In theology of work circles, there is an emphasis on working with God as opposed to working for God. This puts a focus on the experience of partnering with God in your work. Recently, two people expressed difficulty in being able to experience God when they are working independently on accomplishing certain tasks or projects. One client expressed that he found it easier to sense God’s presence when he was working with others, feeling that God was helping him to care about others. But he struggled to connect time he spent on his laptop to God. Another client expressed that this work requires her to block out everything around her to concentrate her attention and skills on the task at hand. If she successfully completes the task, she “gets a dopamine hit”, a good feeling about what she has achieved. But in this “head down” work she worries that she also blocks out God. To partner with God in that work would require her to lift her head to focus on His presence and that feels counterproductive to the focus that is needed for her task.

The popular model of Brother Lawrence practicing the presence of God as he washed dishes seems to be a different type of work than what is required while completing a technical task on a laptop. One’s mind can be on God while washing dishes because washing dishes does not require all of your attention. But the tasks of more technical work require more focused attention.

I wonder if part of the problem is that we tend to emphasize that partnering with God happens when we need and experience His help with our work. If we get frustrated in a task, pause to reach out to God for help, and then return to the task with a new approach or idea, then we are easily able to feel like we are partnering with God. But what if we are not frustrated or stuck? What if we are able to complete the task well by concentrating our skills on the task at hand? And what if we do get a dopamine hit from that? Is that a problem because we are too self reliant and failing to partner with God?

As I thought about this, a line from the film Chariots of Fire came to mind. When Eric Liddell’s sister expresses her concern that Liddell’s running is distracting him from missionary work in China, he responds, “You’ve got to understand. I believe God made me for a purpose, for China. But He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” When Liddell talks about feeling God’s pleasure, he is not talking about God helping him to run faster. He is talking about God taking pleasure in the abilities that He gave to Liddell to run fast. Liddell is focused on running as fast as he can, and that requires dedication and training. I am sure that Liddell gets a dopamine hit when he wins races. This line reveals that he has a sense of sharing that dopamine hit with God.

Can we do this with independent work? We ask for God’s help before we begin and take a break to seek God again if we get frustrated or stuck. But if we are able to complete the task and get that good feeling about our achievement, we do not necessarily need to feel guilty that we have been too self-reliant and are not working with God. We can recognize that we are experiencing that dopamine hit because God made us for this kind of work experience. He has made us capable of good and satisfying work. And if He created us for this kind of work experience, then He is rejoicing with us in what He has created. In this type of work, partnering with God is not about getting His help. It is about being aware that He is the author of whatever sense of satisfaction that we have experienced, being grateful and realizing that He is present and sharing in our senses of satisfaction.

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.