Your Work Matters: Does Your Work Need a New Story?

One of the great joys in my life is having a new granddaughter, and right now, I’m loving reading my granddaughter stories. It doesn’t really matter what the story is about or the particular characters of the story.

What matters most are those imaginative and magical moments where we experience such deep joy and so many lasting memories together. The time I’m spending with my precious and beautiful granddaughter reminds me how very much we are storied people.

From our earliest days, we are drawn to stories. Neuroscience suggests our brains are hardwired for stories. Stories frame our relationships and animate our lives with wonder, memories, and meaning. They fuel our imaginations. The stories we hear and tell ourselves shape not only our daily lives but also our work.

But what story is shaping your work? Is it...

• a story of frustration or fulfillment?
• a story of exhaustion or rest?
• a story of anxiety or peace?
• a story of meaning or meaninglessness?

What about your faith? Is it informing and shaping your work story? The inconvenient truth is that for many of us, there is a sizeable gap between the faith we profess on Sunday and the life we live in our Monday workplaces.

But there is good news: The Sunday-to-Monday gap we often experience can be narrowed if we embrace a new work story. An ancient biblical story that brings coherence to our Monday world, an unsurpassable story in its meaning, fulfillment, purpose, and joy. A story that transforms our relationships, our priorities, and our work itself. A story that gives us greater confidence that our work truly matters. ↓

WORK’S FOUR-CHAPTER STORY

It’s important for us to grasp that our work, both paid and unpaid, isn’t some peripheral thing, but rather a central thread in the biblical story. From the first to the last book in the Bible, a coherent and compelling biblical theology of work emerges. I like to describe it as God’s four-chapter story of work.

➀ The first chapter of God’s work story gives us a beautiful glimpse of work as it was originally designed.

➁ The second chapter of God’s work story informs us how God’s original design for our work has been corrupted.

➂ The third chapter of God’s work story paints a hopeful picture of how we and our work can be redeemed.

➃ The fourth chapter of God’s work story gives us a foretaste of what our work will be in the future.

Let’s look closer at each chapter of God’s four-chapter work story. ↓

THE FIRST CHAPTER of God’s work story is God’s original design for human work. We might think of this first chapter as work as it ought to be. God’s work story begins in the book of Genesis, where we are introduced to God Himself as a worker.

He is the Triune God who, as a worker, creates and fashions the material world. We also learn that humans were created as His image bearers. Made in His image, we are designed to connect with God, to experience intimacy with Him, and to reflect His creativity in our work. We were created by God to know God, to be known by Him, and to work as He works.

We were created to work with an important job description—to cultivate and protect God’s creation (Genesis 2:15). While we are not to worship our work, God designed it to be an essential aspect of our God-honoring worship.

God also designed our work to be a primary way we love and serve our neighbor. But He also designed us to rest, so much so that in His great love, He instituted a weekly sabbath day for our delight, joy, and renewal. In the distant echoes of the Garden of Eden, we now experience the deep and residual heart longings for work and rest as God designed them for us.

THE SECOND CHAPTER of God’s work story is the tragic corruption of human work. We are wise to think of this second chapter of work as it now is. The book of Genesis gives us the tragic narrative of humankind’s rebellion against God and His good creation design. In a garden long, long ago, the very nature and landscape of human work is deformed and corrupted.

As the writer of Genesis puts it, human work is now experienced in many ways as toilsome labor. Adam and Eve now have workplaces filled with prickly thorns and gnarly thistles (Genesis 3:17-19). ↓

For us today, the consequences of humankind’s sin and rebellion against God continue and permeate all workers and all workplaces. Even the best and most enjoyable work has its thorns and thistles, and we are often haunted at a heart level by what can seem like our work’s futility and meaninglessness. Along with fallen creation, there are times when we, too, sigh and groan in our daily work, sensing deep within us that now our work is not all it was designed to be. ↓

Even the best and most enjoyable work has its thorns and thistles.

THE THIRD CHAPTER of God’s work story is the redeeming of human work. We might think of this third chapter as work as it can be. From the book of Genesis throughout the rest of the Bible, the good news of God rescuing and restoring His good creation is centered in Jesus, Who comes to this world as the rescuer of sinful humanity and restorer of all creation. It’s not incidental that Jesus, the very Son of God, spent the majority of His time on planet earth, not as an itinerant rabbi, but rather working with His hands in a carpenter shop. In His sinless incarnational humanity, Jesus embodied creation’s perfect design and goodness of human work. Jesus affirmed, spoke about, and embodied the importance of our work. The Apostle Paul echoes Jesus’ strong teaching on human work in Colossian 3:23-24 saying, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Paul frames the redemptive aspect of our work, urging all followers of Jesus to do our work wholeheartedly, knowing that we are serving our God and loving our neighbors in and through our work and the workplaces we inhabit.

As redeemed followers of Jesus, forgiven of our sin and given new creation life in God’s kingdom, we must not forget that the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies. In this transforming reality, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, which means we take the temple of God to our workplaces each and every day. Our Monday workplaces are filled with God’s presence to empower, encourage, and guide us in our work. We are never alone in our workplaces. This redemptive chapter in God’s work story means that our paid and unpaid work becomes a primary place where we worship God and are spiritually formed into increased Christlikeness. Our workplaces are also now a primary place where we embody and proclaim the good news of the Gospel to others and love our neighbors. Living into chapter three of God’s work story, we see and do our work differently. ↓

You can joyfully and expectantly enter your workplace knowing God is always with you and your work really matters.

THE FOURTH AND FINAL CHAPTER of God’s work story is the restoration of human work. We might think of this chapter as work as it will be. There will come a time, in the future, when the deepest longings of our hearts in our work will be realized. I don’t know how you imagine heaven, but heaven is not the absence of work, but rather the presence of transformed work. Imagine what it will be like to work without the Edenic curse of thorns and thistles.

In the last book of the bible, in Revelation 22:3, we are given a glimpse of the beautiful life we will one day experience with God in the new heavens and earth. In that future day, we will live and work as we were originally designed to live before sin and death entered our now broken world and workplaces.

In that future day, when sin and death are no more, who we have become and the work we have done will be experienced in ways we simply cannot now fathom. Whatever paid or unpaid work God has called you to do, remember God not only deeply cares for you, but He also greatly cares about your work. After all, God made you with work in mind. If you embrace God’s four-chapter work story, of work as it ought to be, work as it is, work as it can be, and work as it will be, you can joyfully and expectantly enter your workplace knowing God is always with you and your work really matters. You can enthusiastically ex- claim, “Thank God, it’s Monday!”

Check out Tom Nelson’s newly revised book, Why Your Work Matters: How God Uses Our Everyday Vocations to Transform Us, Our Neighbors, and the World.