By the end of this blog post, you will be asked to make a decision that will affect the rest of your work life.
Charlie Sheen once said “I try to be known more by my work than anything else.”
Everyone has to work a job at some point in their life; everyone thinks about how important work and work ethic is to them. So do you find your identity in your workplace? This isn’t asking “do people know you have a good work-ethic?” – this is asking “do people know you for your work ethic more than anything else.”
This is identity. What defines you as a person? Is it how hard you work? This doesn’t need to be put on other people’s shoulders – you can decide for yourself what is most important to you.
From my experience, there seems to be two common choices.
One, you can use work to support your life. “Work is a means to get money/experience to support my life.” These people seem preoccupied at work, often texting or on facebook. They take long breaks, only work harder when the boss is around, and care about getting the day over with. When they get home, they complain about how long the day was and how much it sucked.
Two, you can use work to be your life. You can tell this person by their self-motivated dedication. They seem to be on a different gear than their co-workers. At work they take the extra steps to get the best job done, skipping breaks and working from home. They are keen for praise, and believe they are a step ahead of others – often gossiping about coworker’s lack of work-ethic. When they get home (often bringing work with them) they talk about how much they got done and how busy their life is.
Here’s the thing – although these are the most common people at work – they are both annoying to work with. The first person obviously sucks to work with – but you’ve already worked with this person. Lazy. Late. Leaving early. Taking short-cuts. You feel like you have to pick up their slack. You avoid them, you dismiss them, and you may even gossip about them.
Now the second person sounds nice at first – but they suck to work with too. You see, to these people the worth of a person is found in their work. This is a core belief which motivates them to work harder. But, with this comes the fact that people work less then they do. And now they have less worth. They are always pointing out what they did, and what they accomplished at work. Teamwork and collaboration is lost because they are so focused on getting the gold star from their boss. Because identity is found in how much they do, when coworkers do less it makes them inferior. This is prideful, arrogant, and big-headed.
There’s another choice.
There’s a third choice. And there is no cutting the first two choices in the middle. You need the motivation the first person is lacking without the prideful “I’m superior” of the second person. You need a way for that to happen. This way:
The third option. When you believe in the gospel of Jesus you lose any opportunity to say “I’m superior”. Your identity is found Jesus Christ, who did everything for you. No work that you did had an effect on Jesus’ love to save you. You do not gain his acceptance by your work – it is Jesus Christ who died for you. No prideful attitude is present when someone is believing in the gospel.
The motivation is found within the gospel as well. Jesus Christ is the second Adam, the first Adam was created with a purpose: to give glory to God through his life and work (see Adam’s job description in Genesis 2). This purpose was broken by the first Adam, as he decided to believe he was superior to God. The purpose was renewed in the Jesus Christ, who renews the purpose within us.
So believe the gospel. It is important to believe as it will affect how you act. You can go on believing work is just a means to money (and hate work), you can go on believing you are better than your coworkers because of your accomplishments, or you can believe that God made you to work – and Jesus saved you into a job agreement with him where you can never be fired.
For me – I often am the first person. I understand my problem but I’ve not yet overcome it completely. I struggle with belief sometimes. To be completely honest, I need God’s help on it. Even the co-op job I work now can just seem to be a means of further career paths – and yes, it may be. But believing only that just gets me into lazy, long-break, and late habits. I must believe this job has purpose – that I can serve God here in my job – and that is a better way to live.
The Christian life is one of constant belief and repentance.
Believe the gospel of Jesus, understand your identity, live life differently.
No Bull... from Noble. 