Do You Take Jesus to Work?

Why hadn’t I seen his powerful hand more clearly? Why hadn’t I taken the stressors of work to him more frequently in prayer? Why did I limit the Lord?

I’ve been retired for almost six years. It has been wonderful to be relieved of the constant workplace pressures. I thank God for giving me the health and means to retire.

But I must admit that I was, for many years, under the “spell” of my career. I somewhat blindly bought into the idea of developing a career and pursuing my career objectives. Looking back, I can see some value in career management. Developing skills and accomplishing educational requirements qualified me to do interesting work for which I was well-compensated. 

However, what was essential for me as a believer was recognizing how career goals would be created and what tradeoffs I would or would not be willing to make. Some of this was pretty straightforward and relatively simple. My wife and I would not accept any opportunity that would isolate our family from an ecclesia. I would not accept any position I believed was a potential compromise to my faith.

So, defense industry jobs and certain entertainment-related jobs were not for me. Over the years, some opportunities arose in those industries, and I never regretted turning them down flat. We saw these as faith-based goals that we shared as a believing couple.

Identify priorities in life clearly

Some of the best advice I received from a brother (now asleep in Christ) was to identify my priorities in life clearly. He suggested I prioritize and identify the top five. So, for me, that was being a servant of God first, secondly being a good servant to my wife and family, third providing stability for my family (both geographically and economically), and then much farther down the list was interesting work and the ability to be part of an excellent work team. Those may be similar or dissimilar to your values, too. Identifying these allowed me to evaluate any opportunity and career path with my faith values leading the way. Looking back, this was the most impactful career advice I ever received.

During my career, I saw countless people make decisions about jobs without adequately contemplating what it would mean to their own values. If the new opportunity was a promotion, they took it, regardless of the impact on their children and extended family. Too often, this led to people taking jobs that represented higher pay but left them and their families miserable.

Lesson Learned

In my own blindness, I often thought that I lived in two worlds. The first was my religious life. This was the one I lived with my family, my ecclesia, and the broader community. My second world was the workplace. I needed to be consistent in my behaviors in both worlds, but I felt that when I was at the workplace, I was pretty much on my own. This was the secular world, and while I was sure God was watching over me, I doubted He was at all concerned with the trivial issues I faced, such as launching new products, meeting our sales quota, or financial solvency. These were all too mundane, too secular for His concern. I had erected a wall in my life where I did the best I could to get through the day, the quarter, the year—on my own.

One Sunday, I was scheduled to exhort to my home ecclesia. The daily reading was on Luke 5, which you may remember is the accounting of several events and teachings that occurred in the ministry of Jesus along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. One miracle really struck me—the fish catch. This is when the disciples had been in their workplace all day (the fishing boat) and were completely exasperated.

This narrative rang true to me because, at that time, at my workplace, we were struggling with a new technology that we were attempting to bring to market. No matter how many meetings or long work hours we put in, it seemed we just couldn’t move it forward. Maybe the disciples had a similar wall they had constructed? They knew that lake like the back of their hand. They thought they knew where fish could be caught. This knowledge was based on decades of toil and experience on these same waters.

In their frustration, Jesus, who was not a fisherman by trade and from the hill country of Nazareth, told them to “launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught [catch].” (Luke 5:4) Peter’s reaction to Jesus seemed to be mere compliance. Some versions indicate that instead of lowering the nets (plural) as Jesus had commanded, he instead lowered a net (singular). Of course, the rest of the story is well-known. The fish catch was so abundant that the net broke. 

By chance, I decided to look at Bro. Melva Purkis’s A Life of Jesus,1 which I had read years before. This book is truly one of the best our community has ever written, as it paints a vivid picture of our Lord’s life. What Bro. Purkis commented on really resonated with me.

Peter was willing to acknowledge the leadership of his new master in spiritual paths, but surely Jesus had nothing to teach him in his daily tasks. Ah, Peter, how wrong you are! How wrong is every disciple who fails to acknowledge Jesus as the master in every walk of life and every place of experience. Unless our surrender is complete, we shall toil all night and catch nothing.

So, yes, Peter, Jesus knows where the fish are. This idea opened up a new way of thinking about the workplace for me. The Lord Jesus Christ is with me at work and knows the way forward through the dilemmas I face. I would be better off asking him to guide me at the workplace than assuming I could figure it out.

Don’t get me wrong. We are expected to use our brains and to do honest work. I didn’t expect Jesus to reveal a new strategy with the Food and Drug Administration for our new product. But I believed he would provide strength and assurance when others pulled their hair out. When I was having a protracted problem with the deficient performance of an employee or persistent inter-company conflict, I understood I could pray to my Lord and He could show me the way to represent His peace in a world of chaos. He could, symbolically, direct the fish to my net.

This insight directs us back to career management. I now see with great clarity that the Lord was always involved in my career. He brought me into opportunities that I didn’t engineer. He guided me through the disappointments and low valleys, from which there were great lessons to be learned. He was always there. He knew what I needed and what I didn’t. In a way, I identified with Peter’s confession, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8). Why hadn’t I seen his powerful hand more clearly? Why hadn’t I taken the stressors of work to him more frequently in prayer? Why did I limit the Lord?

Invite the Lord into your work life.

Advice To Younger Workers

Invite the Lord into your work life. Invite him to the conflicts and challenges you are facing. Pray that he will make his way plain before your face. Jesus is willing and capable of solving issues such as excessive work demands. He will help you find unity and harmony in work relationships. He has no limitations.

Make your own list of top life priorities, and make sure the LORD God is number one. Use this criteria and earnest prayer when making the decisions before you. One of our favorite hymns declares,

Be prayerful my brother

And look to your Maker,

He’s promised to help you

And waits for your call; 

Just tell him your trouble,

He is the Almighty

There’s nothing too big 

and there’s nothing too small.2

Sadly, when working, we often spend more time with people at our workplace than with our own family. There will always be limited discretionary time and energy for the pursuits that most matter to us. Life requires trade-offs and some concessions, but we cannot compromise our commitment to God. 

Later in Luke’s gospel, we are introduced to the man with “I-itis.” His whole focus in life was to take God’s blessings and use them for himself. Look at this man’s values in Luke 12:17-19. They are all about material gain, and God is not a primary goal.

The conclusion of this parable is found in verse 21:

The Lord doesn’t condemn us for success in our careers. In fact, whether we have a successful or unsuccessful career is meaningless from a spiritual perspective. But the warning is that while it isn’t wrong to lay up for the future, it cannot be at the expense of our discipleship now. Riches toward God come first. Always.

This principle seems to be useful for our working lives. Most of us are required to work. We approach our work with singleness of heart and not as “menpleasers.” (Ephesians 6:5-6). Our time at work becomes a “workshop” for our spiritual lives, where we learn how to rely on our Lord in all things. All the decisions we must make about our work begin by including the Lord. He knows where to cast the net. Recognize him as the one who holds your full life, including your career, in his hands. Bring him to work with you! He will bless you as he sees fit. These are the behaviors of laying up riches to God now. For the reward he is offering is far greater than rubies or gold.

Dave Jennings