Work: Crucible of Faith

By Katherine Leary Alsdorf

We often bemoan the classic New York party greeting, “Hello, it’s nice to meet
you. What do you do?” But I’m not sure our complaints are warranted. Certainly it’s
an awkward question to respond to when we’re out of work. We often feel vulnerable
to people who are far more successful than we are, especially if they flaunt it. But,
otherwise, what’s so bad about being identified by our work?

We were made for work – or so says the Bible. God created man in his own
image. God worked and he enjoyed the works he made: “He saw that it was good.”
(Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 17, 25, 35). Can you say that about your day? As people made in
his image, we are also to do good work. Work was God’s original plan for us, prior to
the fall!

Not only are we workers made in the image of God (who can delight in our
works), but God also makes it clear that he has some specific work for us to do.
We’re God’s helpmates in the continuation of his creation. He invited mankind to
collaborate with him in naming the animals (Gen. 2: 19-20), to be good stewards
of the earth - fill it, subdue it, keep it (Gen. 2: 5-8, 15), to be toolmakers and users
(Gen. 2:5, 15), to be producers to sustain ourselves (Gen. 1: 28-30, 2:9), and to be
appreciators of beauty (Gen. 2:9).

Certainly the rest of the drama in Eden has tainted this dream-like picture of
working and delighting in it. Sin entered the world and God cursed Adam’s work and
turned it into toil (Gen. 3:17), but that isn’t the end of the story. God never gave up
on his design for the world and human life.

The message of the gospel is that God became man to redeem the world of
its sin and to restore the whole of creation. Christ, who was there in the beginning
(John 1), and who preserves creation (Col. 1:16-17), is the mediator of both creation
and re-creation. In fact, through our re-connectedness with God, by Jesus’ saving
grace, our partnership in God’s re-creation is both re-established and strengthened
through the power of the Holy Spirit.

What, in this world, does this mean? The gospel challenges the way we
approach our work in many ways:

1. Our work matters! The gospel motivates us to do work that matters; work
that we can look on at the end of the day and say, “It was good.” This doesn’t just
apply to the helping professions. All kinds of work “matters” - art, beautification,
technological innovation, a good and fair deal, accurate books, roads, subways. . . In
business we refer to “value-add.” Did we add value to something in our world today?

“[Work] is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties, the
thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the
medium in which he offers himself to God.” (Sayers, Creed or Chaos?)

It may be helpful to think of God as our boss and therefore align our work with his
work. God’s work is always either creating something new and wonderful or restoring
something that is suffering in our fallen world. We tend to look for situations that
benefit us the most, when instead God might be inviting us to places where we

provide the most benefit. We need to get better at finding glimpses of God’s work
in ugly situations. We need to discover the thread of His redeeming work and take
up his mission of renewal and re-creation through our own work. The apostle Paul
writes, “For 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)

2. We have outside help! In one intense conversation with a former boss, as
he was handing the reigns for running the company over to me, he observed
wryly, “Well, with God on your side, you’ll probably be a better CEO than I was!”
Sarcasm aside, some awareness of God’s supernatural power made him nervous. His
comment humbled me. Did I believe that God would gift me in accordance with the
responsibilities he had given me? We have been given the power of the Holy Spirit,
but to do what? ME plus the Holy Spirit is far greater than ME without the Holy Spirit.
But I certainly am not about to compare that combination to anyone else.
And “greater” can only be applied through the eyes of God. Nonetheless,
that “outside help” is invaluable. It helps us seek truth, it gives us courage and
perseverance, and it even changes us from within. “For you did not receive a Spirit
that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of sonship.” (Rom.
8:15)
3. Work is a crucible for our faith! Given how much time most of us spend at
it, it’s a good thing that God can do his redemptive work in us even through our
work. He uses our work and work situations to expose not only our passions and
talents, but also our idols, sins, and weaknesses. Work gives us opportunities to
develop loving relationships and to demonstrate grace and forgiveness. It’s a fertile
field for our character growth that helps us fuse the truth of the gospel into our very
being.

I do believe that my relationship with God has enabled me to take on career
challenges of which I might otherwise have been afraid. He’s also shown me how
quick I am to gather the credit to myself and view myself as either worthy or
unworthy depending on the job I’m in or the success I’m having at the moment. God
has used both success and failures to teach me about himself, his work, and the
person he is making me to be. And I’m confident that the more we are willing to
become the people he wants us to be, the more good work he will find for us!
“…From everyone who has been given much will much be required; and to whom
they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.” (Luke 12:48)

The cocktail party question, “What do you do?” may arise from superficial
motivations, but the question isn’t bad. Let’s ask ourselves the question on a regular
basis. What do we do with the gifts God’s given us? What do we do in our little
corner of this fallen world to join in God’s plan for its redemption? How do we pray
for help in our work? How do we seek to understand the lessons God is trying to
teach us? If work is this crucial a part of God’s design for us, we need to learn all we
can about God’s perspective on it.