Finding God at Work

So many workplace interactions are soulless: transactional, manipulative, self-interested. You can smell other people's "commission breath"; they're after what's in it for them.

What would it look like to love others at work with genuine, disinterested love?

It's the life that Jesus gives us that redeems and restores our capacity to relate to God and to others in love. He restores our soul.

Sources: Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

Genesis 2:7, 15-18 (NIV)

Romans 6:8-11 (NIV)

Dallas Willard, In Search of Guidance: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 1993). (Now available as Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God.)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community (New York: HarperCollins, 1954, 2009).

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Your body is always with you when you're at work. You can't do your work without it.

Scripture teaches us that the body is a gift. All of our work depends on this gift that we can't take credit for.

It's good for us to apply effort, but our strength for the effort comes from a source beyond ourselves.

Sources: Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

Matthew 15:17-20 (NIV)

Psalm 139:13-16 (NASB)

2 Samuel 4:9 (ESV)

Psalm 119:175 (NIV)

Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 (NIV)

"Nephesh / Soul" The Shema, Episode 5, BibleProject.

Valerie E. Hess and Lane M. Arnold, The Life of the Body: Physical Well-Being and Spiritual Formation (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2012).

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Each of us has within us a center that gives us life and determines the direction of our life: our heart.

Your heart can turn one way or the other. It's your heart that's the hinge.

We each have a will, a capacity to choose.

So how can we learn to choose well?

Sources: Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

Deuteronomy 30:15-18 (NIV)

Joshua 24:23 (ESV)

James 4:13-16 (NIV)

Luke 9:23-24 (multiple translations)

The Episcopal Church, "Holy Baptism," in The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church: Together with The Psalter or Psalms of David (New York: Church Publishing, 1979).

Nichola Tyler, et al. "Reorienting Locus of Control in Individuals Who Have Offended Through Strengths-Based Interventions: Personal Agency and the Good Lives Model." Frontiers in psychology vol. 11 553240. 15 Sep. 2020, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.553240

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Our thoughts and our feelings can inform each other rather than compete with each other. When we're emotionally self-aware in the workplace, it actually helps us do the work of thinking through work problems logically.

Have you ever developed a bit of resentment toward a boss or a coworker? That resentment leads to a division in your relationship, a kind of subtle two-faced dynamic. Like Shakespeare's Macbeth, your "False face must hide what the false heart doth / know." But that division happens on the inside, too. When you're not emotionally self-aware about your anger and resentment, you'll start making work decisions differently because of your feelings without realizing it.

In contrast, when we become emotionally self-aware by God's grace, we can see ourselves, our colleagues, and our work challenges more clearly.

Sources: Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

Matthew 5:21-26 (NIV)

Jonah 3:10-4:11 (NIV)

James 5:16 (NIV)

1 Peter 4:8 (NIV)

Shakespeare's Macbeth 1.7.94-96

Gary Chapman, Anger: Taming a Powerful Emotion (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1999, 2007, 2015).

Alice Fryling, Seeking God Together: An Introduction to Group Spiritual Direction (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2008).

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2013).

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #MentalHealth #TheologicalAnthropology #ChristianHolism #TheGospel #Sanctification #SpiritualGrowth #SelfAcceptance #Thoughts #Feelings #Luke10 #Jonah4 #Jonah #Matthew5 #Matthew18 #James5 #1Peter4 #Compassion #AliceFryling #DanielKahneman #Shakespeare #Macbeth #GaryChapman #EliudWabukala #Resentment #Anger #SelfAwareness #Examen #Emotions #Heart #Will #Body #Soul #Depression #Anxiety #Addiction #Recovery #Neurodiversity #Trauma #Healing #WholeHearted

Spiritual director Alice Fryling calls our feelings "the spontaneous response we give to our interpretation of an event." Often, our immediate emotional responses are beyond our control. They're spontaneous. But if we pay attention to them, we can begin to see how they reveal our hidden beliefs—our interpretations of the world around us.

Sources: Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

Jonah 3:10-4:11 (NIV)

Alice Fryling, Seeking God Together: An Introduction to Group Spiritual Direction (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2008).

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2013).

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #MentalHealth #TheologicalAnthropology #ChristianHolism #TheGospel #Sanctification #SpiritualGrowth #SelfAcceptance #Thoughts #Luke10 #Jonah4 #Jonah #Compassion #AliceFryling #DanielKahneman #BehavioralEconomics #System1 #System2 #Feelings #Emotions #Heart #Will #Body #Soul #Depression #Anxiety #Addiction #Recovery #Neurodiversity #Trauma #Healing #WholeHearted

What does it mean to "love the Lord your God with all your mind" while doing your daily job?

Often, it means embracing the pain of thinking hard about things, in order to get to the pleasure of true problem solving. Without embracing that pain of careful, diligent thought, we won't be able to get to the real, glorious triumphs at work.

Sometimes we get confused about this. We think that being good is about being nice, not necessarily about being smart. But being good always entails being as smart as we can be—not shirking from the intellectual demands of our work, whatever they are.

God is glorified when we do the hard work of thinking in order to do our work well.

Sources: Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

Proverbs 25:2 (ESV)

Matthew 12:22-28 (NIV)

Matthew 10:16 (ESV)

1 Corinthians 2:16 (ESV)

Dallas Willard, "Jesus the Logician," Christian Scholar's Review, 1999, Vol. XXVIII, #4, 605-614.

John Stott, as quoted in John W. Yates III, "John Stott Would Want Us to Stop, Study, and Struggle," Ideas, Christianity Today, April 26, 2021.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1952, 1980, 2001).

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #MentalHealth #TheologicalAnthropology #ChristianHolism #TheGospel #Sanctification #SpiritualGrowth #SelfAcceptance #Thoughts #Luke10 #Proverbs25 #Matthew12 #Matthew10 #1Corinthians2 #DallasWillard #JohnStott #CSLewis #CarMechanic #FoodBanking #FoodInsecurity #Data #Feelings #Heart #Will #Body #Soul #Depression #Anxiety #Addiction #Recovery #Neurodiversity #Trauma #Healing #WholeHearted

We kick off a new series with this episode—Whole-Hearted: Becoming Healthier Christians at Work.

If you're like me, your work and your mental health influence each other quite a bit.

On the one hand, you want to experience that elusive sense of security and well-being that doesn't depend on your work performance. You want to be a healthy human being.

On the other hand, you want to perform. You want to do well, to do a good job. You want to take responsibility for everything that's yours to tackle. You want to be the kind of human being who grows more competent over time.

There's a paradox: We need to accept ourselves as we are to be healthy. But we also need to grow and change to be healthy. We need to embrace the challenges that face us. And we need to be okay, somehow, when we fail to meet them the way we wish we would.

In our faith, we face the same paradox. We want to rest in God's love for us, separate from our performance. But we also want to grow into deeper Christian character. Sometimes our attempts to "be good Christians" can become really unhealthy. But not trying isn't healthy either.

Here's one way to ask the question: How can I become a better Christian without becoming a worse human being?

That's what this series is all about. We'll talk about how we put our spiritual life and our mental health together at work—and how we let Jesus guide us in both.

In our first part of the series, we'll explore a biblical and theological anthropology: What makes up the human person? We'll look at our thoughts, our feelings, our heart, our body, and our soul.

In the second part of the series, we'll look at different mental health challenges we might face at work: depression, anxiety, addiction and recovery, neurodiversity, and trauma.

As we go, we'll ask Jesus to show us his way of life no matter what challenges we're facing in the workplace.

Sources: Luke 10:25-28 (NIV)

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #MentalHealth #TheologicalAnthropology #ChristianHolism #TheGospel #Sanctification #SpiritualGrowth #SelfAcceptance #Thoughts #Feelings #Heart #Will #Body #Soul #Depression #Anxiety #Addiction #Recovery #Neurodiversity #Trauma #Healing #WholeHearted

A couple months back, Chris got to preach this sermon at his home church, City of Light. Its focus is Jesus' call of the first disciples: Jesus tenderly catches us in all our inadequacy, so that we can learn to catch others in the same way.

Sources: Luke 5:1-11 (NIV)

John August Swanson, Great Catch

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #GoodNews #Gospel #TheGospel #Sermon #Luke5 #Disciples #Miracle #Calling #JohnAugustSwanson #Personal #Witness #Evangelism #Evangelical #Evangelicalism #GentleWitnesses

After the episode, hear from Chris about the Finding God at Work online course!

Evangelism at its best is helping people catch a vision of just how beautiful Jesus is.

Sources: 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 (NIV)

Timothy Keller, as quoted in Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2022).

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #GoodNews #Gospel #TheGospel #InterVarsity #Entering #Kingdom #Beauty #Glory #2Corinthians4 #TimothyKeller #FiveThresholds #5Thresholds #DonEverts #DougSchaupp #IOnceWasLost #Personal #Witness #Evangelism #Evangelical #Evangelicalism #GentleWitnesses

The work environment presents its own unique challenges for spiritual conversations.

Depending on where you work, your organization might be supportive of faith conversations, or might be antagonistic towards them.

Often, restrictions are against "proselytism"—but if we're having thoughtful conversations as we listen to our colleagues and gauge whatever we share to their level of openness, it's unlikely that our actions will be interpreted as proselytism.

Even so, sometimes work authorities may discourage these conversations. That doesn't mean we're being "persecuted"; it just means we need to adapt and find the right opportunity to listen to and love the people around us in our specific context. Maybe you can get a conference room for a lunchtime spiritual discussion group; maybe you can't. Either way, there will still be opportunity for you to bring a listening, welcoming presence to your colleagues, customers, or clients.

Sources: Daniel 6:5, 21-22 (NIV)

Alpha USA Don Everts and Doug Schaupp, I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2008).

Friendship Evangelism: The 5 Thresholds toward Faith, InterVarsity Evangelism, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA.

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