Foreword

•  The Gospel reminds us that God cares about the products we make, the companies we work for, and the customers we serve. He not only loves us, but also loves the world and wants us to serve it well. My work is a critical way in which God is caring for human beings and renewing his world. God gives us our vision and our hope.

• The gospel gives meaning to our work as leaders. We're supposed to treat all people and their work with dignity. We're to create an environment in which people can flourish and use their God-given gifts to contribute to society. We're to embody grace, truth, hope and love in the organisations we create. 

• We're to express our relationship with God and his grace to us in the way we speak, work and lead, not as perfect exemplars but as pointers to Christ. 

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Introduction

• The Latin word vocare - to call is the root to the word "vocation". A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself. Our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests, not as a means of self fulfillment and self realization. 

• God gives us talents and gifts so we can do for one another what he wants to do for us and through us. Niggle was assured that the tree he had "felt and guessed" was "a true part of creation" and that even the small bit of it he had unveiled to people on earth had been a vision of the True.

• If this life is all there is, then everything will eventually burn up in the death of the sun and no one will even be around to remember anything that has ever happened. Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavours will come to naught. Unless there is God, then every good endeavour, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God's calling, can matter forever. 

• Whatever your work, you need to know this: There really is a tree. There is a God, there is a future healed world that he will bring about,, and your work is showing it (in part) to others, Your work will be only partially successful, on your best days, in bringing that world about. But inevitably the whole tree that you seek - the beauty, harmony, justice, comfort, joy and community - will come to fruition. If you know all this, you won't be despondent because you can get only a leaf or two out of this.

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The Design of Work

• Work was part of paradise. It's as much as basic human need as food, beauty, rest and friendship. (without meaningful work, we sense significant inner loss and emptiness) 

• Work is one of the ways we make ourselves useful to others, rather than just living a life for ourselves. It's a way we come to understand our distinct abilities and gifts. 

• Freedom is not so much the absence of restrictions as finding the right ones, those that fit with the realities of our own nature and those of the world.

• The commandments of God in the Bible are a means of liberation, because through them God calls us to be what he built us to be. Cars work well when you follow the user's manual and honor the design of the car. When we disobey the commands of God, we are not only dishonoring God but we are actually acting against our own nature as God designed you. 

• You will not have a meaningful life without work, but you cannot say that work is the meaning to your life. 

• Leisure is not an absence of work but an attitude of mind in which you are able to contemplate and enjoy things as they are in themselves, without regard to their value or immediate utility. God did not just make things useful, He made things beautiful.

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The Dignity of Work

• Only man is set apart and given a job description - subdue and have dominion. Other plants and animals are simply called to teem and reproduce. 

• Work has dignity because it is something that God does and because we do it in God's place, as his representatives. All kinds of work have dignity. 

• Our attitude shows whether we recognize the inherent dignity of the work we are doing, and brings out our goodness and worth. 

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Work as Service

• ‘How with my existing abilities and opportunities can I be of greatest service to other ppl, knowing what I do of Gods will and of human need?’

• If the point of work is to serve and exalt ourselves, then our work inevitably becomes less about the work and more about us. Our aggressiveness will eventually become abuse, our drive will become burnout, our self sufficiency will become self loathing. But if the purpose of work is to serve and exalt something beyond ourselves, then we actually have a better reason to deploy our talent, ambition and entrepreneurial vigour - and we are more likely to be successful in the long run, even by the worlds definition.

• The church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him to not be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. 

• The very actions of daily life are spiritual and enable people to touch God in the world, not away from it. Your work is your prayer. The first way to be sure you are serving God in your work is to be competent.

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Work Becomes Fruitless

• In Gen 3:8, there is an inadequate awareness of the seriousness of sin, moral perceptions are clouded, and the self centered view of values is well beneath the God centered view... The blindness of sin is beginning to take effect... From the moment of the fall, humankind has suffered from moral schizophrenia: neither able to deny sinfulness nor to acknowledge it for what it is. 

• Work becoming fruitless means that we will be able to envision far more than we can accomplish, both because of a lack of ability and because of the resistance in the environment around us. 

• Just because you cannot realise your highest aspirations in work does not mean you have chosen wrongly. You should expect to be regularly frustrated in your work even though you may be in exactly the right vocation. 

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Work Becomes Pointless

•  Esclrsiastrs talks abt 3 life projects to discover a meaningful life under the sun. Through learning and wisdom (Ecc 1:12-18). Through pursuit of pleasure (Ecc 2:1-11). Through achievement and hard work (Ecc 2:17-26)

1) If we have the luxury of options,  choose work that we can do well. It should fit our gifts and capacities. Cultivate our hidden potential and make the greatest room for the ministry of competence.

2) choose work the serve the world and benefit others.

3) If possible, we do not simply wish to benefit our family, benefit the human community and benefit ourselves - we also want to benefit our field of work itself. 

• ‘The moment you only think of serving other people, you begin to have a notion that other people owe you something for your pains; you begin to think that you have a claim on the community. You will begin to bargain for reward, to angle for applause and to harbour a grievance if you are not appreciated. But if your mind is set upon serving the work, then you know you have nothing to look for; the only reward the work can give you is the satisfaction of beholding it’s perfection. The work takes all and gives nothing but itself, and to serve the work is a labour of pure love. The only true way of serving the community is to be truly in sympathy with the community, to be oneself part of the community and then to serve the work... It is the work that serves the community; the business of the worker is to serve the work. 

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Work Becomes Selfish

•  Tower of Babel (work was to maximise power, glory and autonomy. but you don’t have to make a name if you got a name from God.)

• Our pride and need for personal significance necessarily lead to competition, disunity and strife.

• Esther, Daniel and Joseph. All were believers, each was an official in a pluralistic, nonbelieving government and culture. None were prophets, priests, elders or teachers. They had reached the highest circle of power in their secular cultural institutions and God uses them mightily.

• Are we using our capital to feather our own nests and move on ahead in our own careers rather than leveraging for others? There are poorer ppl who needed their connections and talents. Inside their circles of influence and fields of work there was corruption that needed their attention. You may make less money or move up the ladder slower. But don’t just get into the palace and bend every rule you can to stay here. Serve. You have come to your royal position for such a time as this. 

• If Esther risks losing the palace, she might lose everything. But if she doesn’t risk losing the palace, she will lose everything. 

• Unless you use your clout, credentials and money in service to the people outside the palace, the palace is a prison; it has already given you your name. 

• Jesus didn’t say ‘If i perish, I perish’ but ‘When i perish, I’ll perish’.  See esther not as an example but a pointer to Christ and Christ not as a an example but as a Savior doing these things for you personally, then you will see how valuable you are to him. 

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Work Reveals Our Idols

• Idolatory means imagining and trusting anything to deliver the control, security, significance, satisfaction, and beauty that only the real God can give. Turning a good thing into an ultimate thing.

• Idols are not only pervasive, they’re powerful. When we set our hope on an idol we are saying ‘If I had that, it would fix everything; then I’d feel my life really had value’. If any circumstances threaten to take it away we are paralysed with uncontrollable fear; if something or someone has taken it away, we burn with anger and struggle with a sense of despair. 

• Idols of comfort and pleasure make it impossible to work as hard as necessary to have a faithful and fruitful career. Idols of power and approval lead us to overwork or to be ruthless and unbalanced in our work practices. Idols of control take several forms - intense worry, lack of trust, micromanagement. 

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A New Concept of Work

• God gives out gifts of wisdom, talent, beauty, and skill according to his grace - that is, completely unmerited way. 

• Christians are free to study the world of human culture in order to know more of God; for as creatures made in His image we can appreciate truth and wisdom wherever we find it. 

• Without an understanding of common grace, Christians will have trouble understanding why non Christians so often exceed Christians morally and in wisdom. Properly understood, the octrine of sin means that believers are never as good as our true worldview should make us. Similarly, unbelievers are never as messed up as their false worldviews should make them. For in the Christian story, the antagonist is not non Christians but the reality of sin, which lies within us as well as within them. 

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A New Compass for Work

• Righteous people disadvantage themselves to advantage others. 

• Wisdom is more than just obeying God's ethical norms; it is knowing the right thing to do in the 80percent of life's situations in which the moral rules don't provide the clear answer. 

• Don't merely believe in God, know Him personally. When God's gracious love becomes not an abstract doctrine but a living reality, it means our heart is less controlled by anxiety and pride (two powerful forces that constantly lead us to unwisely over-react or under-react.) 

• Know ourselves. Many bad decisions stem form an inability to know what we are and are not capable of accomplishing. 

• Wisdom through experience. A proud person blames all failures on others, while the self hater takes full blame for them even when others are responsible. 

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A Different Audience

• Employees. Not to do only the minimum work to avoid penalty, not to work hard only when their supervisors can observe them; nor work mindlessly or distractedly. Fully engaged in work as whole persons, giving their minds, hearts and bodies fully to doing the best possible on the task at hand. 

• Because, you are working as if serving the Lord. You have an unimaginable reward in Christ, your work don't have to be duly tied to the amount of reward you get from your masters. You have been set free to enjoy working. Prospect of money and acclaim or the lack of it will not be your controlling consideration. Work will be primarily a way to please God by doing His work in the world, for His name's sake. True fear of the Lord means you live in awe and wonder. Work is to be done with all your heart and might, as skillfully as you can, and it should not feel like a burden, but as privilege. 

• Wholeheaterdly - focus and integrity. Ethical and not just to win favour when eyes are on you. Work with cheerfulness and joy. 

• Christians should be known to NOT be ruthless. A reputation of being fair, caring and committed to others. Marked by sympathy and by unusual willingness to forgive and reconcile. 

• Be generous with your time and investments. Consider living modestly, below your potential lifestyle level in order to be financially generous with others. 

• Be calm and poised in the face of difficulty or failure. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. When our meaning in life and identity is at stake, we panic and often act impulsively or simply plunge into despair. 

• Don't be seen as sectarian. Don't just blend in with your colleagues. Some let their faith be known but speak and act in a way that makes nonbelievers feel subtly marginalised or disdained. Respect and treat those who believe differently as valued equals in the workplace and at the same time be unashamed to be identified with Jesus. 

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Christian Ethics in your Vocation

• The triune nature of God and our being made in his image means that human life is fundamentally relational. Contemporary capitalism increasingly has the power to eliminate the intimacy and accountability of human relationships. So in the marketplace, there is an urgent need for those with a powerful compass. 

• Theological and ethical reflection on our field of work is not easy. It is easier by far to focus on your own job and merely seek to work with personal integrity, skill and a joyful heart, but that is not all it takes. Christians are to think persistently and deeply about the shape of work in their field and whether (in biblical terms) it accords as well as possible with human well-being and with justice. 

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New Power for Work 
 

• Passion
  - Without something bigger than yourself to work for, then all of your work energy is actually fueled by one of the other six deadly sins.
   
  "Acedia" is the most subtle idolatry of all. A life driven by cost-benefit analysis of "what's in it for me". Acedia is a sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing and only remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die. We have known if far too well for many years, the only thing perhaps we have not known about it is it is a mortal sin. A person characterized by acedia - in which their driving passion is for their own needs, comfort, and interests - does not necessarily look lazy at all. This type of person seems to generate lots of activity. But acedia "the sin of the empty soul" opens you to letting all the other sins be the motivations of your work. 
  
  - You are adopted into God's family, so you already have your affirmation. You are justified in God's sight, so you have nothing to prove. You have been saved through a dying sacrifice so you are free to be a living one. You are loved ceaselessly so you can work tirelessly in response to a quiet inner fullness. 
   

• Rest 
  
  -  Resting helps us get perspective on our work and put it in its proper place. Get some distance from it and reimmerse ourselves in other activities. Then we see there is more to life than work. With that perspective and rested bodies and minds, we return to do more and better work. 
  
  - Rhythm of work and rest is designed by God. Sabbath is therefore a celebration of our design.  (Deut 5:12-15) 
  
  - Sabbath is a declaration of our freedom. You are not a slave - not to your culture's expectations, your family's hopes, your med school's demands, not even your own insecurities. It is important to learn to speak this truth to yourself with a note of triumph - otherwise you will feel guilty for taking time off or be unable to truly unplug.