Transcript

5: Heart · 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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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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Our current series is wholehearted, becoming healthier Christians
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at work.
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And we want to get to the heart
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today, the word, the image, the metaphor from
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the Bible that this whole series title comes
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from, wholehearted.
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We have hearts.
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We have something hidden within us that gives
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us life and that determines the direction of
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our life.
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And I want to go to a key
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Bible passage right off the bat here that
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talks about the heart.
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Just like in English, where heart is a
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metaphor, it's a poetic term.
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It can refer both to our physical organ
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of the heart, but also to our hidden
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intentions and our desires and our feelings.
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There's a lot of layers to how words
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that are translated heart are used within the
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Bible, including within the Hebrew scriptures.
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But there's one specific aspect of the heart
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that I think is really helpful.
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And it's this idea that the heart can
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turn one way or another.
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So I want to go to a passage
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that highlights this particular aspect of the heart.
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This is from the fifth book of the
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Torah, which in English is called Deuteronomy.
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In Hebrew, its title literally just translates the
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words because it's the words that Moses said
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to the nation of Israel as his final
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teaching, his final words of wisdom and guidance
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to them.
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So it's kind of his farewell speech.
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And he emphasizes what's most important in this
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book of the Bible.
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Actually, the text we've been using from the
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Gospel of Luke, where we have that commandment
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quoted that you shall love the Lord your
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God with all your heart and with all
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your soul and with all your strength and
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with all your mind.
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That comes from this book of the Bible,
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from Moses's final words to the people of
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Israel, which makes sense.
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It's kind of this final summation of what's
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most important.
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So towards the end of this speech, he
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talks about two options, two paths or ways
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he calls them that are in front of
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the Israelite people, as they're about to enter
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into the Promised Land.
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And I'll start reading in verse 15.
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See, I have set before you today life
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and prosperity, death and adversity.
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If you obey the commandments of the Lord
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your God, that I am commanding you today
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by loving the Lord your God, walking in
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his ways and observing his commandments, decrees and
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ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous.
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And the Lord your God will bless you
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in the land that you were entering to
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possess.
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But if your heart turns away and you
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do not hear, but are led astray to
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bow down to other gods and serve them,
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I declare to you today that you shall
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certainly perish.
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You shall not live long in the land
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that you were crossing the Jordan to enter
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and possess.
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Okay, did you catch that little piece about
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the heart?
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You can see what Moses is doing here.
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He's laying out two options.
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He's saying there's life on one side, there's
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death on the other.
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It's like two paths diverging.
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You have to choose which one are you
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going to walk down.
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But what is the part of you that
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actually makes that choice?
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Verse 17, but if your heart turns away
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and you do not hear, but are led
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astray to bow down to other gods and
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serve them, and then he goes on to
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say that's the way of death.
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Okay, so it's your heart that's the hinge.
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It's your heart that turns one way or
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the other.
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In the next book of the Bible, the
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book of Joshua, there's like an echo or
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recurrence of this theme.
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At the end of Joshua's life, he's the
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successor to Moses.
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He gives a speech of his own, and
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he says incline your hearts to the Lord.
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Again, that's that idea of turning.
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Your heart is a hinge that can turn
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toward the Lord or away from him.
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Toward deeper union with him, deeper rest in
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him, deeper confidence that his way is the
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way of life, or turning to other authorities,
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other masters, other gods, and following the way
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that we know ultimately leads to destruction.
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Okay, so what is the significance of this
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capacity of the heart to turn, to choose?
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Well, philosophically, this is what is called the
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will.
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It's your capacity to determine something.
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Your capacity, in a moment, to make a
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choice to go one way or another, and
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one of the fundamental teachings of the Bible
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is that you have a will.
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In your heart, you have a deep capacity
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to choose, to make a decision.
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This is, in our generation, a controversial claim.
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There are many psychologists and physicists and others
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that would argue that what we experience as
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free will is just a series of physical
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and chemical reactions.
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It's an illusion.
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It's just something that happens to us.
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But the clear teaching of the Bible, again,
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reaffirmed by Jesus, is you can choose.
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You have a chooser inside of you.
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You have a heart.
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You have a capacity to go one way
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or the other.
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And this is really significant for our lives
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at work.
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I want to focus particularly on this idea
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of agency, the idea that you can take
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responsibility.
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You can make choices that make a difference
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in the real world.
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So one way I want to think about
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it is kind of two extremes, and we
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can think about this as the extreme of
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I will get my way, or the other
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extreme of I give up.
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So on one extreme, there's the idea that
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I will get my way, a very willful
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way of thinking.
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Somebody who thinks I'm in charge, I'm in
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control, I should run the universe, I should
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get what I want.
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And if you've ever interacted with a person
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like that at work or anywhere else, you
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know it's not very pleasant that a willful
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person tends to be very full of themselves
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and arrogant and unable to adapt to changes,
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sometimes incredibly angry.
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And this kind of attitude is rebuked by
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Scripture.
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So going to the New Testament of the
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letter of James, the brother of Jesus, he
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says, this is in chapter 4 verse 13,
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Now listen, you who say today or tomorrow,
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we will go to this or that city,
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spend a year there, carry on business and
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make money.
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Why?
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You do not even know what will happen
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tomorrow.
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What is your life?
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You are a mist that appears for a
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little while and then vanishes.
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Instead, you ought to say, if it is
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the Lord's will, we will live and do
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this or that.
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As it is, you boast in your arrogant
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schemes, all such boasting is evil.
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Okay, whoa, so James is not holding back.
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He's saying that kind of arrogant boasting that
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I'm gonna have my way, I know what's
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gonna happen in the future, it's evil.
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Now why is it evil?
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Well, because it's usurping the place of God.
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It's saying, I should have my way always,
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I should be like God.
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And the reality is, God is God and
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we're not.
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We don't control everything.
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And whenever something happens in life that reminds
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us that we don't control everything, we come
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up against this reality.
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We come up against our own finitude, our
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limitations, the fact that we can't control reality.
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And so having a humble posture of recognizing,
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God is God and I'm not, I don't
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control reality, it's really important.
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That's a clear teaching repeated again and again
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in the Bible.
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But at the other extreme, you could kind
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of try and have this humility that then
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extends even to a kind of passivity, and
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I give up.
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And A sense that everything happens to you
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in life.
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There's no you that can take action and
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solve problems or meet goals.
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There's a psychologist named Nicola Taylor.
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She has a study about this, the idea
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of, is your locus of control inside of
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you where you can take responsibility?
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Or is it outside of you, external to
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you?
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And she says this to describe that external
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more helpless attitude.
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She says, Now
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this attitude, while extreme, comes up in the
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workplace all the time, whenever something bad happens
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at work, and our response is, oh my
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gosh, I can't believe that happened.
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There's nothing I can do about it.
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So let me give an example.
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I once had a manager and she had
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many strengths, but she also had this habit
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of complaining about her colleagues.
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So sometimes somebody would do something that she
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wouldn't like, and she would just kind of
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roll her eyes and say like, ah, why
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did they do that?
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And I get like, you know, sometimes you
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need to vent, sometimes you need to find
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somebody, it's probably not best to vent at
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your workplace, about colleagues at your workplace, maybe
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find a different environment with a friend where
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you can process difficult emotions.
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But what struck me is sometimes she would
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say, ah, why did they do that?
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And then just move on without ever asking
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them to do it differently, without ever confronting
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them or explaining why I was problematic.
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And I just thought like, okay, yeah, you
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can't control the other person's behavior, that's true,
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but you can control whether you confront that
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person, you can control how you communicate with
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them, you can ask for a change.
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And it seems like this particular manager had
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a high capacity for complaining, but a low
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capacity for confronting.
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Because that's what we can do in a
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given situation, is we can confront with courage
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whatever it is possible for us to do.
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So somebody else does something we don't like,
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is it possible for us to talk to
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them about that?
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We lose funding.
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Is it possible for us to pursue other
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sources of funding?
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We are short staffed.
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Is it possible for us to creatively triage
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what tasks are most important and do what
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matters most, right?
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Like, in any difficult circumstance it is still
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possible for you to do something.
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You still have agency, you still have will.
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That's the teaching of Scripture, that you have
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a heart, you have a will, you have
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a chooser, there's still room for you to
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do something that counts.
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So what's the healthy version?
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What's the place that's kind of not at
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this one extreme of the arrogant, I will
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get my way, nor the other extreme of
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the helpless external locus of control I give
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up.
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Well psychologists call the the healthier space an
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internal locus of control.
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But I think we can layer on top
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of that what we know from the Scriptures,
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that God is in control and He's the
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one who's going to help us.
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So I want to go to the Book
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of Common Prayer, again this is the Anglican
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Prayer Book.
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I'm using the edition from 1979 for this
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particular example.
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When an infant is baptized, and that's a
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whole conversation, if that's a tripwire for you,
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you can contact me individually, we can talk
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about it, but just we'll start there.
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When an infant is baptized, they have often
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parents and God parents who will take vows
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on the child's behalf, who will say, I'm
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making a promise to see to it that
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this child comes to know Jesus in as
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much as that's possible.
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And so the priest who's presiding over the
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baptism asks this question, he says, will you
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be responsible for seeing that the child you
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present is brought up in the Christian faith
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and life?
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And then the parents and God parents respond,
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I will with God's help.
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That's the healthy response.
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It's not I'll have my way, it's not
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I give up, it's I will with God's
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help.
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And that's what leads us into responding to
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the challenges in our workplaces with other people
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in a healthy way.
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I will with God's help.
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A prayer that really beautifully conveys this attitude,
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and I think a healthy way, is the
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serenity prayer.
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This is often common in 12-step addiction
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recovery groups.
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It was originally given by Reinhold Niebuhr in
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a sermon in 1943, and I used to
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dislike this prayer because it uses the word
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serenity, which for whatever reason I'm like, the
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word serenity isn't in the Bible.
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Well, that's just because it's like a more
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contemporary word.
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If you look at the essence of the
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prayer, it's actually quite profound.
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The prayer goes like this, God grant me
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the serenity to accept the things I cannot
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change, the courage to change the things I
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can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
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Isn't that beautiful?
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We can have a sense of releasing our
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need to control the universe.
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God is God and I'm not.
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I cannot control what my boss does, what
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my co-workers or clients do, exactly how
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much money comes in.
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I need serenity to accept that, but I
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also need the courage to change the things
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I can, to figure out how I'm going
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to interact with my colleagues or with my
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boss or with my clients, to figure out
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how I'm going to manage the money details
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that I'm responsible for, and then I need
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wisdom from God to know the difference between
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those things, and God will give me that
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wisdom if I ask for it.
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I will with God's help.
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Now we see an even fuller application of
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this teaching when we get to Jesus's words
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about taking up your cross.
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This is in Luke chapter nine, starting in
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verse 23.
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Then Jesus said to all, If anyone would
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come after me, they must deny themselves and
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take up their cross daily and follow me,
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for whoever wants to save their life will
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lose it, but whoever loses their life for
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me will save it.
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You see how Jesus is doing his own
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Deuteronomy 30 here?
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He's saying there's two options, right?
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You can try and save your life, but
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you'll end up losing it, or you can
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lose your life for my sake and you
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will save it.
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Key detail here, Jesus does not say, Oh,
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you have to bear your cross daily.
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He says, take up your cross daily.
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You can choose.
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You can say, I will with God's help.
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And what does it mean to take up
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our cross daily, to embrace the way of
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Jesus, the way of sacrifice and love?
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Well, in our workplaces, it often means embracing
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that healthy attitude of, as we face various
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challenges, to refuse to succumb to the helplessness
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of an external locus of control, and to
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refuse to assume the arrogance of always insisting
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on having our own way.
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But instead, to occupy that middle space where
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we say, I will with God's help.
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And trust that as we do that, as
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followers of Jesus, that Jesus will apply his
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grace and goodness to every situation, that he
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will save us, that he will give us
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his life.
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Lord Jesus, thank you for this teaching on
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the heart.
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Pray that you would soften our hearts.
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You give us a capacity to be open
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to you, to turn our hearts towards you,
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to enter into deeper union with you.
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Do your work in us as we do
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our work with you.
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Thanks for listening.
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