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2: Thoughts · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Hi there.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast, it's also an online
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course.
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Check it out at FindingGodAtWork.org.
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You may know that I work at a
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food bank, and one of the things that
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we use at the food bank is this
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map.
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We have 13 counties in our service area.
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We're kind of all the major counties of
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Northern Illinois besides Cook County, where the city
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of Chicago is.
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We have a partner organization called Greater Chicago
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that serves Cook County.
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So we're looking at those 13 counties as
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that's where we do our work.
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The neighbors who are in those counties, those
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are the people that we're trying to serve
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and come alongside.
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So this map is like our scorecard for
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our work as a food bank, and it's
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got yellow and red and green.
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So if a county is green or an
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area of a county is green, that means
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that people are getting access to the food
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that they need.
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And if it's yellow, they have less access,
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and if it's red, they have way less
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access.
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Red is a real concern.
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So it's a measure of neighbors who face
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food insecurity.
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Do they have access to food through our
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network in some way?
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Whether that's through a food pantry or a
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soup kitchen or our home delivery program or
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one of our mobile food trucks or any
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of the things that we do.
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Do we create some point of access where
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a neighbor could get the food that they
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and their household need to thrive within that
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service area?
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OK, so when our current CEO came into
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that role, that was I think about 12
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years ago, that map did not look super
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good.
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There was lots of red and yellow and
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some green closer to the center.
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But one of her priorities when she became
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CEO was to use that map to direct
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our efforts.
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So we got really clear about the data.
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We continued to measure.
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We figured out where the different resources were
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going and why.
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We started asking tough questions.
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And then eventually we started seeing those numbers
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move.
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It's like, oh, we're going to decide where
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we do a mobile truck event, not just
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randomly, but based on the data.
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We're going to see, like, here's here's a
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little circle of of orange.
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How can we get more resources there in
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the next few months?
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Now, that wasn't the way that the food
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bank started.
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When the food bank started 40 some years
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ago, food banking as a concept was still
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young.
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Pantries were just getting started sort of randomly
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based on relationships and people who were interested
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in churches and other things.
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And so, you know, just sort of organically
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grew in a kind of random, less strategic
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way.
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And that makes sense in the kind of
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early entrepreneurial years.
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But that is also what led to years
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later, looking at that map and realizing, like,
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there are just holes in this map of
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where we don't have good service for people
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that need access to food.
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And so it was only by becoming more
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intentional and more strategic that we were able
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to ameliorate that.
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And thankfully, recently, within the past couple of
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years, we've hit 90 percent plus green in
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more than 90 percent of our county areas.
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And so super encouraging.
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And it's a great example, I think, of
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not just our CEOs leadership, but also the
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team working collaboratively, bringing in the data, aligning
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that with our operations, making sure that the
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resources are going where they really need to
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go so that more neighbors have the food
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that they need.
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OK, what does this story have to do
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with becoming wholehearted, becoming healthier Christians at work?
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Well, it's an example of somebody, our CEO
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and the other members of the team, thinking
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really hard about something and then executing on
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the basis of that thought.
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And so we're going to start talking about
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our theological anthropology, who human beings are with
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Jesus as our anthropologist, as our teacher, teaching
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us what matters.
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And Jesus, in the passage we looked at
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last time, said that we can love God
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with all our heart and with all our
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soul and with all our strength and with
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all our mind.
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So we're actually going to start on that
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mind part of who we are, our thoughts,
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our capacity to think is incredibly vital to
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our life at work.
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Imagine what would have happened if our CEO
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had simply not done the work of thinking
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about that map.
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What if she was just like, oh, you
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know, we've already got a bunch of food
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pantries, let's just keep resourcing the ones we
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have.
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You know, like there are probably food banks
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somewhere that have that approach where it's just
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like, oh, yeah, no, it's not our job
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to look at our whole service area strategically
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and intentionally, we'll just service the food pantries
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that already exist.
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But our CEO said, no, let's think.
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Let's do the hard work of thinking and
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see if we can make a difference.
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And it did make a difference.
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So what does that have to do with
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loving God?
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Well, I want to posit that there's not
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such a big gap between thinking to solve
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problems at work and loving God with your
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mind, that part of loving God with your
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mind in as much as it relates to
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our jobs is to do the hard work
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of thinking that your job entails, that that
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is how you love God with your mind.
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OK, now, is there anywhere in scripture that
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says that?
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I thought through, can I find a scripture
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passage that says this explicitly, and I found
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this in Proverbs and it's more poetic as
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Proverbs sometimes is, but I think it gets
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at this idea.
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So this is chapter twenty five, verse two.
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It is the glory of God to conceal
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things, but the glory of kings is to
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search things out.
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It is the glory of God to conceal
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things, but the glory of kings is to
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search things out.
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It's almost like God is playing hide and
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seek with us.
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There are things that have to be discovered.
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They have to be thought through.
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They have to be figured out and God
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conceals them and there's a glory in the
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way that God conceals them.
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It's like God is almost like preparing things
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for us to figure out, but then it
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is a glory of kings and kings representing
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like the pinnacle of human experience.
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So the glory of human beings to seek
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these things out to discover them.
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So there's a glory in thinking.
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There's a glory in discovery.
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There's a glory in making logical connections from
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A to B to C.
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We also see this in the ministry of
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Jesus himself and looking at Jesus's ministry in
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these terms was suggested to me by Dallas
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Willard in his wonderful essay, Jesus the Logician.
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So I want to take a passage that
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illustrates this idea and then come back to
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Dallas's essay in order to kind of put
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a cap on it.
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This is Matthew chapter 11 starts with a
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miracle story in verse 22.
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Okay, so let's look at the logic behind
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all of these things.
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So first the presenting case of the miracle
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story itself.
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The Pharisees are not debating whether or not
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Jesus did the miracle.
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It's just so obvious that this person can
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now talk and see that they're trying to
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explain the miracle.
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So the people are questioning, could this be
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the son of David?
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Could Jesus be the Messiah is the miracle
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evidence of his Messiah ship?
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The Pharisees are not hot about that idea.
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So instead they say no, no, no, he's
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driving out demons by Satan by a title
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of Satan Beelzebul and then Jesus knowing their
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thoughts challenges them.
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He doesn't challenge them by brow beating them.
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He doesn't challenge them by just telling them
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that they're wrong.
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He asks whether what they're saying is logical
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whether it makes sense.
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So he says every Kingdom divided against itself
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will be ruined and every city or household
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divided against itself will not stand.
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So he's saying if you've got an authority
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like in a Kingdom or a city or
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a family and then you've got other people
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that are like agents of that authority, but
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then the agents are fighting each other like
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they're not going to execute policy of that
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authority very well.
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Like the Kingdom is going to fall apart.
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The family is going to fall apart.
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The city is going to fall apart.
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So you're saying that like Satan is somehow
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sending me to drive out other agents of
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Satan.
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It sounds like the Kingdom of Satan is
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kind of imploding in your model.
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Does that really make sense?
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Then he gives another example.
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He says, okay, you also have exorcists.
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There are people apparently Jesus calls them your
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people connected with the Pharisees who were driving
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out demons and purportedly doing that as a
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work of God.
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And so Jesus is like if they drive
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out a demon and your conclusion is they're
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doing the work of God, then by applying
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the same logic when I drive out a
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demon, you should be concluding that I'm doing
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the work of God.
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So those exorcists will be your judges, right?
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If they were doing the work of God,
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then I'm doing the work of God.
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And then he gives his final if then
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and this is the encouraging part, but if
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it is by the Spirit of God that
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I drive out demons, then the Kingdom of
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God has come upon you.
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So what he's saying is the evidence suggests
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that the Spirit of God is the power
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behind my exorcisms.
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And if that's true, then the Kingdom of
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God has come upon you.
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Then the ministry of Jesus is a way
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into what God is doing in the world.
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And that's a really good news.
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Okay, now again, Jesus doesn't browbeat people here.
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He gently but directly assertively unfolds the logic
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of their presuppositions.
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He says, does this make sense?
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And that's what allows his listeners to draw
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their own conclusions and to come to a
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place of conviction about who Jesus is for
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themselves.
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And in this essay of Dallas's, he has
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this incredible thing about Jesus's style, his approach
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to doing this.
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And Dallas quotes this proverb, a man convinced
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against his will is of the same opinion
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still.
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And then Dallas responds interpreting this proverb.
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Yes, and no doubt Jesus understood that.
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And so he typically aims at real inward
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change of view that would enable his hearers
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to become significantly different as people through the
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workings of their own intellect.
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They will have, unless they are strongly resistant
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to the point of blindness, the famous Eureka
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experience, not the experience of being outdone or
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beaten down.
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So Jesus's rhetorical approach here is very humble
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in the sense that he's not browbeating the
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Pharisees.
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He's not emotionally manipulating people.
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He's not just somehow having like a will
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to power, a might makes right.
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He's appealing to people's capacity to reason.
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He's laying it out there and saying the
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Pharisees just said something.
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Does it make sense or not?
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We can think it through.
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A leads to B leads to C and
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that leads his listeners if they're willing to
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hear to internalize what he's saying for themselves
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to realize like yes, I am persuaded.
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I wasn't forced into this by somebody else.
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I can see the connections that Jesus is
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making.
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I can trace that path myself.
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I think it works.
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Jesus is a logician.
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Okay, now let's bring this back to our
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lives at work.
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Jesus is setting an example of using logic
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really effectively to honor other people like in
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this case, he's literally teaching, right?
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So it's a kind of a more rational,
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discursive frame of work to begin with the
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work of teaching but he's using logic very
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intentionally and very carefully to draw people into
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this Eureka moment so that they can learn
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so that they can grow.
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But for all of us Jesus is a
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model of using logic to accomplish the necessary
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work.
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For him it was the work of teaching
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in this particular example, but for us it's
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whatever the problems we're facing in our workplace.
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So that's why I started with the example
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of we've got this pran map that's showing
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some areas in red and some in orange
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and some in green.
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You've got to think through A leads to
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B leads to C like oh we have
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a food pantry in this area and we
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don't have a food pantry in this area,
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but we do have a mobile truck.
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We can deploy to that area and look
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at the budget and figure out how to
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make it work and that's what we're doing
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every year at the food bank is trying
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to keep that map as green as possible
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all across our service area.
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So now think about your environment.
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What are the problems that confront you in
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your workplace?
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Maybe you're in sales.
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You've got to think through your conversion metrics.
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That's really important for you to do in
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order to do your work with excellence.
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You've got to know how many phone calls
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do I need to make in order to
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get a sale, roughly speaking, right?
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It's always unpredictable, but you've got to know
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those numbers.
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You've got to be willing to think through
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those numbers and then to plan your week
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ahead of time based on how many calls
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you need to make in order to make
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the right number of sales, right?
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Like it's not rocket science.
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Now, let's say your job is rocket science,
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right?
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Then what do you need to do?
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You need to carefully think through engineering, right?
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You need to make sure that all the
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puzzle pieces fit together in the right way
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and double check them.
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Whatever your job is, there are going to
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be problems that require intense logical thought.
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Okay, now, why is this not how we
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always do things?
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Why is it that sometimes we end up
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just being more random and less rational, right?
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We end up just doing random things.
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So like if we're in sales, we just
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sort of make as many calls as we
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kind of feel like making or like hopefully
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not if we're rocket scientists, but hey, you
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know, there's been some problems in some rocket
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science companies recently, right?
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Like not measuring twice and cutting once, but
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maybe hurrying things through without a proper review
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process or why do we do this?
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Why do we end up not doing the
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hard work of thinking?
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I think there are two reasons.
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One is that it is hard work.
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It takes a certain effort, a certain pain
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even, to do the work of thinking.
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And so we can have a kind of
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intellectual laziness where we just aren't willing to
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sit down and go through the mental effort
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required to figure out how A leads to
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B leads to C within our domain of
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responsibility.
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The theologian John R.W. Stott had this
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great quote.
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I read it in a foreword to one
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of his books once.
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He had this acronym he would use, P
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-I-M or PIM, for pain in the
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mind.
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He's like pain in the mind.
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This is what he said.
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He says, there are certain tasks which cannot
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be done without acute pain in the mind.
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They are rarely fun, but always worthwhile.
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So like at the food bank, when we're
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digging into all those questions with the pram
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app and trying to figure out the budgets,
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people are not having fun.
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People are like, I don't want to lose,
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you know, a mobile market truck in this
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county in order to send it to that
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county.
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Like we've been doing that one for years.
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Like it's tough.
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You've got to figure out what the trade
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-offs are and you've got to embrace your
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own emotions and figure out why do I
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feel this way when I know that we're
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trying to all pull towards the same goal
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and can I trust my leaders and all
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the complex dynamics that go into that.
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But there's going to be acute pain in
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the mind as part of the process.
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You're going to have to experience that cognitive
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dissonance of like, I haven't figured this out
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yet and it's uncomfortable.
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And if you're not willing to go through
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that pain, you can never become a good
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worker, right?
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You're always at best going to be a
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little bit sloppy in what you do.
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But if you're willing to go through the
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acute mental pain, then you get to the
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other side of it.
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And at the other side of that acute
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mental pain, I think is what that Proverbs
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verse said, it is the glory of kings
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to search things out.
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You can experience glory when you get to
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the other side of solving the problem and
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it works and the map turns green or
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the sail goes through or the light bulb
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moment happens for your student or the rocket
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takes off successfully.
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That's pleasure.
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That's glory.
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That's joy.
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That's, that's what we were meant to do
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as workers to realize the outcome of all
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this problem solving effort that we've put in.
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And by God's grace, we can experience moments
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like that in our working lives, even though
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they're not all the time and often we
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face frustration, but it's worth moving through the
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pain to get to the pleasure of that
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kind of problem solving success.
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Okay.
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So that's the first thing is we just
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have to be willing to embrace the pain,
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right?
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We have to be willing to go through
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the pain to get to the pleasure of
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problem solving.
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Well, that was kind of an alliteration.
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I didn't even intend that we have to
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be willing to embrace the pain to get
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to the pleasure of problem solving.
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Say that sometimes fast.
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Okay.
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The second reason though, the second reason that
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we sometimes don't embrace reason in the way
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that Jesus sets an example for us to
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embrace reason in our work is that we
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are confused about the relationship between reason and
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goodness.
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Sometimes this is based on our view of
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Jesus himself.
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Like it's often to have a stereotype to
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view of Jesus where Jesus is nice, but
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he isn't necessarily very smart.
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But again, when you read Jesus in the
16:57
gospels, that is not how he comes across.
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I actually just had a lunch with a
17:01
friend who read the gospel of Mark for
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the first time.
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And this is one of the things he
17:04
commented on is like Jesus does not come
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across as this nice pushover Jesus that you
17:08
sometimes have floating around in the cultural ethos.
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Jesus is very precise in his thinking.
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And that should give us a clue as
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followers of Jesus that there's a connection between
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thinking hard and becoming like Jesus.
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So let's go to C.S. Lewis.
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He puts this so well.
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He frames it in terms of what's called
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the cardinal virtue of prudence, our kind of
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classical Christian virtue in the tradition.
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And he starts describing that based on this
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idea that Jesus said we should become like
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children.
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He says, Christ never meant that we were
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to remain children in intelligence.
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On the contrary, he told us to be
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not only as harmless as doves, but also
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as wise as serpents.
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He wants a child's heart, but a grown
17:52
-up's head.
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He wants us to be simple, single-minded,
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affectionate, and teachable as good children are.
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But he also wants every bit of intelligence
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we have to be alert at its job
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and in first-class fighting trim.
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The fact that you are giving money to
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a charity does not mean that you need
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not try to find out whether that charity
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is a fraud or not.
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The fact that what you were thinking about
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is God himself, for example, when you are
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praying, does not mean that you can be
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content with the same baby-ish ideas which
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you had when you were a five-year
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-old.
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It is, of course, quite true that God
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will not love you any less or have
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less use for you if you happen to
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be born with a very second-rate brain.
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He has room for people with very little
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sense, but he wants everyone to use what
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sense they have.
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The proper motto is not be good, sweet
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maid, and let who can be clever, but
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be good, sweet maid, and don't forget that
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this involves being as clever as you can.
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God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than
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of any other slackers.
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Okay.
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I just love reading C.S. Lewis.
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So, you know, from a different century, different
18:51
frame of mind in some ways.
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But I think it's jarring in a good
18:55
way, right?
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Like when he just says, like, hey, maybe
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you have a second-rate brain.
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That's not your fault, but use the brand
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you've got.
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We want to be as wise as serpents,
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but as innocent as doves.
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So it's not that being smarter is necessarily
19:07
being holier or being better or being more
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like Jesus.
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It's that using whatever intelligence God has given
19:14
you as well as you can is the
19:16
better part of following Jesus whenever you're solving
19:19
a problem.
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And usually at work, we're solving a problem.
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And so a big, big part of loving
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God with all your mind at work is
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thinking as clearly and carefully and precisely as
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you can and then applying that effort to
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the problem at hand.
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Now I want to end by looking at
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just one more verse.
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This comes from 1 Corinthians 2.
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Paul is talking about mystery.
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He's talking about how God is beyond our
19:44
understanding.
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And he quotes this verse that says, for
19:47
who has understood the mind of the Lord
19:49
so as to instruct him, but we have
19:52
the mind of Christ.
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So what Paul's saying is God is beyond
19:57
our understanding.
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God is mysterious.
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God is vast.
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God is eternal.
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We couldn't hope to encompass him, to contain
20:05
him, to grasp him, to understand him.
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But we have the mind of Christ.
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Because God comes into union with us through
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Jesus Christ, we can experience his life in
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our minds, in our thoughts as we go
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about our day.
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And so I would argue that problem solving
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at work, even in the midst of pain
20:27
in the mind, right?
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Even in the midst of that acute mental
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pain where you're trying to figure it out
20:32
and you're not there yet.
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That is a context for deep union with
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God.
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When you have the mind of Christ, that
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doesn't just mean that you think holy thoughts.
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It means that while you use your mind
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to solve the problems that you have to
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solve as part of your faithfulness to Jesus
20:49
in your everyday life, Jesus is right there
20:51
with you.
20:52
You have the mind of Christ for solving
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your problem in Microsoft Excel.
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You have the mind of Christ for solving
20:58
your problem, babysitting those kids.
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You have the mind of Christ for solving
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that problem, grading those papers.
21:03
You have the mind of Christ for solving
21:04
the problem, sweeping those floors.
21:06
Christ is with you in the nitty-gritty
21:08
problems of your workplace to help you solve
21:10
them.
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And when you get through that pain to
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that pleasure, that glory, it's not just a
21:15
glory of enjoying a problem solved.
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It's a glory of union with Christ being
21:21
with him in the work that you're doing.
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One story just to wrap this up.
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When I went to high school, we had
21:28
a facilities manager named Mr. Dunham.
21:30
And Mr. Dunham, like many facilities managers, was
21:32
a little rough round the edges, you know,
21:35
say how it is, not very polished in
21:37
his speech.
21:38
And I was talking with him once, and
21:40
we had these mini buses that the school
21:42
owned for taking students to like athletic events
21:43
and things of that nature, 15 passenger vans
21:46
or even larger 25 passenger buses.
21:49
And he was doing some maintenance on one
21:50
of them.
21:51
He didn't want to take it to the
21:51
shop.
21:52
He wanted to do it himself.
21:53
And he was telling me, he just kept
21:54
trying and trying and he couldn't get it
21:56
right.
21:56
He couldn't get it right.
21:57
He's getting so frustrated and so angry.
21:59
And then he just thought, duh, I'm an
22:01
idiot.
22:01
I should pray about it.
22:03
And then as soon as I prayed, the
22:04
thing synced right into place.
22:07
And I was just so moved by his
22:09
description because here I am, you know, studying
22:11
history and science and all these fancy things
22:15
in high school at my honors classes or
22:17
whatever.
22:18
But I was just moved by the simplicity
22:19
of Mr. Dunham's faith that he was like,
22:22
I'm trying to solve a mechanical problem on
22:24
a bus and duh, I should pray about
22:26
it.
22:27
And just realizing like, oh, he has internalized
22:30
the presence of Jesus in such a routine
22:33
way that he gets frustrated with himself when
22:35
he forgets to pray about solving a mechanical
22:37
problem.
22:38
And that just to me became like a
22:40
vision for my life.
22:41
Like I want to be that kind of
22:42
person.
22:42
I want to be the kind of person
22:43
where when I've got the wrench in my
22:45
hand and I can't figure it out, I'm
22:47
praying because I know that Jesus is with
22:49
me because I know that I have the
22:50
mind of Christ.
22:51
So I want to encourage you to be
22:52
like Mr. Dunham to remember Jesus is with
22:55
you in the problems that you're facing.
22:57
He is with you to help you get
22:59
through the pain to the pleasure to the
23:01
glory with him.
23:06
Lord Jesus, thank you that it is your
23:08
glory to conceal things, but it's the glory
23:10
of Kings to seek things out that you
23:13
give us a role to play in this
23:15
hide and seek a game of discovery and
23:17
thought and rationality and it's beautiful and we
23:20
just ask that you would help us to
23:21
step into it that we wouldn't see thinking
23:23
as something unspiritual or secular, but that we
23:28
would see it as a place where your
23:29
mind and ours come together, where we receive
23:32
your mind.
23:33
Lord Jesus, do your work in us as
23:35
we do our work with you.
23:37
Amen.
23:42
Thanks for listening.
23:43
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23:45
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23:48
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23:50
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