Living the Christian Life at Work

— Colossians 3:22–24 — Andrew Fountain: Oct 29, 2017

1. The challenges of work

• Any I have missed?

• Don’t minimize the fact that it’s now fallen under the curse

Quote from John White about exams p.204f

And forever ahead of us go the frightening rituals we go through in examination halls. The silences. The rustling paper. The measured tread of the proctor. Frantic scribblings. The merciless moving of the fingers on the clock...

We put the horror away in the back of our minds, telling ourselves it isn’t so bad as all that. Yet our brain freezes over at the time approaches, and our notes stare back at us blankly and meaninglessly...

I remember the relief I felt when I quit worrying about exams. I was studying human pathology at the time. I recall the desk I was sitting at and the view of tree tops from my open, leaded windows. With half my mind I was reading and with the other half I was worrying about such questions as: Am I really absorbing this stuff? Is it likely to come up in the exam? Maybe this textbook is too detailed. Am I going too slowly? Should I get another textbook? Ought I to rely on lecture notes? Why is it so boring?

The Fight John White p.205

• This is the Scripture that changed his life:

• I have a confession to make, that I slip in and out of doing this.
  • But when I remember to have this mindset, it does transform my work
• I was once in a work situation where I was very angry with some of my co-workers
  • All my hard work was being ignored and I was being ordered around like a nobody
  • I was bringing creative skill from years of experience and it wasn’t even consisdered
  • I couldn’t understand why I was so angry
    • This passage totally transformed my thinking at that time and took all my anger away
• MSDS: To start with was given mind-numblingly boring work to do. I was the lowest on the ladder
• IBM Horrible boss. Ended up being physically sick because of the treatment.
  • I wasn’t alone. Open plan office—wave of cheering.
• Toxic workplace—resigned, trusting God
• Graduate work—self-discipline

2. Balancing our time

• Undergraduate—never worked on Sundays (I’m not saying that you shouldn’t but that’s what I felt God was asking me to do.)
• I believed the principle: “Honour God and he will honour you”

• Even when my final exam, that counted for everything, was on the Monday
• How can you possibly suffer by putting God first? —it doesn’t make sense!
  • Of course we must be reasonable. PA team meeting on the Tuesday evening, and I had another exam on the Wed
    • There was pressure from other Christians to do more
    • God is our master, not other Christians

3. When to complain

• Marconi Space & Defense: workstations were crowded so closely together Factories act of 1802 >200yrs ago
• God’s kingdom is about justice
  • Rights, Contract
  • Not called to be a worm
  • We must protect others as well
  • Nevertheless Jesus said: “And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.” Mat 5:41
• Sometimes we need to be assertive
  • IBM: A lot of pressure but I asserted what I needed
  • “I can’t do this job because there is no documentation. The only person who understands it is in the USA and I’m never able to speak to him on the phone.”
  • How long would you need to speak to him for? —A week. Is your passport up to date?

4. Pointing to Jesus

• One approach: Nail your colours to the mast
  • take every single opportunity to witness (Anne & I knew someone like this, well meaning, but...)
• Problem: Don’t take advantage of a captive audience
  • It is your employer’s time
  • You can end up being obnoxious—everyone wants to avoid you
    • You end up giving a very negative impression of Christianity
• But it’s very important that people know you are a Christian
  • They may start watching your life, but this is not a bad thing
    • Witness with your life
  • Give people opportunities to pick up on things you throw out. Don’t hide your Christian or church life from them.
  • Very interesting article www.telegraph.co.uk/…hard.html
• Story of store manager with a Christian woman who worked for him
  • Her life led to his salvation—he saw something different. He saw a joy
  • Maybe you are not a Christian and you see a joy. Do you want it?
    • Jesus offers it to you for free
• Not allowing the pressure of work to smother the light of Jesus in you
  • Good Samaritan experiment
    • faculty.babson.edu/…marit.html
    • jasonjohnsonblog.com/…amaritan

5. Success

• Success != the top of our career

• Jesus will say this to all of us, some more than others, but we’ll all have a reward and enter into the joy of our master.

Updated on 2017-11-02 by Andrew Fountain