Taking Faith to Work

On at least a couple of occasions when I’ve had to miss a vestry meeting or church as a result of work—the response from Patricia has been basically it’s unfortunate when work gets in the way of life.

This morning in Sunday School we were talking about not how work gets in the way of our faith but how our faith gets in the way of our work. Or maybe not how it gets in the way of work but how it manifests itself, if it carries over and what it means to take the values we discuss and practice on Sunday at church into the other six days of the week.

It can mean a lot of things. For instance, can you live a life of faith and still be able to take advantage of other people in the process of securing your livelihood? Can you feel love and compassion for the colleague who not only gets under your skin, but may even wish you ill? Can you love your enemy? And what’s more, do you have the courage to stand up to a boss or employer who directs you to hurt another person as a part of your job? Will you fire someone under false pretenses because your boss told you to? Will you write a hatchet job on someone and ruin their reputation because you were given the assignment? Do you have the courage to stand up for what is right even though your own job will be in jeopardy or certainly lost?

The other part of work and faith that we were discussing is what I call a “thing”, or what Patricia I think describes as a “calling”. It’s that thing that you’re naturally good at through no fault of your own, and it’s that thing that you enjoy. Beyond that, I guess the question is--if God gave you some gift or talent, are you able to apply it to a livelihood in which you can use it to do God’s work? Think great lawyers who defend the helpless, disenfranchised members of society. Or career waitresses who serve their customers as if they were their family members.

I personally don’t use what God gave me to do God’s work. I use what God gave me, like most people do I suspect, to put food on the table, to keep a roof over my head. It’s not that I wouldn’t or won’t someday find a way to apply my skills to more useful, meaningful work. I just haven’t yet. But maybe right now, given the economy, I should be grateful that I have work at all. And besides, in truth, I find my workplace is a great environment to practice what I got out of Patricia’s sermon last year—“the evils of the tongue”. My colleagues simply don’t know how much more difficult I would be to deal with if I didn’t at least try to take my faith with me to the office from time to time.