day 277: Proper Stewardship: Work as a Noble Cause

While I am on vacation, I have asked friends, and encouragers of Purposed worKING to contribute. Today's post comes from Steve Bloom who along with the work he does, lives in Florida where he watches his daughter jump horses and his son play football...and he dreams of many things.

If you are like most workers, your job is more of a means to an end than the end itself. You probably enjoy some of what you do at work, but not all of it – maybe not even most of it. Depending on your age, you may have dreams of finding that perfect blend of vocation and avocation -- the job that provides money and meaning – the workers’ grail itself. Others may have left these dreams behind years ago, opting instead to pursue meaning in their lives outside of the workplace. The conundrum here is that we spend so much time and effort at work that it often leaves little energy for pursuing anything else --whether it is meaning, rest or just fun.
And as a believer, you are equally frustrated by your inability to witness in the workplace. Few places are more politically-correct than modern corporations, and it generally isn’t acceptable to talk religion on the job. So we stuff our beliefs down inside our business shoes watching for some small, inoffensive way to let others know we follow the Lord. And although it is important to role-model Christian living without being outwardly ‘Christian,’ doing so sometimes just isn’t enough.
On weekdays, we therefore deal with this double-bogey of not having a job that provides deep meaning and of being overly careful not to offend co-workers by sharing our beliefs. We save our sacred time for weekends or evenings, but these precious hours spent in worship or service are dwarfed by time spent at work. For some, it may be easier to stop pursuing Christ at all rather than continue to fight this seeming losing battle.
But God’s creation needs the stewardship of good business people. In Genesis 1:26, God creates man and gives him the earth to rule over, and in Genesis 2:19 God allows man to start creating order in the world by naming the animals. God in essence gives mankind the earth to manage, to plan & care for, to run like a sacred family business. Therefore good managers and business people are necessary stewards of God’s creations.
In a recent sermon, Rob Bell suggested that all workers who engage in producing a good or service in exchange for a reasonable return are practicing the kind of stewardship described in Genesis. Bell reminds us that God intends us to do something positive with His creation – to explore, to organize, to multiply, to bring order. Bell tells business people their “task is sacred, holy and profound” and implores us to do our work “in a Genesis way.” We should therefore view our work not as a means to and end, but as a noble function in God’s world – a mission field where we grow the Father’s harvest.