This is the fourth in a series on coping with unemployment.
A brief theology of work.
Sometimes our kids are astonished to learn that God invented sex. But even before God invented sex, God invented work. Only the Bible doesn’t call it “Work”; it calls it “Creation.” Try substituting the word “creation” for “work” over the next few days or weeks, or maybe for the rest of your working— no— creating lives. That single substitution can revolutionize your whole approach to the spirituality of “work” and help you realize that in your work, in your creativity, you are co-creators with God. God is in the Classifieds— “Help Wanted: Co-Creators!”
But God didn’t only invent work or creation; God also invented rest or re-creation. If God needs Sabbath, how much more do we?! Spiritual health requires rest and recreation.
A second building block for a theology of work comes from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 4:28: “Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.”
To be meaningful, work must improve not only our own lives but the lives of others. Spiritual health requires seeing work in terms of improving the lives of others, including especially the needy.
A final and third building block comes from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians 3:23: “Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters.”
Work— and our attitude to it— is transformed, and we are transformed, when we see work in terms of serving God.
This brief theology of work has two implications for our prayer.
First, to be employed in meaningful work which improves the lives of others is God’s will and desire for us.
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Second, God is on our side as we struggle and search for work. Praying for a new job, or for better conditions at work, or for new opportunities for advancement, is nothing less than cooperating with God’s will and desire for us.
Next: Work and our Keystone
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