There has been a lot written recently about the Millennials – those born after about 1982. They have a particular approach to work that really values work/life balance. One company’s survey found 28% of Millennial employees said that the work/life balance was worse than they had expected before joining the company. 71% of the Millennials (vs. 63% of non-Millennials) said that their work demands significantly interfere with their personal lives.

But it’s not just millennials who value this. Across the board, 15% of all male employees and 21% of all female employees say they would give up some of their pay and slow the pace of promotion in exchange for working fewer hours.

That’s one kind of work life balance: having enough time at work and commuting, and enough time at home and rest, whatever that looks like. But what about life values?

One participant who took the Christianity 101 Course (offered live this fall in Whitby – http://bit.ly/13tjqfK for more info) was a telephone debt collector. He said to me, I’m interested in following Jesus, but my job is to call and harass people who haven’t paid, and I sometimes feel just awful, but need the work. Can I be a Christian and do this job?

This is not an uncommon dilemma in any industry: in business, real estate, social work, contracting, and more people have their days when they wonder if they are compromising an important part of who they are in order to work. Is there a better way – is there better work?

This week, we’ll look at good work as work that isn’t just balanced in terms of time and effort, but in terms of your values. What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus at work?

Question: Is your work ever in conflict with your values? Share that story with someone.

Ryan Sim - May 2, 2013

Thursday - Act On It - Pompous Prayer

This week is about the practice of prayer, and our motivations. We've seen this week how God says we can get what we want out of prayer. If we want to pray, wherever, however, to know and love God, then we can have that kind of relationship with him - it's offered to us. If we want to pray in public to impress people with our big words and religiosity, we can have their applause. But that’s it. I think every sitcom has an episode with a high school reunion, where someone scrambles to find the most beautiful, successful date possible to make everyone else jealous. Dating them because of what other people will think, rather than because they truly want to know and love the person. In the same way, we can try and use God, and the outward signs of a relationship with him, to try and impress others. But Jesus gives us an example of prayer, known as the Lord's Prayer He started it out with relationship being number one. He began with Our Father. Actually, he said, Abba, an Aramaic word like daddy. Here’s my paraphrase: Your name is holy. We want your kingdom to come to this earth, for your realm of heaven to be our realm. We trust you to provide for us now and forever, even though we rebelled against you in sin. Because of that you owe us nothing, we owe you everything, but you gave us everything instead. Help us to forgive others in the same way, and keep us from temptation to sin and rebel against you again, so we never stray into evil again, but remain in your light. Every line is a reflection back to him of God’s values and teachings…as we’ve seen them in Jesus. This is not a prayer telling God anything he doesn't know…trying to use or control God. It's not a prayer about how big our words are, or how many there are. It's about relationship… God I know you and what you care about, and want to know and care about the same things. That attitude is most apparent in the line, "Your will be done." Challenge: Pray, this prayer today, quietly, alone. The version in Matthew, might be slightly different from what you may have memorized in the past…but we’ll use it because it’s what we studied today. Start with the whole thing. Then go line by line, and pray to God about each line. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:9-13 ESV)

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