Issue 183
This is the third in a short series on the testing of Jesus as He started a new phase of the work He was born to do
What do you live by? It’s a strange sounding question but one which you answer every day at work. Try some answers and you’ll know what I mean. ‘I live by the sweat of my brow’ is a quaint but possible answer. Those who give it are hard working self-activating individuals who know that their effort reaps its own rewards. ‘I live by my wits’ or ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ reflects the kind of character who leaves it late, lives in the moment and probably irritates a few planners and organisers on the team. Others will say ‘I live by the principle that there are no free lunches’ or ‘you only get what you deserve’ or ‘by making as much money as I can’.
These are all expressions of ways of living and working – or getting by – in today’s real world of work. Underlying all our work is also the reality of having to earn what we need – or ‘bread winning’ – the term we still use for the one who brings home the food.
There is however something incomplete about this thinking. There are at least two missing pieces which damage the picture. Firstly, there is an implicit self-reliance running through the thinking. There is the concept that you are in charge of your own destiny and provider of your own resources.
Secondly, there is the assumption that to acquire enough or even more than enough will be actually be enough to satisfy. So we apply for promotion, seek the pay rise, make the investment – or even buy the lottery ticket – with a linkage in our minds between acquisition and satisfaction.
Thinking like this – which is not the prerogative of the non-Christian only, but also very prevalent amongst Christians, is to trip up and fall into a dangerous trap. The truth is that you can’t live by the sweat of your brow alone nor can you be the breadwinner. You cannot acquire satisfaction from greater assets. Both the thinking and behaviour leave you hungry in your soul because you miss out on working the way you were born to do.
Faced with the temptation to live by his own actions in order to feed his face, Jesus of Nazareth points out that we can’t live by bread alone because we need to feed our souls as well as our faces. The person who works to feed their face will die dissatisfied. Leaving God out of work is to miss the only true source of job satisfaction. Bread and the words of God, combined, comprise the diet we are designed to consume and that will ultimately satisfy.
This means submitting to the living Word of God as your mentor, guide, rescuer and friend in every aspect of work on a daily basis. It means including prayer as a coping and developmental skill. It means digging into the bible to find principles of working and models of best practice. It means drinking in the values of God rather than absorbing the habits of the organisation. Simultaneously this makes work easier and more satisfying. It has the advantage of being authentic and of being true to the way you are made, for in the end we are not trying to get by but to live by words from the mouth of God.
If you are wondering why it is hard to be a Christian at work it is because anyone who wants to work this way will find themselves dealing with the temptation to turn the stones of projects, challenges, target, goals or tasks into bread for the family without recognising the need to live by the words of God. You will, if you want to live by the words of God, continually wrestle with the irritant of the tempter who wants you to live at a superficial level; you will also find yourself in good company.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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