Finding God at Work

"Vibe coding" caught my attention recently: using AI tools to produce code and putting it into production in public-facing apps, without a human coder building anything.

I was both intrigued and horrified to learn of such a thing.

To better explore my intrigue and horror, I figured I'd give it a shot. Behold, Mission Moment, a fully vibe-coded web app from Mission Central!

#VibeCoding #AI #Claude #Curation #Discernment #HumanWork #FaithAtWork

Saint John Paul II (or JP2, as we theology nerds affectionately call him), once said, "the human person. . . is a creature that God willed for his own sake. At the same time, he can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself."

You only find out who you are when you give yourself away. That's part of what it means to be a person.

A person, rather than, say, a machine.

This raises questions around what certain digital "machines," like AI tools, do to our work as human persons.

One way of coming at those questions is to consider some non-human persons: Angels. Would they use AI?

Sources: Genesis 1:26-27,31 (NIV)

Matthew 16:25 (NIV)

Mark 10:31 (NIV)

Joshua 5:13-15 (NIV)

St. Pope John Paul II, "The Human Person Becomes a Gift in the Freedom of Love," (General Audience, January 16, 1980).

Read Mercer Schuchardt, "The Future of the Church Is Analog, Not Digital," Theology, Christianity Today, September 23, 2016.

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Studies show that happier workers are less likely to look for other jobs. That makes sense.

But the joy that Jesus invites us into is even deeper than that. It's a joy that goes hand-in-hand with self-sacrifice, with service that sometimes hurts.

In Philippians 2, Paul speaks of this kind of joy as he compares himself to a "drink offering" that is "being poured out" for others (v. 17, NIV). Jesus lived out this kind of joy when he went to the cross.

Serving like Jesus sometimes takes everything. But in the hope of his resurrection, it's worth it.

Sources: Philippians 2:14-18 (NIV)

Deborah Lovich and Rosie Sargeant, "Enjoying Work Matters More Than You May Realize," Boston Consulting Group (February 13, 2024).

#FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #Meaning #Service #Helpful #HowCanIHelp #Humility #Sacrifice #Pain #Offering #Philippians2 #JoyAtWork #EnjoyingWork #Retention #BCG #IntrinsicMotivation #ExtrinsicMotivation #Calling #Formation #Service #Love #Vocation #Boredom #Mission #CommonGood #Character #DifficultWork #HardWork #EasyYoke #MeaningfulWork

Sometimes, Jesus doesn't give us much data about what he asks us to do. He shows us a next step, but not a complete roadmap.

Jesus gives us a way to serve, but not the full picture of what he plans to accomplish through our service.

In the story of Jesus at the wedding at Cana, we see how this dynamic works in the experience of the servants. Jesus asks them to do a hefty task, but doesn't tell them why.

But because they obey, they're the ones who first see the miracle that Jesus is doing.

Sources: John 2:1-11 (NIV)

Zechariah 4:10 (NIV)

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, as quoted in Bill Newcott, "Wisdom of the Elders," AARP: The Magazine (May–June 2009).

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The discipline of service helps us grow in humility, and humility makes us ready to serve. It's a reciprocal relationship.

The same is true for service and courage: When we make a habit of serving, we find ourselves willing to do the right thing even when it's risky. And there are some kinds of service that require great risk!

The story of Esther helps us discern when we've been called to our work "for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14), for the high-stakes situation that requires great courage. But we practice for those dramatic moments in our day-to-day low-stakes decisions to practice honesty about our own shortcomings.

Sources: Philippians 2:1-13 (NIV)

Esther 4:10-14 (ESV)

"Said 'almost done' on the project update" (meme), reposted by u/Square_Tangerine_659, "Peetah?", r/PeterExplainsTheJoke, September 4, 2025.

Timothy Keller with Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work (New York: Penguin Random House, 2012).

Arthur Bennett, The Valley of Vision (Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth, 1975).

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Doing our work out of the motivation of service makes it meaningful in three different ways:

• Our work contributes to the common good.

• Our work images God in the world

• Our work is the stuff of salvation.

We're saved through faith, not by earning God's favor. But when we lean into what it means to "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" as "God . . . works in you," we see a lot of opportunity for effort—for work!—in our life with God. And that means our daily efforts at work can be caught up in the drama of salvation.

Sources: Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)

John Van Sloten, Every Job a Parable: What Walmart Greeters, Nurses, and Astronauts Tell Us about God (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2017).

Dallas Willard, "Following Jesus and Living in the Kingdom," interview by Andy Peck, Christianity + Renewal, May 2002, republished by Renovaré, May 2021.

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Sometimes job postings list "progressively responsible work experience" among the prerequisites for a position. It means they're looking for someone who's taken on more and more responsibility over time, someone who has an arc to their career pointing upward.

It's not necessarily a bad thing to be entrusted with more when you've done well with little. Jesus endorses that model. But he also shows us a different kind of "career arc": one that points downward through progressively humble service.

Sources: Matthew 25:19-23 (ESV)

Philippians 2:1-13 (NIV)

Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (2025).

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It feels awful when someone looks down on us. When they treat us as "less than." When they're snooty toward us.

But we can be snooty ourselves. How do we break that spiritual habit? Is there anything we can do?

Timothy Keller and Richard Foster share insights about how we can grow in humility.

Sources: Luke 6:45 (TLV)

Mark 10:35-45 (ESV)

Tim Keller, "The Advent of Humility," Theology, Christianity Today, December 2008.

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (New York: HarperCollins, 1978, 1998, 2009, 2018).

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What can nursing mothers teach us about life with God in the workplace?

In our work relationships, we have the opportunity to give the gift of ourselves to others. The Apostle Paul uses the image of nursing to describe this kind of gift of the self: "But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. . . . we were ready to share with you . . . our own selves" (1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 ESV). It's a self-giving love.

That self-giving has been God's design from the beginning. In the Genesis account of creation, we see Adam and Eve engaged in work as their true selves. They were naked and were not ashamed: Their bodies said something meaningful about God. They were images of his love.

So, too, for us: Our bodies have a meaning that points beyond ourselves to the self-giving love of God. Work is one of the primary contexts God gives us for expressing that meaning. Your everyday work is where you give the gift of yourself to other people. That's what shows them something about who God really is.

Sources: 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 (ESV)

Genesis 2:15,18 (ESV)

Michael Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1966).

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It's difficult to be honest about our weaknesses. When we don't have the courage to humbly admit how we come up short, we instead project an image of a stronger, better self to others. This image is how we want to be perceived, even though it's not the truth about us. It's a false self, an inflated balloon of our fragile ego.

So what does it look like to pop that balloon?

Sources: 2 Corinthians 12:8-10 (ESV)

Mark 3:1-6 (ESV)

Genesis 3:8-11 (ESV)

David Brooks, "The Moral Bucket List," Opinion, The New York Times, April 11, 2015.

David G. Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004).

Arthur Brooks, "Humility is the full acceptance of the truth about ourselves," Facebook, December 3, 2024.

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