Experiencing God In Your Work: Insights and Stories to Help You Connect Meaningfully with God in Your Work

By Joe Carroll

A major "faith – work gap" exists in Christianity. Many Christians encounter a wide spiritual gap between their Sunday worship and their Monday through Friday work experience. Jesus' promise of a full and abundant life seems foreign to most when it comes to their work.

Work is the place where people spend the majority of their lives, yet it is the place where God is experienced the least. Furthermore, while the home is the most difficult place to authentically live out one's faith, the workplace is the place where most feel disconnected from their faith. The truth is most Christians have never been exposed to the exciting vision God has for them in their work nor have they had good role models in this arena.

The book "Experiencing God in Your Work" reveals God's preeminent purpose for you in your work. Understanding God's purpose will help you in establishing critical work related priorities. The perspectives in this book will also help you establish Biblical values that will guide you in making God honoring decisions on real issues. One of the best parts of the book are the stories. These stories will stimulate your ideas on how to apply the Bible to critical workplace situations or even create new initiatives that will impact people for eternity.

The book is specifically designed for small group discussions who want to sincerely integrate their faith into their work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098321529

Joe Carroll

Born and raised in northern New Jersey, Joe Carroll didn’t grow up steeped in Southern barbecue culture. With a curious nature and a love of food, Carroll launched barbecue joint Fette Sau in Brooklyn in 2007, luring in equal parts hipsters and barbecue devotees. With his beer garden, Spuyten Duyvil, and his casual American steak house, St. Anselm, in Brooklyn, Carroll continues to expand, opening Fette Sau in Philadelphia as well. Carroll; his wife, Kim; and their twin daughter and son live in Brooklyn, New York.

Book preview

Notes

Introduction:

Opus Dei

It’s Wednesday, 6:17 P.M. Looks like I’ll be late for dinner…again. As I leave my office, a lot of work is being left behind. Left behind are unfinished projects. Left behind are voice-mail messages that need to be returned…proposals that need to be written…e-mails that need to be answered. Yet, as I head to my car, the most unsettling feeling is the realization that somewhere in my workday, God got left behind. Feelings of guilt and frustration disturb me as the most important Being in my life has been left out of my day. I wish I could say this was an unfamiliar feeling. It’s not. For me, experiencing God in my daily work is hard. I’ve discovered that my well-intentioned resolves from morning devotions to experience God in my work can disappear as soon as the demands of the day set in.

However, I firmly believe that God can be experienced in our work.…and since starting my career over thirty-four years ago, I’ve had many wonderful and meaningful times when I’ve experienced God in my work. But I know that God has so much more for me to experience. I have a deep realization that the extent to which I genuinely engage with God in my work is a reflection of how authentically my faith is being integrated into the rest of my life.

The gap between my desire to experience God in my work and the reality of actually experiencing God in my work is certainly not unique to me. I’ve interacted with many who have a sincere desire to experience God in their work and are frustrated with the disconnect that exists between their desire and their reality. In a recent small group meeting, one man shared how he and two other men covenanted to totally involve God in their daily work. They were going to hold each other accountable and report back to each other at the end of each day. Their efforts were short-lived and within days, their desires were doused with feelings of disillusionment. And like these men, I’ve discovered that the desire to experience God in work and the reality of authentically experiencing God in work is elusive and not encountered by most. There have been many occasions, at the end of my workday, when I’ve said something like, God, where were You today? It seemed like we started out well, but somewhere along the way I forgot all about You.

I remember wrestling with similar feelings when I started my career many years ago. The year 1981 was a big year for me. I finished college, moved to San Antonio, Texas, and got married, all within a six-month period. My wife, Martha, and I had met while we were involved in a Navigators ministry at the University of Texas in Austin. The greatest challenges we faced in the first years of our marriage were not marriage issues but work issues. Martha got a job as a teacher and I was hired to be a leasing agent for a prominent commercial real estate developer. It was very common for us, after an exhausting day at work, to plop onto the bed and talk about our day. I treasure those memories. We laughed and shared highlights, but much of the conversation was about the fears, anxieties, difficulties, and stresses we were experiencing in our work.

Beginning a career was one of the hardest transitions of my life. I remember feeling so insecure and intimidated. Everyone seemed so confident and knowledgeable, while I often felt like a deer in the headlights. My introduction to my career field felt like learning a new language, as many of the words, procedures, and skills were foreign to me. I was anxious because I didn’t even know what I didn’t know.

Suffice it to say that my transition into work was a sobering experience. I had experienced God in so many exciting ways during my college years. Work, however, spiritually disrupted me. It shook the foundation of my identity and challenged the authenticity of my faith. It exposed my underdeveloped theology of work and my immaturity in living out the gospel relevantly in one of the most important arenas of society—work.

The pursuit to integrate faith and work has been a challenging endeavor. And I’ve observed that it doesn’t come naturally to any of us. I’ve also witnessed many who seem well-intentioned in their efforts to bridge this gap, but in many instances their efforts are culturally irrelevant and frankly, socially weird. While Jesus’ life and teachings created spiritual upheaval in people’s lives, His faith expressions genuinely and relationally engaged with those around Him. Is this not the type of faith experience we long for? A faith that experiences no dividing line between Sunday worship and Monday work? A living faith that ends practical atheism in our work and authentically connects us with God while working with others in a culturally relevant manner?

The Emergence of BLE

I also discovered that the pursuit to experience God in my work was not meant to be a solo endeavor. A few years after a jump-start career, God providentially linked me with a few other men who were serious about integrating their faith into their work. We were an unlikely grouping of guys in different seasons of life and different professions. Yet, within each of us, God had developed a conviction that He had created work to be a spiritual endeavor. We were awakened and motivated by the fact that God is the Author of all enterprise and that principles necessary to live a God-honoring life at work are revealed in the Bible.

Our interactions led to focused times of prayer. Our times of prayer led to a spiritual vision…a vision birthed by God to reach a multitude of men and women who would impact their workplaces by the melding of their faith into their work. The vision led to an intense collaboration of writing, interacting, and praying. This eventually led to inviting others to join us to try out a new ten-week interactive and Bible-focused group on The Effective Christian Career. The first trial group was held early in the morning in my office conference room in 1984. Others soon became interested. Study groups multiplied around the San Antonio area and into other cities. We trained leaders and encouraged groups to be held in workplaces. The power of people discussing God’s Word as it applies to work significantly changed the way many people approached their work experience. It was from these beginnings that Biblical Leadership for Excellence (BLE) emerged, and since then thousands have been involved in BLE groups in the workplace.

It became obvious to all of us who were involved at the beginning that a spiritual movement in the marketplace was occurring that far exceeded anything we could have engineered. God was moving… He was certainly moving in the lives of many in our city in spite of our character flaws and shortcomings. Conference rooms became prayer rooms, and we heard of other marketplace ministries that began in other cities across the country. Theologian David Miller chronicles the broader scale of this movement of God in his book God at Work. He cites the history of three major time periods in which there have been significant Faith at Work movements. Notice the time frame he cites as the beginning of the most recent Faith at Work movement: This era is evident as early as 1985, built momentum and size through the 1990s, and still continues today with no sign of receding.¹

Work is the place where we spend the majority of our lives—yet it is the place where God is experienced the least.

While this movement is growing globally, there still remains a prevailing need for us to learn how to desecularize our work and meaningfully experience God in the normal activities of our work. Obviously, the topic of this book is huge, and it goes beyond my abilities or maturity level to adequately address. As a result, this book is a more of a book of aspiration. The lessons expressed here are what I aspire to experience in my own life and what I believe God desires for every Christ follower. My journey to experience God in my work has been exciting and meaningful, but I still have many moments and many days in which I have been spiritually disconnected in my work…days in which I have thought more about myself than I have about God. I’m in desperate need of following the directives and challenges laid out in this book as much as anyone. I have also purposely sought to include the voices of other Christ followers, through their experiences and stories, in how they have experienced God in their work. (In some cases, names have been changed to protect their identity.)

It’s my desire that this book will be a springboard for God to take you down a faith-invigorating journey with Him in your work…that you will enjoy His presence more and that His character will impact your work-related motivations and interactions. Keep a copy of this book handy in your office for those times when you need a freshened perspective or encouragement.

I assure you that your desire to experience God more personally in your work will be greatly enhanced if you meet weekly with others to discuss the lessons and honestly interact over the questions at the end of each chapter. (Appendix A provides some guidelines that can help make your group experience meaningful.)

In 1928, a young priest in Spain by the name of Josemaria Escriva personally discovered the truth of how God is to be experienced in the simple activities of everyday life, including work. These convictions led to the teaching of Opus Dei², which declares that "Work, family life and other ordinary activities are occasions for spiritual union with Jesus Christ." I hope you will join me and many others in the quest of allowing God to transform the ordinary activities of our work into richer experiences of spiritual union with God.

Joe M. Carroll

Joemcarroll.com

PART 1

Embracing God’s Purposes in Your Work

There’s nothing better for human beings than to eat, drink and experience pleasure in their hard work… This is from God’s hand

—Ecclesiastes 2:24 CEB

Every day, millions of workers go to work without seeing the slightest connection between what they do all day and what they think God wants done in the world.

—Doug Sherman

The Bible begins talking about work as soon as it begins talking about anything.

—Timothy Keller

There is no fun like work.

—Dr. Charles Mayo, founder of the Mayo Clinic

1

And God Said, It Was Good

Adam was a naked gardener. Eve was his helper. God employed them; the Trinity entrusted them; and work was introduced to man. Work was given to man as a gift…work was given as a blessing…and God said, "It was good."

Work… It is God’s idea. God works. God worked before He created man. God worked when he created man. In the beginning, God worked. The first image we have of God is that of Him working. Five times in the opening chapter of Genesis, God states that His work "is good." That’s why the psalmist declares, "What a wildly wonderful world, GOD! You made it all…."¹ And after God saw all that He had made, He said, "…it was very good."²

God Still Works

Not only did God work when He created the universe, but He is actively working in our everyday world. The world is God’s workplace. The universe is His tapestry. God activates the seasons, orchestrates the weather, and engineers the water cycle. Each day, He’s like an artist, painting the sky with a different silhouette. At night, He populates the atmosphere with an ever-changing array of twinkling lights. (On a good night, your naked eye might be able to see about ten thousand stars; a new study suggests there are a mind-blowing three hundred sextillion of them.… That is a 3 followed by 23 zeroes. Or 3 trillion times 100 billion.³)

Day after day, God displays His handiwork in the natural world around us. He lavishly expresses His artistry in flowers, plants, and trees. He uniquely displays His brilliant creativity in insects, reptiles, mammals, and exotic ocean life. It is His power that daily holds the universe together. Through everything He has done and is actively doing in creation, we "…clearly see his invisible qualities" (Romans 1:20 NLT).

Yet, God’s involvement in our world is not only confined to the realm of nature. God sovereignly, caringly, and powerfully works in ways that are not observable to our natural senses. God is intricately working in the spiritual realm. He is working right now. And He lovingly, graciously, and pervasively works in the hearts and souls of people, including you and me.

•" God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us " (1 Corinthians 12:6 NLT ).

•" And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished " (Philippians 1:6 NLT ).

•" God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him " (Philippians 2:13 NLT ).

•" And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose " (Romans 8:28 NLT ).

•" My Father is always working , and so am I " (John 5:17 NLT ).

Why Is Work Good?

Work is a vital part of God’s nature. God works because He enjoys working. Work reveals what God is like. Work is an integral part of His being. It reflects who He is. One of the greatest thoughts you can have about God is that of God working. Through God’s work we are privileged to learn what He is like. His work reveals His character. What He does reveals to us His heart and His purposes. It is through His work that we can know God.

God works for the sheer joy of it.

Work is good because God created work. God created man to work ("Six days you shall labor and do all your work…" (Exodus 20:9 NIV). Work is a significant and critical part of God’s design for man. God placed within each of us the need to work. As a result, work is an integral part of our God-designed DNA. While work is not to be our life, God intends for work to be a vital component of our life. We don’t live to work, but work is to be an important part of living. Over the past forty years, I’ve worked in various positions and in differing capacities, and I truly can’t imagine what my life would be like without work. And although work is often stressful and frustrating, a life void of meaningful work is a life void of God’s intended blessing. Pastor Timothy Keller states:

Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, prayer, and sexuality; it is not simply medicine but food for our soul. Without meaningful work we sense significant loss and emptiness. People who are cut off from work because of physical or other reasons quickly discover how much they need work to thrive emotionally, physically, and spiritually.⁴

Unfortunately, many today view work as a curse, rather than a blessing—we often see work as some necessary evil we have to endure between 8 A.M. on Monday through 5 P.M. on Friday. Many Christians also believe that work was cursed by God when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. What is overlooked is that God had already declared that work was good in the first chapter of Genesis, and Adam and Eve’s fall occurred in chapter 3. Work was an integral part of life in paradise before the curse. The curse didn’t make work bad, it just made work hard. (And it is also important to note that the book of Revelation reveals that work will be a prominent part of our heavenly existence in God’s coming Kingdom!⁵)

Jesus’ Life Validates the Eternal Significance of Work

Have you ever considered how Jesus spent the majority of His life here on earth? The vast majority of Jesus’ life was spent working. Until Jesus was thirty, His vocation was carpentry. In a poignant painting, Frances Hook portrays Jesus being focused on His work. Businessman John Beckett describes his impression of the painting: It portrays Jesus with his muscular arm running a box plane down a piece of wood, his gaze intent on what he is making, his whole character reflecting the excellence of his trade. For over a decade, Jesus ran a small woodworking shop. Just as we do in our larger business, he had to plan ahead, purchase materials, maintain his tools and inventory, manage the work of others, tend to product quality, please his customers, and pay taxes. He was making real products—tables and chairs, cabinets, oxen yokes for farming. He was meeting real needs.⁶

So if work has little value to God, why did Jesus do it for so many years? If work has no spiritual value in God’s eternal purposes, why did Jesus run a small business all those years before embarking on His public ministry? We see clearly in Scripture that as early as twelve years old, Jesus had the skills and maturity to interact with and impact adults.⁷ He could have skipped the carpentry business and gone public in His ministry right then. But He didn’t. So consider this. Were the approximate eighteen years that Jesus spent working wasted years? Why would He spend all that time cutting and carving on wood when there was "ministry to do? Why would Jesus work in a secular job when there were souls to save? Why spend so much time making chairs when He could be making disciples? Jesus was certainly not working just to get a paycheck, nor was He intent on building some retirement nest egg." If work has no value to God, then why did Jesus spend the majority of His adult life in a vocation that was not full-time ministry?

We certainly understand that the culmination of Jesus’ work was not the work of carpentry. Yet it was the work of a carpenter (of both the One who hung on the cross and the one who made the cross) that allows every carpenter to experience the transforming power of God in their work.

Work Has Instrumental Value—

It Contributes to God’s Kingdom Purposes

The Complete Jewish Bible translates Genesis 2:15 as follows: "ADONAI, God, took the person and put him in the garden of ‘Eden to cultivate and care for it." What God created needed to be cared for. What God made needed cultivation. After God finished His creation, He noted, "And there was no man to cultivate the ground" (Genesis 2:5 NASB). Note that the untarnished and pristine garden needed work. When God hired Adam and Eve, it wasn’t because He was in a bind and in desperate need for help. Mankind was not God’s last resort. God was very capable of taking care of what He had created. Yet out of God’s kindness, He deliberately chose to employ human beings to be the caretakers and cultivators of His creation.

One of God’s primary and intentional kingdom purposes is for us to co-labor with Him in the stewardship and improvement of His creation. When God placed man in the garden, the charge "to cultivate and care for it" was not an elective option