How is work worship? This was the question I started to answer in my previous article. Beyond the words and phrases easily thrown around at church, what can we see in work that draws our eyes to our Creator? What will fill us with joy during our workday?
What will fill us with joy during our workday?
This line of thinking ties into an equally important and related question that we must answer before we can fully see the worship inherent in work.
What Makes a Job ‘Christian’?
If you were to poll a group of believers and ask what jobs are “Christian,” the list is normally pretty short: pastor or missionary, doctor or nurse, non-profit worker, and maybe a police officer or firefighter.
We don’t see God’s hand at work, in many jobs.
Here is the two-fold dilemma we face with this answer. First, none of these jobs will exist in the New Heavens and the New Earth, as they all depend on the existence of sin. There will be no fires to put out, no unbelievers to save, no criminals to arrest, no sick to heal. Second, in this view we find ourselves incredibly close to effectively denying the doctrine of providence when we separate jobs into categories of “good” where God is working, and “not good” where we seemingly don’t see his hand at work. We must have our definition of “Christian job” wrong if this is the shaky theological ground it strands us on.
I was once at a Christian conference where the topic of faith and work was being discussed. A woman in a senior role at a company relayed her experience at a large company before moving to a much smaller, “Christian company.” “In corporate America,” she said, “I struggled with finding purpose in work. Then I went to a Christian business and saw how you can integrate your faith and work.”
The crowd cried “amens.” There was applause. But I was left bewildered. Was there no purpose at her Fortune 500 job, or was she unable to find it? Was God not working in her job, or could she not see it? Is God’s providence, sovereignty, and common grace existent in so-called Christian jobs but not in the “secular”?
What Even Is a ‘Christian Job’?
Is it a Christian creating a Christian-specific product like a Bible? If a non-Christian works on a Christian-specific product like a faith-focused movie, is that Christian job? If a Christian works on a non-Christian-specific product like an iPhone, is that Christian job?
So, again, what is a Christian job? The answer to this question is one of the biggest determinants for how we view work as a whole, and the key to that answer is a solid, joyful grasp of the doctrine of providence.
God’s Providence in All of Life (and Jobs)
John Piper defines providence as, “Purposeful sovereignty…God’s providence is that his sovereignty is his right and power to do all that he pleases; his providence is the exercise of that right and power purposefully.”
Humans are wired in a way where complexity induces awe. This is why photomosaics and Rube Goldberg machines captivate us. The idea of the human mind finding beauty and awe in complexity is a wonderful God-centered truth to meditate on. And isn’t this how the world operates on a daily basis?
When we see a doctor, yes, God healed you through the doctor; and, also, God healed you through so many other vocations behind that doctor. The doctor may have written me the prescription, but they received the medicine from a pharmaceutical company. Thus, I have to be equally grateful for and aware of God’s work through the pharmaceutical company both making the drugs, and running smoothly enough to stay in business.
We see a beautifully complex web of relationships that cannot be separated.
This then leads me to be grateful for the bookkeepers that make sure the financials are correct and the company continues to operate. I’m grateful for the biochemists who have been gifted by God to understand how to mix certain compounds to create medicine that can cure us of sickness—not to mention glorifying God that he created the matter in compounds in such a way that they can even be combined to make a life-saving medicine.
Furthermore, I’m grateful for the custodians that keep the hospitals germ-free. I’m grateful for the truck drivers that transport the medicine from the manufacturing facilities. I’m grateful for the workers at highway rest stops that allow the truck drivers to traverse the country.
God Uses Our Work to His Greater Ends
As we appreciate each additional degree of the process, we come to see a beautifully complex web of relationships that cannot be separated. Through the lens of providence, we see in our work that God uses so many means to bring about a single end. In that, we praise him and see value in all our work. White and blue collar jobs are both shown to be ways the Lord is showing his grace and kindness to us, as we all are participants in his providence. The umbrella for what encompasses a Christian job grows exponentially wider. This is what makes work intrinsically sacred.
Work is intrinsically sacred.
We serve a God who is exercising care and love over his creation. Providence leads us to be aware of all God is using to bring about one outcome. Instead of passing by his glory and our joy, Providence allows us to glimpse into the depth of knowledge, wisdom, and power of our God. Providence allows us to deeply delight in the seemingly mundane. Providence allows us to worship and find delight as we glimpse his glory.
