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10: Is Every Job A Calling? · 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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  Before we get started, just a couple of
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  housekeeping notes.
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  First, you may have noticed that in the
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  past, we don't always release episodes on holidays.
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  And that will be true for the next
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  couple of weeks.
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  So we won't release any new episodes the
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  week of Christmas or the week of New
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  Year's.
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  So the next podcast episode will be on
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  Tuesday, January 6.
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  So if you listen to every episode the
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  day it comes out, you'll just get a
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  little break.
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  If not, feel free to catch up on
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  other things or other episodes if you'd like
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  to.
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  Second thing, speaking of the holidays, if you
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  would like to give a gift to Mission
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  Central, this is a great time of year
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  to do it.
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  You may know that Mission Central is the
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  ministry that produces Finding God at Work.
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  We do other things too.
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  So I help lead courses at churches in
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  the Fox Valley area.
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  But if you've been enjoying the podcast and
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  you've never given, I'd encourage you to consider
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  even just making a small gift to help
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  us sustain our work.
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  Keep offering the Finding God at Work podcast
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  for free.
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  No pressure, but just take a moment to
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  discern if that would make sense in your
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  generosity at the end of the year right
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  now.
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  You can go to missioncentral.church.gov if
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  you'd like to give.
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  And with that, let's start the episode.
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  Our current series is Meaningful Work, Calling, Formation,
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  Service, and Love.
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  I want to start with a thought experiment.
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  Say you're looking at two different 25-year
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  -olds.
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  One of them works as an elementary school
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  teacher, and the other works as a sanitation
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  worker, a so-called garbage man.
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  And both of them are talking about their
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  job.
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  Which one would you anticipate might say, I
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  just feel like I'm doing what I was
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  born to do.
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  I show up at work every day, and
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  I'm just so excited to do my work
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  knowing the impact that it has on people's
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  lives.
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  Now, if you're like me, it's a lot
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  easier to imagine the teacher saying that than
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  the sanitation worker.
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  And so this raises a really important question.
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  Is every job a calling?
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  And this is a question that I've actually
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  found Christians who are kind of in this
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  broader conversation about faith in the workplace, they
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  disagree about how to talk about this.
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  They disagree about the right way to frame
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  it.
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  Because on the one hand, there is a
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  very strong egalitarian impulse that we have in
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  our society.
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  And that's not a bad thing.
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  In many ways, that impulse comes from Scripture,
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  right?
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  We think of those who are united in
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  Christ are equal at the foot of the
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  cross.
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  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor
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  female, but all are one in Christ Jesus.
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  That egalitarian impulse is a good thing.
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  And that can lead to Christians expressing ideas.
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  Like I heard the president of a Christian
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  college once say it this way.
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  Every calling is a Christian calling.
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  Like that sanitation worker, he just needs to
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  see how his job really is a calling
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  from God and experience that within the warp
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  and the woof of his job.
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  The challenge with this way of talking about
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  every calling, every job is a calling, every
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  calling is a kingdom calling, is that it
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  seems to not really take into account how
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  some jobs are more preferable than others.
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  And so in this example, it's kind of
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  a white collar, blue collar divide, right?
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  One person is doing something that requires a
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  college degree.
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  The other person is doing something that's unionized
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  manual labor.
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  And a lot of times when kids are
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  drawing what they want to be when they
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  grow up, like in a kindergarten exercise, they're
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  not necessarily going to put down certain jobs
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  that are kind of undesirable to do.
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  Now, before you assume that every sanitation worker
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  hates their jobs, there are in fact sanitation
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  workers that have found incredible meaning and purpose
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  in their work.
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  I've talked with one of them.
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  He's a friend of mine.
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  That being said, you still get the sense
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  that there's a difference in the experience.
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  Right?
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  Like it's probably if you have the right
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  disposition and the right training, more pleasant to
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  work with kids all day than to haul
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  trash all day.
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  Again, depending on the person, it might not
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  be the case.
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  But does our egalitarian impulse suppress some of
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  the differences in experience of different kinds of
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  work?
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  Do people really aspire to be dishwashers or
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  bus drivers in the same way that they
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  might aspire to be nurses or educators?
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  And so what's our, what's our way of
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  addressing that imbalance while also seeing where God's
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  calling can fit in every person's life?
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  Because we want, we want to be true
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  to the egalitarian impulse of scripture, but we
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  also want to be honest about the differences
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  between different kinds of jobs.
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  And one thing that I've found really helpful
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  is the framework that was provided by Elaine
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  Howard Eklund in our previous episode from her
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  book, Working for Better, that she co-authored
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  with Denise Daniels.
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  And in the show notes, we have this
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  little kind of infographic or schematic of these
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  four quadrants that Elaine and Denise kind of
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  worked out as they interviewed people about their
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  sense of calling in their workplace.
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  So it might be kind of hard to
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  visualize, but there's kind of two axes, right?
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  So the horizontal axis is the sense of
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  calling intrinsic to the work itself or extrinsic
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  to the work itself.
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  So that's kind of the question of why
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  does the work matter?
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  And then the vertical axis is, is the
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  location of service within the workplace or beyond
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  the workplace?
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  So that's kind of the question, where does
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  the work matter?
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  So why does the work matter and where
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  does the work matter?
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  So kind of the most intense centralized quadrant
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  would be the intrinsic within the workplace.
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  And this is what the authors call work
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  as a blessing from God.
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  Work utilizes an individual's skills and talents.
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  So why does it matter?
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  Because you're uniquely suited to it.
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  And where does it matter?
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  Right there.
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  So this is the elementary school teacher who
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  says, I've got my dream job.
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  I'm working with kids.
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  I'm helping them build foundational skills that are
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  going to help them for the rest of
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  their life.
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  And I love it, right?
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  But you can still have that intrinsic sense
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  of, OK, my work matters because of what
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  the work itself is accomplishing.
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  But the place of impact might be beyond
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  the location, right?
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  It might not be as immediate as it
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  is for a nurse or a dentist or
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  a teacher.
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  So you could think of somebody who maybe
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  works in a behind the scenes role, maybe
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  like a computer programmer serving an organization whose
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  mission they believe in.
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  So maybe a computer programmer serving a food
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  bank or a social services organization.
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  The impact of their work is not right
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  in their office where they do the programming,
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  but it is the work itself that they're
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  doing that matters in the community.
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  OK, on the other side, there's extrinsic to
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  the work itself.
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  So seeing work as a means to an
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  end.
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  So, again, this could happen in the workplace
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  itself, where work is a means to an
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  end in the sense that the context of
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  work allows the worker to serve others.
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  So this is the example that Elaine shared
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  of the fellow at the meatpacking plant who's
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  known as Yoda to his co-workers because
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  he's kind of an on-site counselor and
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  advisor.
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  And he talks with his co-workers about
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  their life issues.
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  And it's been an incredibly fruitful ministry for
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  him.
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  The location is his workplace.
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  It's the fact that he shows up and
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  goes to the meatpacking floor every day that
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  allows him to do that ministry.
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  And yet it has nothing to do with
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  packing meat.
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  And then kind of the most distant option
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  would be where the location of service is
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  beyond the workplace and work is also means
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  to an end.
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  The motivation is extrinsic.
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  So that would be where you're using work
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  to pay the bills so that you can
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  go do other things that you believe or
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  you're calling.
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  So this would be like somebody who is
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  serving tables at a restaurant so that they
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  can go pursue an artistic career on the
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  side, right?
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  It's not that the serving tables job is
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  intrinsically meaningful to them in a special way.
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  It's not that they are finding some amazing
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  kind of ministry there at the restaurant.
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  It's I get a paycheck from the work
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  I do here so that I can go
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  do the thing that I think I'm really
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  called to in the arts.
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  Okay, so I want to kind of use
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  this framework and then think about how do
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  we find the meaning in our work?
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  Again, as we think about meaningful work, there's
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  both a sense of decoding meetings, seeing the
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  meaning that's already there.
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  And there's the work of contributing to meaning.
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  What can we do to make our work
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  more meaningful?
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  So what I really love, and some of
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  this is my personal bias, but I really
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  love it when people can identify intrinsic motivation
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  for their work.
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  So I would suggest that even if you
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  happen to fall on the side of extrinsic
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  motivation, like that meatpacking plant worker or that
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  artist waiting tables to take time and see
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  if you can decode any intrinsic motivation for
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  the work that you're doing.
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  For the meatpacking plant, that ministry right there
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  in the plant may be much more significant
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  than the meatpacking itself.
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  But even there, I would encourage that person
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  to think about the significance of the meatpacking
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  as meatpacking, that you're helping provide protein, which
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  is vital for human nutrition, to people in
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  the community.
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  If there weren't meatpacking plants and other food
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  plants and farms and agriculture and industry and
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  grocery stores, we wouldn't thrive as a community
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  in the way that we do.
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  So your work in a meatpacking plant is
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  deeply meaningful in and of itself.
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  Same thing with waiting tables.
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  People in restaurants can have life-transforming conversations.
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  They can have deeply meaningful experiences of intimacy
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  with friends and with family.
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  The food itself, again, is meaningful in and
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  of itself.
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  So again, I would encourage that artist.
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  It could be that their art is much
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  more significant to them than serving tables.
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  But to look to see if they can
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  decode a sense of meaning even in the
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  day job, so to speak.
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  So that's one thing that I think can
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  be helpful, is to look at where you
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  are on these quadrants to kind of identify,
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  is my motivation intrinsic or extrinsic and why?
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  But then see if you can decode some
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  intrinsic motivation elements about how your work itself
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  matters.
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  That's one way to kind of grasp additional
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  meaning in your work.
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  And that's not going to hurt, right?
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  I've never found somebody who's like, my job
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  is just too meaningful.
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  I just wish it didn't matter so much,
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  right?
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  Like if you find an additional layer of
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  meaning in your work, that's a good thing.
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  You can have both extrinsic and intrinsic.
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  And then there's the question of what can
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  I do to make my work more meaningful?
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  And this is where I think that the
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  extrinsic folks are actually leading the way.
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  So Yoda on the meatpacking plant, he's seeing
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  his workplace as an opportunity for ministry.
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  He's seeing I'm here standing next to other
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  people.
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  I can talk with them.
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  So I would encourage you, again, regardless of
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  where you are on the intrinsic extrinsic spectrum,
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  to look at your work and imagine, oh,
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  where are there pockets of opportunity here where
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  I can do something meaningful, whether or not
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  it has to do with the work itself,
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  right?
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  So what are the context of relationships in
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  my workplace?
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  Do I have somebody who I can love,
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  who I can serve, whether or not that's
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  in my job description?
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  Again, maybe it's in a workplace where you
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  have deeply intrinsically motivating responsibilities.
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  You're an educator, you're serving students.
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  But maybe you notice you have a fellow
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  teacher from a different classroom who's going through
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  a really hard time.
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  Maybe the Holy Spirit's prompting you to love
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  that person too, even though that's not directly
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  related to doing the work with your own
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  students.
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  Or again, maybe it's in an extrinsic work.
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  Maybe you're a sanitation worker and you're finding
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  that intrinsic meaning in the community work where
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  it's like, hey, if nobody was hauling this
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  trash, it would be really, really bad for
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  public health.
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  But you're also realizing, wow, I'm paired with
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  my buddy who's driving the vehicle every day.
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  And maybe I can develop a conversation with
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  him that speaks to his soul in some
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  way.
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  So again, let's lean towards the intrinsic as
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  a way to kind of decode meaning that
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  may already be there in our work.
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  And let's take advantage of opportunities, even if
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  they're extrinsic to the work itself, so that
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  we can make our work more meaningful.
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  Okay, now circling back to our question, is
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  every job a calling?
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  I think it might be more helpful to
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  broaden our concept of calling, right?
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  Rather than saying, again, some jobs are this
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  perfect calling from God that resonates with what
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  we were born to do and solves all
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  of these issues in the world at the
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  same place.
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  And there's just one answer to everything.
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  Again, as we think about the kind of
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  our overlapping circles from our other episode, there's
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  just one thing at the center of all
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  three circles that hits it out of the
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  ballpark.
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  Rather than thinking of calling in that narrow
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  sense of just that one thing, again, we
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  can think of calling as more dynamic, as
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  plural.
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  God may call us to multiple kinds of
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  things in our lives as we fulfill various
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  responsibilities.
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  So like one of our responsibilities is to
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  provide for ourselves and our households, that economic
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  engine.
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  That is very meaningful.
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  And that may be the kind of extrinsic
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  sense of your work.
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  So does that mean that you're called to
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  your work or you're not called to your
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  work, right?
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  Like if it's like, I'm really just doing
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  this job to get the paycheck in order
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  to fulfill my spiritual responsibility to provide for
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  myself or my family.
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  Does that mean this job is a calling
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  or not?
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  I feel like it's not a very helpful
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  question.
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  The question is, in what way is your
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  job a calling?
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  That job, if it really is primarily putting
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  food on the table, you're fulfilling the call
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  of God to provide for your family.
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  That's the calling.
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  Again, the job itself may be extrinsic to
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  that.
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  And yet it's instrumentally how you're fulfilling that
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  calling from God.
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  So rather than saying, okay, some jobs are
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  callings and other jobs aren't, right?
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  We can say within each job, let's be
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  honest about how some jobs are different than
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  others.
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  Some jobs provide more extrinsic motivation.
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  Others provide more intrinsic motivation.
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  Some jobs are impactful right there on location.
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  Other jobs are impactful beyond the workplace and
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  the community.
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  Let's be honest about these differences.
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  Let's not let our egalitarian impulse get the
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  better of us and cause us to neglect
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  the differences that really are there.
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  Let's be honest about the differences.
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  And you can be honest about whether you
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  dislike your job or not too.
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  But then within whatever job we have, let's
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  see how the callings, plural, that God has
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  in our life might be fulfilled in different
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  ways within this job.
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  And let's take responsibility both to decode the
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  meaning that's already there and to contribute to
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  the meaning as God gives us opportunity.
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  Lord Jesus, thank you that you meet us
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  in every detail of our lives, good, bad,
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  in between, in the work that we really
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  have.
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  Help us to see the meaning that's there
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  and help us to participate in what you're
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  doing in the world.
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  Help us to contribute to what really matters
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  each day, whether or not it's directly part
• 14:59
  of our work responsibilities.
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  Jesus, do your work in us as we
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  do our work with you.
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  Amen.
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  Thanks for listening.
• 15:11
  Finding God at Work is a production of
• 15:12
  Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
• 15:15
  dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
• 15:18
  life.
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  listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
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  of teaching on faith and work every Tuesday
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  and Thursday.
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  To get resources to go deeper with each
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  podcast series, read our blog and get info
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  about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
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  go to our website, missioncentral.church.