Work at Loving Your Work

Every day, in my work inbox, I receive an email from an organization called Unconventional Business Network. It focuses on Godly principles and applies them to business. These “Integrity Moments” have been a lifesaver, bringing me a sense of purpose from the moment I open my laptop for the day. Its founder and CEO, Rick Boxx, has been hosting weekly leadership webinars through the COVID-19 pandemic and each one is more enlightening than the last.

Prior to stumbling on this professional resource, I never considered my job as a way to be a better Christian. I always liked my job, my company, my team, my clients, but in moments of stress and pressure it became drudgery. The list of tasks to complete kept getting longer, while I felt further behind and insignificant. How could I be working that hard, managing a team, satisfying multiple clients and yet feel so unfulfilled?

We spend so many hours at work, about 90,000 over the course of a career. If you are using that time as a distraction from your true purpose, then you can complete all the tasks, go to all the meetings, woo all the clients, attend all the trainings and still feel an emptiness. I just thought that was what work was supposed to feel like. That’s why we call it work, right?

I expected “real life” and “real satisfaction” to come from time with my family, doing things I enjoy, yet there were never enough hours in the day to squeeze that time in. I started to look for other jobs, both in my company and outside of it. I didn’t really want to leave and I’m cynical enough to recognize that the grass is rarely greener in someone else’ yard (just a different shade of brown). Plus, as I read through the job descriptions, I felt unqualified. How am I working so hard, so diligently for the same company for nearly 20 years, and still feel undeserving of something better? I spent a lot of time at work trying to find that fulfillment by doing things better & faster and it made me bitter. When will someone notice? When will I be worthy of the next best thing?

In early 2019, our church offered another book study. The ad in the Sunday bulletin had my name all over it; “learn why we sabotage ourselves, feel overwhelmed, set aside our dreams, and lack the courage to simply be ourselves”. The book was called Resisting Happiness, by Matthew Kelly. As soon as I started it, a light turned on. Every week that the group met to talk about the chapters, the light got brighter. I realized that I could LOVE my job, my company, my team, my clients if I changed my motivation to a biblically centered one, “Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Colossians 3:23

The moment I began to intentionally incorporate God’s word into my work, my job had purpose and potential and was anything BUT drudgery. This is what we want for ourselves, but we first have to realize that God wants it for us even more.