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.
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.
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 …
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.
“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!
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!
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.
