when we see it. In the workplace, we may feel we don’t see it very often, at least not without strings. What should others see in us if we truly exhibit this segment of the Spirit’s fruit?

At its simplest, goodness could be described as Godliness, or a likeness to God. In that sense the more the Spirit is in control, the more goodness will be visible. (I discovered, rather to my surprise, that there is probably no etymological link between the words god and good, but I still think there’s a link in their meanings.) What are some of the things that come to mind when we say that a person displays goodness, or just that a person is a good person? Sincerity, honesty, and morality perhaps? Or perhaps truthfulness, dependability, or trustworthiness? Sometimes it implies an element of doing what is right (righteousness), which in turn means doing what pleases God and benefits our fellow humans. Regardless of how we view it, though, there is a comfortable, warm feeling that comes from being in such a person’s presence – we feel safe, we trust them. We wish everyone we dealt was the same way.

At the same time, apparently the Greek word translated goodness (agathosune) is an active, rather than a passive word – it speaks to our actions which in turn reveals our character, and that of the Spirit if we allow it.

It would be interesting to know if others think of us as good wouldn’t it? How would we find out? Perhaps by seeing how much others trust us, and how much they’re prepared to depend on us? Perhaps we could even ask them. When I enter into a negotiation with somebody who knows me, will they assume a good-faith negotiation, or will they be on their guard? When I purchase a service or product from somebody, do they see the need to demand a retainer or large deposit to protect their interests? (This is a tricky one, particularly when we have cash flow issues – see last week’s post on Justice – Paying Bills. It does illustrate the degree to which what we do bears witness to what we are.)

As always, it has to be my constant prayer that God’s goodness will shine through me, that my own selfishness and sinfulness will be increasingly set aside to make room for the fruit of the Spirit – goodness. Pure goodness isn’t something I can generate by or from myself, unless the Spirit is in me. It is the Spirit of Christ who reveals the goodness of God Himself.

Theology @ Work – Work’s Curse

2010-04-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

“Whatever God’s original intent for work, because of the Fall it is now just a curse.” Sometimes it feels that way, but it isn’t true. As our theological overview goes from God’s work in Creation, to our being made in His image, to our Calling as workers, we come to the Biblical account of the Fall – the rebellion of Adam and Eve in Eden. This account describes humanity’s separation from God, and the consequences. One of those consequences is for the nature of work.

In Genesis 3:17-19 we read God’s words to Adam: "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Notice that the curse is on the circumstances and conditions of work, not on work itself. I deduce from this that work itself is still just as high a calling as it was before humanity’s rebellion. But now, work is full of difficulties, barriers, exertion and frustration.

This is a very important distinction. It is so easy, especially when work is particularly hard or tedious or stressful, to think that work must surely be an evil burden that we have to bear, and that we work only because we have to in order to eat. From there, we will go through the motions, doing as little as we can get away with, just counting the hours until we can go home for some “real living”. But if we really believe that work is still God’s primary intention for us, and that our calling to work is a calling to partner with God in His Kingdom, then work becomes the highlight of our lives. This is true whether it is manual labor, routine office work, high-powered executive work, home-making, teaching or foreign missions. In a sense it is all the same to God. It all has barriers and burdens. It all has the potential to transform lives, to reconcile Creation to God, and to be a part of God’s redemptive purpose in His Kingdom.

Bottom line – if our attitude to work is that it is a necessary evil, cursed by God because of the Fall, then we will likely not see God in it, will not be aware of the opportunities it presents, and will not find it fulfilling. On the other hand, if we still see work as God’s special gift to us, we will recognize the difficulties as results of humanity’s brokenness and separation from God, and will look for what God is doing and join Him in His work of redemption. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take the second approach any day, with gratitude to God for the work He has called me to.

Justice @ Work - Paying Bills

2010-04-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

It’s easy for us to talk about justice when it’s somebody else, somewhere else, or when it’s something we would never consider doing ourselves. But the workplace has all sorts of smaller scale but no less important justice challenges. Over the next few weeks I’m planning to explore a few of them.

For today let’s talk about paying bills. Most companies have been sufficiently cash-strapped at one time or another that they can’t pay all their bills. But is failing to pay a bill according to an implicit or explicit sales contract a just thing to do? How does that fit in with Biblical perspectives on repaying what is due, or on using fair measures and weights in trading?

The problem is that, in cash shortages, we often have a Hobson’s choice between failing to pay a supplier on the one hand, and failing to meet some other critical obligation (such as payroll) on the other. Ultimately if we pay all our bills on time, but as a result the company collapses, then lots more people lose. We really do have to make difficult and less than optimal choices sometimes (just as in other parts of life).

As I think this through for myself, so far I have only been able to do the following:

Ensure when I enter into a purchase agreement (or any other kind of contract) that I have a reasonable expectation that I will be able to meet the terms of the agreement, and that I honestly intend to do so.
Question carefully the implications on my supplier if I fail to make a payment. Even though I owe to a corporate supplier just as much as to an individual contractor, the impact of delay on people’s lives is potentially much greater in the latter case. (This is not, however, an excuse not to pay corporate suppliers).
Engage in discussion with someone (generally my boss, the company owner, who struggles with the same issues) in a kind of mutual accountability that challenges rationalization and injustice in such situations.
Then make the decision that will best serve the “common good” and determine what could be done differently in the future to avoid a repeat of this dilemma.

I’m not saying this is how I always act – just what I think God demands in Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Kindness

2010-04-19T09:39:00.001-07:00

Does kindness have a place at work? Someone told me recently that for a man to be told he is “kind” is an insult to his manliness! Even more at work, the typical image of a successful business executive is anything but kind. So is this a fruit of the Spirit that we should leave at home?

I see kindness as being considerate of the other person – their feelings and their circumstances – and being prepared to take the time and trouble to empathize, and also to adapt our own communication accordingly. Kindness shows care and concern for another’s situation, and acknowledges their pain and difficulty. This seems to conflict with business goals – getting the most out of employees, insisting on deadlines being met by colleagues, negotiating the best price with a supplier and so on. While we don’t want to be called “ruthless”, we do want to be thought of as effective and results-oriented if we are to advance in our chosen careers.

While this view is widely held, I am convinced it is also false. Jesus was kind and firm at the same time. He communicated very clearly but adapted his communication approach to the situation and the person. Always He considered the person and where they were in life. Contrast, for example, the way He spoke to the Pharisees and the way He spoke to the woman taken in adultery. In the latter case, he acknowledged how harsh her accusers had been, but He was also very clear that she needed to repent – to turn away from her sinful lifestyle. (His conversation with the Samaritan woman was similar in this respect, except that He didn’t need to tell her to stop sinning – she got it on her own). In fact, the kindness of Jesus was more effective than any amount of blunt criticism or ultimatums.

For me, kindness means approaching everyone with consideration of their challenges, their feelings and their capabilities. It doesn’t mean that we avoid difficult conversations (for example a manager still needs to challenge poor performance) but that we value and empathize with the other person. I’m not very good at it. Generally it isn’t what I’ve been taught or have seen modeled over my career (with a few exceptions). It is something I have an ongoing dialogue about with my boss (who doesn’t necessarily share my understanding of the value of kindness in this context, even though in his way he is known as a kind man). Bottom line – I need to get better at it, which means I need to allow the Spirit full sway in my life. Of course that’s the bottom line with all the fruit – more of Him, and less of me.

Theology @ Work – Calling

2010-04-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

It used to be that “called by God” would mean one of two things to evangelical Christians. One is the general calling to salvation (mostly focused on going to heaven after this life is over). The other is a special “call to the ministry”. I bought into both these senses of calling. But as I read the Bible, I am starting to see calling as being much richer, and applicable to all of us now.

There is much more work to do on this (though some helpful studies have been written recently – I’m reading “The Other Six Days” by R. Paul Stevens, for example, which has a fairly deep treatment of calling). But I think at the moment I’m seeing calling for all Christians in three basic senses in Scripture.

Call to Be: we are called by God into relationship with Him, fulfilling His intentions for us as illustrated when He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. This is very close to the evangelical understanding of call to salvation, but it has immediate, not just eternal effect. I see it as essentially a call to be fully human, which involves every aspect of our being, made in God’s image, made to be constantly in His presence, and equipped for “good works” (see Ephesians 2:10) which is quite evocative of Genesis 1:31-2:2 in which God looked at all the “work” He had done and saw that it was “good”.
Call to Act: our basic calling in Genesis 1:28-29 (known sometimes as the “cultural mandate”) to work in cooperation with God in creating, sustaining, restoring, and ultimately fulfilling the potential of His Creation. This is sometimes called the call to co-creation (though since we’re under God’s authority rather than equal, perhaps sub-creation is a better word, as Stevens suggests).
Call to Love: we are also called to exhibit the kind of love that God has for us, and the kind of community that the Godhead has within Itself (Father, Son and Spirit in the most intimate inter-dependent union). This is a call to community – to be a responsible part of it, to acknowledge our dependence on others, to seek the good of others, to show justice and mercy, and most of all to love!

This understanding of calling has profound implications for work. Firstly, we are all called to work in some way or other, because we’re made in God’s image (see previous Theology @ Work posts). Secondly, the call to work isn’t isolated from the rest of our lives, but is a part of the call to Act, to Be, and to Love. All of these things will significantly impact how we look at and respond to the challenges and opportunities of work. Hopefully I’ll explore some over the coming weeks.

Reconciliation @ Work

2010-04-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have just been given an “interesting opportunity” (euphemism for nasty challenge!) My boss and a relative have a substantial disagreement over a complex area of business involving several financial transactions totaling tens of millions of dollars. I’ve been asked to mediate it in view of the damage it is causing to their family relationship. I’m totally out of my depth in terms of the world of finance, but right in God’s plan in terms of His call for me to bring reconciliation.

In 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, Paul talks about a ministry of reconciliation – initiated by Jesus and passed on to us, His followers. Although this primarily speaks of the reconciliation of people to God, it also speaks of reconciliation of the whole of Creation, which would include people to one another.

Opportunities abound in the workplace for reconciliation on all levels. Every negotiation can be a reconciling act, or it can be a dividing act, depending on the approach of the parties. For example, if I have the “upper hand” in a negotiation, I can approach it with justice and mercy, seeking a solution that truly benefits both sides, or I can take advantage of my superior position to grab everything I can for “my side”. Even more common are the relationships that constantly create conflict and tension. Whatever our daily role, whenever we come across other people we find ourselves in the middle of relational issues. We are called and equipped to bring healing, to value everyone involved, to seek solutions to conflict, to bring wholeness and peace – in short to bring the ministry of reconciliation.

My challenge is to be conscious and intentional about this. I am too flawed a person to do it naturally and so it is essential for me to bring conflicts, and relationship challenges (whether or not involving me directly) to God in prayer. Where I am the cause of hurt and dislocation, it is vital that I be prepared to confess. Where I have been hurt by another, it is vital that I be prepared to forgive. As people who have been given the most extraordinary grace, and shown the most amazing example of love, and equipped by the Holy Spirit with the capacity to be image-bearers of our gracious and loving God, how can we do anything but seek to emulate Jesus? It isn’t easy for any of us, and we mess it up frequently. And yet there are times when, by God’s grace, we get it right – at those times God works through us in ways we’ll perhaps never know.

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Patience

2010-04-12T12:38:00.000-07:00

There’s an old saying that “you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your family”. I would add to that “or your colleagues” (usually anyway). Most of us have colleagues who try our patience more than others. How are we as Christians to handle them?

According to Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit includes patience (sometimes translated long-suffering). Since I’m convinced this applies at work just as much as at home or church, I should expect to have more patience with “difficult” boss, colleagues and/or employees than I used to when I gave less free reign to the Spirit. How is this working out in practice? Pretty inconsistently to be honest. As with many of the issues in the workplace, perspective seems to be very important. Just a few things that I think help when we’re “controlled by the Spirit” as Paul puts it in Romans 8 (especially verses 5-10).

Patience has a lot to do with taking the long view of things, which is just what the Holy Spirit allows us to do – seeing things from God’s perspective, and in His timing. Our success at work (whether from a Kingdom or business perspective) depends upon our long-term relationships with all the people we work with. Patience sets aside short-term irritations in favor of longer-term working relationships.
Our focus is on what God is doing wherever we’re working, and the fact that He is choosing to do it through us and other people. That makes the petty annoyances and barriers to progress much less significant to me.
God clearly loves and values and cares for the person we find difficult – to the degree that the fruit of the Spirit is in evidence in us, we can start to love and value them in the same way. When we love the person enough, their actions become less significant.
If we have the humility to acknowledge our own failings, we discover that others have to be patient with us too. One thing I’ve discovered is that the attributes of others that annoy me the most turn out to be things that are true of me! (For example, I have a terrible habit of interrupting others in meetings when I’m pumped up about something – and yet I can get really impatient with people who do it to me!)

I’m sure there are other reasons that the fruit of patience is of enormous value in the workplace. The other thing is how we exercise it – and like all the Spirit’s fruit, it has to do with maturing in our faith and relationship with God so that Romans 8 more and more describes who we are and how we live. But that’s another, much bigger topic …

Theology @ Work – Made in God’s Image

2010-04-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

The last Theology @ Work posting noted that Work is a Good Thing, because it characterizes what God does and that He sees it as good. But does that make it a Good Thing for us? Yes – because we’re made to be representatives of God, carrying His image into the world. In Genesis 1:24 God says "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness”.

But what does it mean to be made in God’s image, and what does it have to do with work? The first question, although philosophically challenging, is actually very easy to answer. We know what God’s image looks like because, according to Colossians 1, Jesus himself is “the image of the invisible God”. It goes on to be more specific, stating that “by [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” (Col 1:16) So God’s work in Creation, that same work that God Himself has said is good, is embodied in His perfect image, Jesus. From God’s stated intent to make [hu]man[s] in our image”, we know His original plan for us. In our originally planned state, we were to embody His creative worker image. We have admittedly messed it up (see a coming edition of Theology @ Work) but by God’s grace it is being restored as His Kingdom is rolled out in and through us.

And so it turns out that the answer to the second question (what this has to do with work) is also clear for a couple of reasons. Firstly, work is our primary and highest calling. It is what we were created to do, because we were created in God’s image and the first thing we discover about God is that He is a Worker. Secondly, it tells us everything about how we are to approach and do our work. We simply need to look at Jesus – the perfect “image of the invisible God” – to know how we should be handling conflicts, challenges, stress, fear, anxiety, opposition, injustice, suffering, etc in the workplace.

This isn’t really a surprise – quite simply our call to be like Jesus in the workplace results from the fact that we are made in the image of God, and that Jesus is the perfect image of God. This is why I’m writing this blog in the first place, and is intended to be the foundation for my more practical posts about what it means to exhibit the attributes of Christ, and the fruit of the Spirit, at work.

Exercising Faith @ Work

2010-04-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

“Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6) so clearly if I want to please God at work (and of course I do) then I need to exhibit faith in the workplace. But what does this mean? Does it mean that I should pray over every decision, every broken formula, every program bug, every employee challenge, and expect that every one of them would work out right? Do I, then, pray over every deal with confidence (faith) that we will be the winners? Surely that would present God with the classic conundrum of two Christian football teams both praying for victory! What is He to do?

Now don’t get me wrong – in a sense at least I should be praying over every decision and challenge. But this isn’t so much a matter of a detailed ten-minute prayer for every five-minute issue! Rather my model is Nehemiah who, on hearing of huge problems in Jerusalem, spent days in fasting and prayer and confession and then went into a dangerous encounter with his boss (who happened to be the king of Persia) as prepared as he could be. During that encounter he did pray, but more of an “arrow prayer” (Neh 2:4 – it has to have been quick: I don’t imagine Nehemiah or you or me saying to our boss “please hold on for a few minutes while I get on my knees and ask God for help”). But it was important for him to make a quick acknowledgment of Who God is, and Nehemiah’s own dependence on Him, before asking for outrageous favors from the king on his own and his people’s behalf.

The question I started with came up because I’m preaching on Sunday on faith (from John 20:29-39 where Jesus appears to the disciples, and then to Thomas, as they cower in fear and disappointment in a locked room after His crucifixion). That passage shows a significant transition from knowing about God to knowing God Himself. The disciples knew Jesus to a point, but never did understand just Who He really was (even though they used the right words sometimes) until they encountered Him in the fullness of His deity – seeing Him risen from the dead could do that for you! Their faith became real, their submission became foundational, and He sent them out with the authority and power of the Holy Spirit (John 20:21-23). (If you are members of FCF you now don’t need to come to church on Sunday!)

As I try to apply this to the workplace, I realize that the faith I am called to bring with me to work is not a formula for success in the “name it and claim it” tradition. Rather it is intellectual, spiritual and personal knowledge of God. This faith acknowledges and keeps in mind just who God is, and realizing we are sent out by Jesus into every aspect of our lives, empowered and authorized by His Spirit within us to be His ambassadors. With this in mind, we can approach every decision, every challenge, every action knowing that these are Kingdom activities, being done in the name of Christ and in dependence on His Spirit. Hmm … I think I have some work to do to get there, but it’s worth a shot!

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Peace

2010-04-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Peace is another of the fruit of the Spirit that is great in principle, possible on a good Sunday, and apparently quite unrealistic in the workplace. Amidst frustrations, tensions, deadlines, overwork, personality conflicts and performance expectations, where on earth will we find peace? And yet the Bible promises peace as a part of the fruit of the Spirit. If I don’t feel peace, does that mean I don’t have the Spirit?

Last Thursday saw a frantic rush involving several attorneys and a number of our staff to try to file some documents that are critical to our bankruptcy process. Tempers were frayed, frustrations were high, we were disagreeing on key elements of the documents (which totaled 150 pages or so) and it looked as though we had absolutely no chance of making the deadline, which could have serious consequences for the bankruptcy. Where was peace to be found?

I think the key isn’t what I’m feeling but the underlying awareness of God’s control. What exactly is peace? If it means that there is no conflict, no disputes or disagreements, no anger or angst, then I certainly don’t have it – and neither did Paul! But the peace talked about in Galatians 5:22 is the Biblical peace that goes far deeper – the Shalom that comes only from God. It is ultimately about our relationship with God. To the extent to which we are in tune with God, surrendered to Him, accepting of the circumstances in which He places us, and trusting Him to complete all that He has set out to do, we can have this kind of peace. All this knowledge, all this experience of God, comes from the Spirit within us. We will exhibit the fruit of peace to the degree to which we allow the Spirit to control us. (Romans 8:6 “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace”).

On the other hand, I can’t just ignore all the stress and anxiety I feel during the work day – and I confess that at times there a great deal of it. I continue to pray for more and more release of the influence of the Holy Spirit on my life – putting these work issues into perspective, trusting and obeying. It’s about all I can do, but it is far better than feeling guilty about it and trying to force myself to feel peaceful.

Next week is patience ... oh boy!

Discovering God @ Work (part 3)

2010-04-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

The biggest challenge most of us find in our work is to bring Christ into such a secular environment. Right? Wrong. Lesson 3 in my discovery that God Is indeed @ Work is that this attitude I’d had before was wrong-headed and in fact rather arrogant. I can’t take Christ into the workplace for one very simple reason. Not because the workplace is a secular space where religion (and therefore Christ) does not belong. Not because I’m not holy enough or clever enough or knowledgeable enough of the Bihle. Not because I’m not equipped to be an evangelist. No, it’s much simpler than that.

I can’t take Christ into the workplace because he’s already there! Think about it! If the Kingdom of God is truly here, then it is present throughout the world. Not fulfilled yet, but still in development. If Christ is Lord of all, then He is Lord of the workplace every bit as much as He is Lord of the Church. So it isn’t just that He’s calling me to take Him to the heathen at work (in itself a rather objectionable approach, particularly since the people I work with are in many ways more godly than I am!) Rather He is inviting me to join Him in the work He’s already doing and planning – a privilege indeed. If I have a mission – a “sending out” – then it isn’t so much that He sends me from the safety of His presence to a godless place, as that He sends me from the safety of my own comfort zone with Him, to the discomfort of an alien place but still with Him.

So my prayers had to change. I used to ask God how I could represent Him, reveal Him, carry Him to people I worked with. Now I ask Him to open my eyes and show me where He is already there, and how I can get involved with what He is already doing. Mind you, I have to keep asking Him, because it really is hard to see sometimes without the Holy Spirit’s illumination. How is God in our struggles to make payroll every month? How is He in the personal tragedies of our staff? But I’m learning that’s just where He is, once I start to see just a little from His perspective.

Theology @ Work - Creation

2010-03-31T08:25:00.000-07:00

Work is a Good Thing! Let’s all get that straight in our minds. It is not a curse (though it is associated with a curse that makes it harder – we’ll cover that in a couple of posts’ time). The Bible begins and ends with God’s work of Creation. The Bible begins in Genesis 1 and 2, with God creating everything and we know it was work (Genesis 2:2 “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work”) and that it was good (we’re told this over and over again – see Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). These verses are full of action, creativity, thoughtfulness and purpose – full of work of the highest kind.

The Bible ends in Revelation 21-22 with God’s creation of the new heavens and new earth – a restoration of Creation to the potential and vision that God had in the first Creation (but with a solution to our propensity to mess it up!) “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5) He says, and a glorious vista of His new Creation opens up to us.

Surely the fact that work frames the whole Bible like bookends is enough to prove that work is indeed a Good Thing and extraordinarily important to God! But what does this have to do with us? If God presents Himself to us as Worker, and shows how good work is, then there’s a message for us. And in the midst of His creative burst in Genesis, He creates us – not just like the other animals, but with the most extraordinary difference. He says "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness”. If we’re made in His likeness then we’re also made to be workers, and our work is to be a Good Thing.

More on this in the next Theology @ Work post (an occasional series of posts that will try to lay out the foundations of my conviction that work is God’s precious calling to every one of us, and that our work life is something that is profoundly interesting to Him, and that He is intimately involved in it)

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work – Joy

2010-03-29T11:16:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed how much easier it is to be joyful on Sunday than on Monday? My friends at Vocari (see link to the left of this post) have a motto “Thank God It’s Monday”, but most of us are still at TGIF. And yet, Paul calls on us to be constantly joyful: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) Easy for him to say – he didn’t have to deal with my boss (or co-worker, job stress, boredom, or whatever else it is that saps your joy the moment you step into work).

Yet joy is another of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. If we’re filled with the Spirit at all times, then somewhere in us is the capacity for joy at all times. That’s what Paul knew and demanded that we live out – not just when we feel good, not just when everything is going well.

Joy is a rather elusive concept. For me it is a profound sense that God is in control, that he loves me and has uniquely created and called me, and that He is wherever I am. Circumstances may be challenging, my moods may swing wildly, I may be far from happy, but these things don’t change. Neither does the presence of the Holy Spirit inside me, so for that reason there is joy at all times. When Paul tells us to “rejoice” he is saying we need to let this joy out – not to pretend or conjure it up, because it really is there – it is the fruit of the Spirit, whom we have, so it is there already.

What are the things that make this joy flow out through us? Closeness to God for starters. Prayer, Bible Study, fellowship – all things that we do on Sunday but not so often on Monday. As a practical matter, that’s why it is essential for me that I start my day with God, find times to pray and give thanks during the day, and maintain the perspective that I have this amazingly cool calling to be God’s ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20) in the workplace.

What an impact it would have on the lives of others if we maintained and expressed this joy that is God’s free gift to us, while working our way through work crises, dealing with difficult people, or taking on tasks that we’d much rather not do. I wish I could say I’m consistent about this. It seems as though the moment my eyes drop from God, I’m back mired in my own native misery! But there are moments, and people notice them. They don’t necessarily rush up and ask what makes us so wonderful (!) but the mood, the perspective, and the joy itself have a tendency to rub off. Surely this is what God wants?

Smiling @ Work

2010-03-26T08:29:00.001-07:00

Most mornings at Montgomery BART station in San Francisco, a BART employee holds up a sign imploring us all to smile. The holder then models his request and offers a cheery “good morning” to any who will receive it. I have to confess that there are many mornings I don’t feel at all like smiling. This morning, for example, I have a couple of difficult Court hearings and some real concern about our ability to file a critical document in our bankruptcy cases, in addition to the usual cash, employee, and other challenges. (We have a number of companies, some of the largest of which are working under the protection and demands of Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code. I recall all the things I’ve said or thought about deadbeat bankrupts! Now that raises an ironic smile!)

So this morning I’m sure I wasn’t smiling when I saw my new friend. But his example brought a smile to my face, and as I returned his enthusiastic “good morning” I was so thankful for him and his modeling of cheerfulness. This post isn’t another in my series on the fruit of the Spirit (I don’t see cheerfulness in the list) but it is clearly related. There is, in fact, so much to smile about when we consider the gift of work. Yes, it is hard and we shouldn’t be surprised about that (I plan soon to explore what the early chapters of Genesis have to say about work and its difficulties). But it is still a gift. When I sit in Court today, it will be as one called by God to play a part in His redemption of the world. Some things in company that employs me didn’t work out as they should have, and now we have an opportunity courtesy of US Bankruptcy laws to set them right. Many investors appear to have lost large amounts of money, but the law’s protections buy us time to try to recover some of their life savings.

Hopefully with this in mind, I’ll go into Court with a smile on my face!

Fruit of the Spirit @ Work - Love

2010-03-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

Pretty much every Christian will agree that God wants us to love everybody, even our enemies. But most of us kind of cross our fingers behind our backs, knowing that some people are simply unlovable. The workplace is a great place to find them! Think of your difficult customers, your competitors, those colleagues or employees you’d rather not spend time with, or your over-weaning boss! The trouble is, “love one another” and “love your enemies” aren’t optional. Not only that, but the kind of love Jesus talks about is way beyond anything we’re used to receiving or giving (read 1 Corinthians 13:5-8 if you doubt that!)

This post is the beginning of a series on the fruit of the Spirit in the workplace. Ephesians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Many of us are familiar with the list, may even have memorized it, and treat it as a nice theoretical ideal. When it comes to living this way in the workplace, though, it seems quite impractical. I plan to explore each of the nine attributes of the Spirit’s fruit from a workplace perspective.

Here’s the bottom line: this is impossible. For us. But not the Spirit. This isn’t what we’re supposed to drum up in ideal occasions, but how the Spirit wants to overflow through us in the workplace.

Love is the overriding element, of course – in fact we could say that love is the summary and the rest of the list is the detail. At some point I’ll explore 1 Corinthians 13:5-8 and each of the elements of Christian love (the Greek agape) as they relate to the workplace. But for now, suffice to say that the Kingdom of God will be most evident in the workplace when we see every individual, no matter how “nice” they are, the way God sees them. Every customer, colleague, supplier, employee and boss is a person created uniquely by God, in His image, loved by Him unconditionally, and of enormous value.

How do we see people that way? I’ve struggled with this just as much as you have. The only solution I’ve come across is prayer. It has become essential to me to pray regularly for everyone I come into regular contact with, to pray when people upset or annoy me, to pray for the needs of the most difficult people I meet with. In my prayer, I am getting to see them a little through God’s eyes, and inevitably love starts to grow. Without the Holy Spirit in me, though, I simply can’t do this. Love is the fruit of the Spirit – my prayer is that God will unlock this love and let it flow through me daily to those I work with.

On a practical level, this is a love that puts others before me, that considers their extraordinary value as people even when I’m dissatisfied with their work, and that listens to their challenges and joys with empathy and prayer. There’s more to come on this, but even this will make a surprising amount of difference in working relationships, in the atmosphere of a workplace, and in our perspective on work.

Discovering God @ Work (part 2)

2010-03-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

I thought I’d done so well, accepting God’s will against my own, and going to the workplace He wanted me, not the one I thought was best. But apparently, as I was to learn in lesson 2 of God’s remedial teaching, I didn’t exactly have it worked out. I described in my last piece how I accepted what to me seemed clearly the inferior of two job opportunities. God preferred me to be CIO of a small commercial mortgage lender, as against defining how technology could be used worldwide to further the mission and impact of one of the largest poverty relief and community development organizations in the world. Point one for me – I obeyed. Points two, three and more against me – I obeyed kicking and screaming. The fact is, I just didn’t get it. I could certainly rationalize that my new employer was contributing to society in the way that finance provides the fuel on which the economy depends. But I couldn’t get my mind around how helping this already excessively rich country get richer was part of God’s Kingdom.

It took my wise wife to show me that I hadn’t really accepted God’s will at all. I was like the boy who, upon being told repeatedly to sit down at the dinner table, finally sat but said “I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m still standing on the inside”. Our attitude to God’s calling may appear on the outside to be submissive and obedient, but if we’re still “standing up on the inside” then we’re simply not letting God have His way with us. Now my wife knows better than to tell me I’ve got my theology and spiritual motivations all wrong. Instead she simply pointed out that I was coming home every day and complaining about the stress, the difficulties of the job, how I disliked the work, and so on. Eventually I got the point.

This can be one of our hardest challenges as Christians in the workplace. Once I realized how wrong my attitude was I knew I needed help. I talked to a couple of close friends, and a group of men I meet with regularly, and shared the issue with them. That immediately created an accountability group for me. And I confessed to God what I had been doing. My prayer had to become that God would show me how He was in this company and its people, and how He was using me (and them) in His Kingdom work. Things started to fall into place – a realization of cultural change occurring, opportunities to listen to and pray for people in need, the beginnings of a difference being made in how the company operated. I’ll share more of those later. This was just a beginning of my understanding how God works in the workplace, the beginning of a journey. I hope to share more over the coming months.

God’s Perspective @ Work

2010-03-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

I started my day in usual fashion, bombarded by issues, wondering where the cash is going to come from, anticipating staff personality conflicts, and all the rest. And again I asked myself, how do I see this from God’s point of view. After all, my head is very aware that “the earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). I know that what I’m dealing with is part of God’s overall plan. I know that He has called me to this job to be a participant in His Kingdom. But right now, today, it is so easy to be overwhelmed by the issues, to be blind to His presence, and to let the stress and worry take over.

What can I do to be closer to God’s perspective? Because that’s what it is – an issue of perspective. There is a familiar old Indian story that my help. In various versions of the tale, in which a group of blind men touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement. In one version, the blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe (Taken from Wikipedia article “Blind Men and an Elephant”).

The way we view things at work can be like this too. We see just one piece of what is going on, but God sees the whole picture – the whole elephant. There’s only one way I know that get God’s perspective on anything – prayer (preferably prayer informed by Bible reading). So I’m trying to develop the habit of prayer throughout the day. It isn’t easy – I forget, get distracted, lose my way constantly. About all I consistently manage so far is to pray every time I go to the bathroom! Yes I know, but I really don’t think God cares! It’s a start anyway.

Celebrating God @ Work

2010-03-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

I must admit that Deuteronomy isn’t exactly the first place I turn for insights on workplace faith. But I was struck the other morning by Deuteronomy 12:7. As the new generation of Israel stand on the edge of Canaan, Moses reminds them of all God has taught them. In the middle of a discussion about worship, he says this: “There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you.” Their worship is to be a place where they all go, with their families (and their food!) and celebrate before God all the ways in which God has blessed their daily work. A key part of their worship is rejoicing at the fruits of their labors. Does this describe your Sunday morning service?

I am reminded of the first disciples, after Jesus has sent 72 of them out into the world to participate in the message of hope and reconciliation that Jesus brings. They return full of joy, marveling at what God has been doing amongst and through them. They’re amazed at God’s sovereignty and victory witnessed by them in specific, personal ways (not just in theory in sermons!) “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’" (Luke 10:17) One imagines a child coming back home after a first weekend at camp, full of excitement, thrilled that they were able to make it without mom and dad, and bursting with all the stories that they have built.

Does our corporate worship encourage such wide-eyed enthusiasm? Sadly, for most of us, I think not. Perhaps it’s because we don’t go out into the workplace with the expectations of God’s blessings. Perhaps it’s also because in our churches we don’t challenge one another, encourage one another, and share the joys and tragedies of our work environments with one another enough.

What do you think?

Discovering God @ Work (part 1)

2010-03-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

Three years ago I was offered my dream job, and I turned it down. This wasn’t a great noble act, turning down a powerful, lucrative position so that I could provide acts of humble service. Actually it was more like the opposite. The job I turned down was as Director of IT Strategy for World Vision International. After a long career in IT management, and a growing passion for alleviation of global poverty, and with a great appreciation for World Vision’s community development and poverty action vision, this was a match apparently “made in heaven”.

Except that apparently it wasn’t.

The job I turned it down for was with a bunch of money-grubbing real estate lenders. After so long working for a commercial bank, it was clear that God would want me to “give back” to the community – no longer in the materialistic financial world but now working for communities.

Except that apparently He didn’t.

Through a series of events and conversations, especially with my wife (much wiser than I, of course) it became apparent that, for whatever reason, God was calling me to the mortgage lender and not to the global charity. I was obedient on the outside at least, but it took me a few months for that obedience to seep through. Lesson one: our ideas of what Kingdom service looks like will frequently not match God’s ideas.

Around this time I discovered that work is God’s blessing to us. (We often misread Genesis 3:17 where God does not say that work is cursed, but that it will be hard: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.”) I had been learning more about God’s Kingdom, whose arrival Jesus announced at the beginning of his ministry (e.g. Mark 1:15). As Reformed theology likes to say: the Kingdom is already now, but not yet – it is here and we’re called to part of its development, until its ultimate fulfillment in the new heaven and earth. So I had started questioning how my work fits in this “already now” Kingdom of God.

Now it was time for God’s first lesson for me. His Kingdom is everywhere – in a mortgage lender as well as a global charity, and He was choosing to co-opt me into His plan in real estate lending. Go figure!

Introduction to Faith@Work Blog

2010-03-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Faith@Work blog. I've been struggling for years with seeing God's plan and His intentions in my daily work. There are so many questions, so many challenges, so may ways in whch I'm messing up. Why on earth did He put me here anyway? What does He expect of me? What is He doing? This blog will attempt to address some of these questions. I have more questions than answers, of course, but will try to work some of them through. I hope you'll join me on this journey.