I ran across this article the other day and thought the points were very interesting:
Know Oracle: Engaged organizations with employees’ strength
As a Christian, I have always thought that we should enjoy our work, and we should have careers that we enjoy. I think it affects our testimony for Christ when we have a good attitude in the workplace and enjoy what we do.
As this article puts it, we should be engaged at work. The temptation might be to believe work is secular and just exists to put food on the table. Actually, I think God places us in the work place to make a difference. If we make a difference in the company, in other words, if we are engaged, we can more easily make a difference for Christ.
Also, I really liked “The 12 Elements of Great Managing.” Number 10 was interesting though. I have heard much about keeping personal and business interests separate. That thought hasn’t really made sense to me. I understand that sometimes it can be hairy when personal things get in the way of work, but you do spend a lot of time with the people at work. Even if it does cause a few problems, wouldn’t it be worth it to have friends to spend it with? Also, wouldn’t it expand your influence for Christ if you were open about your personal life and if you made friends at work?
Those are just my thoughts. I need to spend some more time and find some Bible verses that direct those thoughts. What do you think? Can you back it up with any Bible verses?
1 Comment
Becca · March 7, 2011 at 7:14 am
Andy Naselli just posted on this: http://andynaselli.com/called-to-work?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nasellitheology+%28Andy+Naselli%29
I also like Tim Keller’s sermon on work based on Genesis, and Bill is reading a book called The Masculine Mandate by Richard Phillips based on the same premise. They take the idea that God is a God of order, which is demonstrated best by Creation, and when He created man in his image, he placed in man an innate desire to work. We take pleasure in making order out of chaos, like God does.
I don’t know that one can pull a direct inference from the Bible about choosing careers we enjoy (after all, people in the ancient world didn’t get a whole lot of input into their career directions anyway–choosing is a luxury), but I do think there is solid theology behind taking pleasure in doing whatever job we find ourselves in well.