What Should I Do For Work? (Message & Worksheet)
Message
This is a transcript of the message shared with the High School group by Zack Melhus on December 7.
I distinctly remember the exact moment I unlocked the Starbucks door at 4:30 in the morning on one frosty January morning. It was a Wednesday. For the first time since I started the job, being awake and working at 4:30 was not the most stressful thing on my mind. The persistent questions of my parents, friends, co-workers, youth leaders and almost every single person I met had reached a volume that I couldn’t tune out any longer. Everyone wanted to know what I was going to do with my life - and so did I. I didn’t have any answers, only faint ideas. I was sick of the subtle disappointment I could sense in people’s faces when I told them I was unsure, and I was terrified of my “gap year” - a year after high school before university - turning into a “gap life” of wasted time and unfulfilled potential. The lights in the store were still off, and the café was illuminated only by the streetlights outside as I stood in the doorway having an existential crisis, green apron in hand. I needed to decide, fast. I wanted my life to mean something.
This feeling that you’ve got to decide now, in a given moment, what you’re going to do for work for the rest of your life - or even for a few months or years - is an experience that haunts a lot of us in our high school years. More adults feel it than we realize too - people just tend to ask adults less questions, so they can hide it better. The search to find meaning in work is as old as time itself, and the Bible has some answers for us.
In Genesis, humans were created to rule. That’s what God told Adam and Eve their lives were about in the creation story. My NLT Bible says that God told them to “reign”. One Hebrew scholar translated this word more fully as “to actively partner with God in taking the world somewhere”.
Adam and Eve were placed in a wild garden. While we often think of it as paradise - and it was - it might not have been paradise to us. This garden had plants and wild animals and sun and rain and gold and minerals - but no restaurants, no art, no instruments. Adam and Eve were put in charge of taking the wild and raw and untamed, and turning it into something useful and beautiful. That was their job. To partner with God (who lived in Eden with them) in making something of this wild and beautiful garden.
This story is meant to teach us that what it means to be human is to take what God gives us and rearrange it into something that serves people, or is beautiful. One part of the answer to the age-old question “what is the meaning of life” is to work, to rule over the earth. Not to exploit it, abuse it, and take what we want and run off alone - but to actually take the world somewhere. Somewhere worth going. Somewhere good, alongside our creator God. That is our work.
Scholar Tim Keller defines work this way: “Work is rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish.”
Writer Frederick Buechner takes it one step further by saying “Work is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
That’s beautiful. But let’s take these beautiful eloquent theories down to real life, you and me.
Almost all work really is exactly what those men suggested - rearranging chaos to meet needs. A Save-On Foods clerk organizes the chaos of all the different products you could want and the intricacies of our economic process by totalling up the cost of the food you want to buy and charging you. They take assorted necessities, rearrange them, and the result is that your needs are met - you get to eat! An electrician participates in this grand picture of work too - she knows how to use metal and rubber to conduct and control electricity (what is more untamed than that?) in such a way that you can have light and heat and internet in your home. A teacher takes a limitless wealth of information and manages the behaviour of a classroom (which may actually be more untamed than electricity) to create an environment where people can learn. We could spend all night on practical examples. Almost all work, and certainly all good work is rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that the world’s deep hunger is met.
This is very different than the picture of work I was given from school, TV, even many of my positive influences. I grew up believing a lie I think a lot of us do, and I want to call it out right now. Many of us are taught that we will receive fulfillment when we work hard enough to have enough stuff, and work long enough that we don’t have to do anything anymore. When we are no longer expected to do anything, and have everything we want, we will have peace.
We touched on this during gratitude week so I don’t want to belabour the point - but when we use work to get enough stuff to be happy, we find ourselves on a treadmill, not a mountain top hike. There is no end destination. No final satisfaction.
Or as author John Mark Comer puts it: ”We’re wired to contribute to the world, but when all we do is consume, no matter how great it is, after a while we feel empty."
Many adults discover this at some point in their lives, usually after a lot of time, pain and disappointment - and then run to something else to fill the void. I know many of us in this room have seen it. Adults, maybe even in our own families have a sudden realization that their job, their stuff, or their marriage has not solved their problems, so they quit and move on to something new only to discover the same problems are still there.
A priest born in 1380 named Thomas à Kempis was on to this, and had some really good advice on the topic. But first, just to illustrate how long ago the 1400’s were - the printing press was just being invented in 1440, so all the copies of Thomas’ writing were done by hand. Part of his work as a priest involved copying the entire Bible by hand four times, so he knew a few things about hard work. He said this iconic line around 600 years ago: “Wherever you go, there you are.” Even then, people were trying to run from themselves. It doesn’t work. We can move, cut-off people off, quit jobs, (which all could be wise things to do, for the right reasons) and find the same problems before ever realizing that it is not everyone else who is wrong.
To put it simply, the way we work shapes who we become. If we work only as a means to get as much as we can while doing as little as we can, we will forever feel lost. And some of you in this room already know what that feels like.
Jesus was recorded in the book of Luke as saying during a teaching “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?”
I have often read this imagining God judging my mistakes and then withholding blessing as a punishment. “Zack you were unfaithful with this little thing, and so, nothing else for you until you learn your lesson.” Fortunately for me, there is a little more to it - but it’s just as serious.
What if Jesus isn’t promising to divinely punish you - he’s telling you the truth; how you work shapes who you become. Our choices form our habits, our habits form our lifestyle, and our lifestyle forms our legacy.
If we take shortcuts at school when it feels like a project doesn’t matter, why do we think we will know how to work with diligence when a project does matter? If we are dismissive of a rude classmate who doesn’t have much impact on our future, why do we think we’ll be capable of having grace for a difficult boss later on? If we let selfish lustful desires rule our imaginations and actions when we’re single, why do we think we’ll be able to just turn that off one day when we find a relationship we want to be serious about?
How you work now shapes who you become later. And that doesn’t just apply to this life. Notice that Jesus says “if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?” The person we become in this life is the person we are in eternity. We are preparing to spend eternity reigning over the earth with justice and abundance and kindness and purity and holiness and generosity forever - that’s what we’re headed towards.
Or as John Mark Comer explains it "You will take the person you become with you into God's future. And who you become is your most valuable asset. God is looking for people he can rule the world with. Right now, we are becoming those kinds of people.”
A letter written to a Church in Ancient Turkey called “Ephesians” says this: “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
While it may be easy to read this verse and hear the focus on Christian leadership positions “apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers” and think that these are the prime jobs for the best and most dedicated followers of Jesus. But pay close attention to the details. It says those people exist “to equip God’s people to do his work”. Which tells me they aren’t the primary people doing God’s work.
We may have come to believe that it is up to us to find a job that is “secular” - a non spiritual job - and then once or maybe even twice per week pursue spiritual growth as an add on - as a piece in the puzzle of a good life. And that some people, those who are extra good or extra spiritual may even get a spiritual job like a pastor or worship leader. Instead, Jesus’ Way is that all who follow Him are spiritually alive, and actively partnering with God in taking the world somewhere. Each and every follower, in each and every vocation.
I recently read it written that “Learning how to become a really good employee for a landscape maintenance company and a really good disciple of Jesus are the exact same thing.” Some yes, will become pastors for a job or serve the church in a formal volunteer position, but their job is not to do the good work, it is to equip the rest of the church - the everyday, “secular” working, family raising, sports playing, art making, justice advocating people to do the good work of making this world new. One average day at a time.
We are not passive bystanders in this world. Through our everyday lives we are deciding what the world looks like. Both our good and evil choices are momentous - inviting the people around us to do the same. We are creating the world our neighbours live in. God’s kingdom, a world of beauty, justice, true freedom, redemption and empowerment is showing up in our workplaces and homes and classrooms like flowers through the cracks in the pavement through us. Our lives are a picture to everyone around us of what eternity will look like. Not only are we forming the world we share with our neighbours through our work, but we are forming ourselves into the people we will be forever.
How do we approach work - both our current occupations - and our future careers with these principles in mind? How do these ideas inform the way we study at school, help around the house, work our jobs, and how do these ideas inform the way we approach the career decisions we are making or will make soon? And what does this mean for us as a group here at Broadway Youth?
Shared down below are two worksheets for you as an individual and one challenge for us as a community. Take some time and work through all three to filter these principles through your personal context.
What we do, as individuals and as a community, matters. The pressure to choose the career that will make us the most money to escape the burden of work and find peace isn’t going to get us anywhere; we know better than that. But partnering with God to rule well, wherever you are, just might change the world around you. That kind of attitude is the only thing that ever does.
Practices
Worksheet 1
This is the quick reflection sheet we worked through together in our small group time. It covers your current areas of “rulership” - the places you are currently partnering with God (or not) in bringing flourishing.
1. What do I currently rule over? (This is your classroom, your team, your job, your family, your social group. What are all the areas you impact?)
2. What would it look like to rule well? (Acknowledging your difficulties, struggles and temptations, what would it look like if you were partnering with God each day in those areas? What would you change?)
3. What could happen if I did rule with intention? (Daydream a bit. What could happen in your area of influence if you or someone else led in the way you described above?)
Worksheet 2
This is a more thorough set of questions that can help you narrow down a purposeful career path, or at least give you a place to start. If this is something you want to dig into with some help, your leaders or I would be happy to meet with you and chat and pray through it with you.
1) What do I love doing?
2) What am I good at? What am I bad at?
3) What does the world need?
4) What opportunities are already open to me?
5) What do the people who know me say?
6) Pray. Is the Spirit stirring something inside of you? If so, what?
7) What a few career ideas that I have?
8) How could I meet a need or create beauty using these careers?
Dream With Us
As a group, we meet every week, have growing friendships, are growing in confidence, and the Spirit of the Living God is alive in us. What needs does our community have that we could possibly meet somehow? Think about this, daydream about it, pray about it, and talk about it with your small group. In the new year, we will try at least one of your ideas.