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.
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Our efforts to impose rest on ourselves often fail. That’s because the problem is not one of having the right tools to get things done, avoid procrastination, etc. We can use these things, but it really starts with our hearts – and there is a problem in our hearts called sin – the consequence of our rebellion against God. Everything we do – work and rest, and the rhythm of Sabbath rest, takes on a selfish tinge as a result.
In the 4th Century a Christian leader named Augustine wrote, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”
It’s hard work being separated from God. God said it would be – sin meant we would have to toil to overcome thorny ground and survive. But we can find our rest in God. In Jesus, we have access to that rest once again, even though we opted out in sin. Jesus did the ultimate work of closing the separation between us and God.
We can once again join him in building his kingdom, in his creative work. We do this using the gifts he’s given us to work to build a better society, life-giving technology, strong families, new infrastructure and so on. Whatever is consistent with his plan and purpose.
And we can also rest in him, knowing that it’s his work we help with, and not our work to force by our sheer act of will. We can find deep satisfaction in knowing God is God, and invites us to work with him, rather than against him or instead of him. This says it nicely:
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:9-10 ESV)
It’s in knowing God is God, and we are not, that we find rest.
Said another way: It’s in knowing God, through Jesus’ work on the cross, that we find rest for our souls.
Challenge: Make a list of the excuses and reasons you’ve used to avoid rest. Pray about each one of these and turn them over to God in trust.
Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.
