“3 Biblical Ingredients to Experiencing Greater Satisfaction and Impact at Work”
Have you ever felt like you’re just too busy with your work that you don’t have time to be godly?
Ingredient #1: Godliness!
I used to ask my boys when they were younger, “What kind of man do you want to be when you grow up?”
After hearing an array of answers such as a baseball player, a fireman, and other typical responses, I would coach them to say what I wanted to hear: “A Godly man!” With some rehearsing over time, that became their standard answer whenever I would ask the question.
Though my twin boys are now teenagers, and “think” they have outgrown such childish games (I say “think” as they are teenagers after all, and are often still childish), I still ask them the question occasionally to emphasize the point.
I also make it a topic in my prayers with them, asking God to help them to become like Him in all their ways regardless of the vocation / calling the Lord leads them to.
Why Godliness Really Matters?
Why have I been so intentional about this with my boys? And why do we NOT have time to NOT be intentional about pursuing godliness in and through our work?
At Least 3 Reasons:
1. Godliness is Our Highest Calling
“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” ~ 1 Timothy 4:8, NIV
Usually when we meet someone new, one of the first questions we ask is, “What do you do?” And the replies ensue, “I am a business owner.” “I am an electrician.” “I am an accountant.” “I am a teacher,” and so on.
For most of us our work takes up so many of our waking hours, our thoughts, and our physical and emotional energy that it can easily consume our identity. We end up becoming what we do.
This is scandalous to our God who desires so much more for those He dearly loves. A constant pursuit of being more God-like in all our thoughts, actions, and reactions liberates us from the limits of such a work imposed identity and reverses the “I am what I do” kind of thinking, to a much better mental posture: “I do what I am.”
Consider Os Guinness, in his book The Call when he explains:
“…a sense of calling should precede a choice of job and career, and the main way to discover calling is along the line of what we are each created and gifted to be. Instead of ‘You are what you do,’ calling says: ‘Do what you are.'”
This is not to say that our work is not important, or that it doesn’t matter to God. It is, and it does. The problem comes when we allow our work to trump who we are and who God is wanting us to become.
The wheels of your business or church could fall off tomorrow with an economic downturn, or by losing some key employees, associates or volunteers.
You could lose your job tomorrow or go from being highly valued to being devalued and demoted over night if you don’t hit your numbers, or if you make one bad decision.
What will you think about your work efforts then, if they weren’t driven by your pursuit to be godly?
Godliness, coupled with receiving the rewards of hard work is the grand ideal, and something God delights in. But even if the bottom falls out on your work efforts, as promised above in 1 Timothy 4:8, your godliness will still have great value, both for now and the eternal future.
2. Godliness Saves us from Duplicity
“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant aroma to God.” ~ Ephesians 5:1, NIV
Let’s face it. Some who claim to be followers of Christ in the workplace just don’t smell that fragrant! We all have known those Christians whose work ethic reeked and who acted nothing like the Jesus we read about in the Bible. Maybe you, like me, have been one of those stinky Christians at times.
The pursuit of godliness will free us from the duplicity that can often exist between our Sunday and Monday faith, steal our peace, and wreak havoc on our testimony for Christ.
3. Godliness is Crucial to Greater Work Satisfaction & Influence
According to some of the surveys and blogs I have read, worker dissatisfaction is at an all time high, some attributing the percentage to be at 70 – 80%.
My dear friend, if you (or others you know) are working in that dissatisfaction camp, feeling you don’t have time for godliness, or that you are not having an impact on others for Christ in and through your work, could it be that one of the key contributing factors is because the pursuit of godliness has either:
- been set aside all together?
- taken a back seat to your work identity?
- or been put in a Monday storage locker to take back out again on Sunday, or worse yet, someday when work isn’t so consuming?
Godliness matters. It is our highest calling. It saves us from living a discombobulated life, and is a means of gaining greater work satisfaction and influence. This is especially true when accompanied by ingredient #2, which we’ll consider in the next Tipping Point: CONTENTMENT.
Question:
- What is one way you can pursue godliness in and through your work?
Please leave your comments and/or share your response through one of your favorite social media outlet tabs below.
- Interested in reading more about how you can grow in godliness? Check out this great classic by Jerry Bridges entitled “The Practice of Godliness“