A Subtle Distinction

"we will not find satisfaction in our work through faith in God; 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 made a note of this quote because I think that "finding satisfaction in our work through faith in God" is a desire that we bring to a pursuit of faith and work integration. Faith and Work circles believe that people have focused too much on the curse on work in Genesis 3. So there is a counter emphasis on Adam and Eve being workers before the Fall, and that we will be workers in the new heaven and new earth. Along with this is the idea that through our faith in Christ, we can and should restore work to a place of flourishing (a word you hear often) rather than a place of "thorns and thistles." There is a longing to experience work as God intended for it to be, and this longing is expressed in language about work being redeemed in Christ.

In this emphasis, we were made to be co-workers with God, and so we are encouraged to discover our unique gifts and callings. When, with God's help, we find the vocation that allows us to express them, we will enjoy our work because we will have found what we are made for. This appeals to the cultural trend of finding a sense of identity in who we are as individuals. The pursuit of self-actualization through meaningful and significant work is a very popular idea in our current age. Understood as an expression of a created longing, this is viewed as a point of contact that can be used to attract people to the gospel. When Christians are able to enjoy their work more, work is being restored to how it was meant to be and more satisfying work lives become a testimony of God's good intentions for work.

I see a lot of Faith and Work ministry efforts appealing to this desire and longing. This hope is a reason that people are attracted to Faith and Work ministries. They do hope to find more satisfaction in their work through their faith in God.

But, in the midst of this appeal, for many there is an ongoing frustration because they do not experience the satisfaction in their work that they were expecting this new perspective on faith and work would provide. They resonate with the ideas, and they long for a work life that reflects those ideas, but their work continues to feel more like thorns and thistles than flourishing. Why is that? Could it be that faith and work integration is not about finding satisfaction in our work through faith in God, but instead finding our satisfaction in God through our experience of work?

There is a lot to wrestle with in this quote. I will begin with an observation from working with individuals through Leavened Lives. It is when work is difficult and frustrating (thorns and thistles) that we tend to spend more time seeking God. And the result of that seeking is often a deeper appreciation for who God is in our lives rather than it is an improvement in our work circumstances.

For example, work that is frustrating because we are not able to accomplish what we desire does not satisfy our need for achievement, which is often tied to our sense of self-worth. But it is within that kind of work experience that we have a chance to grow in our awareness that our worth is in Christ and not in what we are able to achieve. If our prayers resulted in an ability to achieve more, our work would be more satisfying, but we would not learn to find our sense of identity in God's grace rather than our achievement. So a work experience that is not satisfying (does not feel at all like flourishing) may be a necessary means for someone to find their satisfaction in their relationship with God.

Next time I will address the theological tension between the creational purpose of work and the curse on work. In the here, not yet Kingdom of God, how should we expect to experience our work life?