“we will not find satisfaction in our work through faith in God (the current “Christian” work heresy) ; instead we will find our satisfaction in God through our experience of work. It is a subtle and telling distinction.”
Entrepreneurial Leadership: Finding Your Calling, Making a Difference (p 80) Richard Goossen, R. Paul Stevens
I left the parenthetical phrase about heresy out of the previous post because I thought it was too harsh for introducing this topic. But if a teaching about finding satisfaction in our work through faith in God is heretical, then the source of the error is in how we view the curse on work. In the last post I shared how Faith and Work theologians believe that the curse on work has been over emphasized to the point where we have lost the meaning of work before the Fall and in the new heaven and earth. I think there has been an over correction in this perspective that views our work here in this age too much through a lens of work in eternity. The “heresy” is guilty of what is termed over-realized eschatology, defined by one source as “the assumption that all or most of what God has prepared for his people in the future can be experienced by God’s people in the present.”1
Over-realized eschatology is about having the wrong expectations of life in our current age. Applied to Faith and Work theology, it promotes the idea that we are supposed to be able to experience our work in this age as we will experience work in the new heaven and new earth. Our work should be a meaningful expression of our co-creational mandate, and when properly engaged with faith, can significantly restore our world to how God intended it to be.
This sounds like a laudable expression of faith in God and an admirable trust in the power of God to accomplish great things. But such expectations, more often that not, clash with the reality of our life experience. Just as there are miraculous healings, there are stories of work “success” that reflect work that is redeemed. But contrary to the Prosperity Gospel, miraculous healings do not support an expectation of the health we will experience in heaven. Such expectations result in disappointment and disillusionment.
Instead of expecting our work to be meaningful and fulfilling as it will be in eternity, we should expect that work will continue to suffer from aspects of the curse on work. Perhaps it helps to consider why this is the case. Consider that we are not yet what we will be in eternity. We are still in the flesh and still have a propensity to sin.
Work in the here/not yet Kingdom of God is a prime candidate for idolatry. We so easily look to our work for our sense of value, identity and purpose in life and work is the primary idol for many people in the Western world in particular. One perspective on the curse is that the thorns and thistles of work (toxicity, frustration, boredom, etc.) are intended to counter the idolatry of work. With talk about redeeming work from the curse, are we taking into account that we are not yet fully redeemed so still need aspects of the curse functioning in our own work lives to prevent idolatry?
There have been two comments related to these blog posts that I want to share. One from a person who was frustrated that his place of work was not more productive. When he prayed about his frustration, it dawned on him that God may not be as interested in his workplace becoming more productive as he was. Indeed productivity itself is recognized as a major idol in our world. One way to look at God’s response to the tower of Babel is that increased productivity may be spiritually unhealthy. (That is a disturbing thought when I consider the AI potential for increased productivity.)
The other comment reflected that “we often want our work redeemed, but it is us that need to be redeemed. We want the external thing to be changed but the internal thing to be more left alone.” I think we can lose sight of how much more we need to be redeemed or consecrated in order to handle redeemed work. The process of consecration often happens through work that is thorns and thistles rather than work that feels like flourishing to us.
So, to borrow from 1 Peter 4:12, do not be surprised when you encounter thorns and thistles, even in work that you are dedicating to God, as if something strange is happening to you. Do not allow this to discourage you but instead keep up your efforts while “entrusting your soul to a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19). Your treasure is your relationship with God, not a flourishing work experience.
I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.