Atheists at Work...? 

As I sit and start this blog today, it's coming up to lunch time on what has been a fairly normal Tuesday morning for me. My thoughts turn to a conversation I had recently with someone about an issue they're facing at work, and something that her role calls on her to do which doesn't sit comfortably with her Christian faith.

Having chatted it through, I can see the dilemma and I don't think there's a nice, neat answer that will square the circle - things that seem clear and simple on a Sunday morning can sometimes seem very different and difficult by Tuesday lunchtime...

- Where is God at work?

Maybe you have faced a similar situation... where you have silently checked yourself and asked the question: Can I do this as Christian? Or even if you've never articulated it that way, you might recognise that strange feeling where you wonder what God thinks of that part of your work.
 
Perhaps it's not with the content of your work, but with the culture of your workplace. With any given role there are concrete expectations; tasks, deadlines, meetings, targets, etc., that can be put down in black and white, but then there are the unspoken expectations. Personalities and politics come into play in all of our lives - but seeing as time spent in work will take up, on average, over 84,365 hours of our lives, it becomes a big part of who we are and where we find our purpose. 

 

- A Good Example of Making a Good Example of Yourself

In my bible reading reading recently I came across this description of a guy in Genesis called Nimrod - we know hardly anything about him, but he sounds absolutely awesome:

"Cush was the father of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth.
He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 

GENESIS 10.8-9

 
Nimrod's job was a hunter - and by the sounds of it, a really good one... he's called a mighty hunter! Not only does he find a place in God's Word, it seems he was so inspiring there was even a saying with his name in it that people used to encourage each other! "Do a Nimrod!"
 
His name goes down in history as being synonymous not just with hunting, but with mighty hunting! (I don't even know what mighty hunting looks like - just that he must have absolutely owned it!)
  
All of which is bound to make us wonder: when our colleagues and clients think of us - what words are associated with our work? Maybe "mighty" doesn't quite fit... but what would you like them to think of you?

In his book, The Road to Character, David Brooks makes a fascinating point:

"It occurred to me that there were two sets of virtues, the résumé virtues and the eulogy virtues.
The résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the marketplace.
The eulogy virtues are the ones that are talked about at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, honest or faithful.
Were you capable of deep love?

We all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the résumé ones. But our culture and our educational systems spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light.
Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character."

DAVID BROOKS

- Bossing it! 

But "mighty" isn't the only way that Nimrod is described. Check it out again:

"He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 

GENESIS 10.9

"Before the Lord..." Later in the Old Testament that little phrase becomes a technical term that described coming into God's Presence and is usually associated with the priests and their work at the temple. But the first time it is used is here - not of a "holy priest" but of a hunter. But it's not just the priests that get to do "God's work" and it's not just the Temple where God can be found! Nimrod sought to do this work "before the Lord!" He wasn't just a believer in the Temple and an atheist at Work - he went about his work mindful that he was doing it in God's Presence! 
 
Here's an amazing thought for you: Wherever you are, right now - God is with you.

At the desk, at the check-out, at the computer, at the whiteboard, at the conference table, at the surgery, at the building site, at the board meeting, at the reception desk, at the call centre, at the school gate, at the wheel, at the library, at the lecture hall, at the kitchen sink, at the allotment... wherever you are: right there, right now - God is with you. Long before Brother Lawrence wrote his book and made it a famous phrase, Nimrod was known for "practicing the Presence" of God, doing life and work in the awareness that he was "before the Lord". 
 
Mark Greene (from the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity) poses us a fascinating thought experiment:

"Suppose for a moment you are word processing a letter and you know it is going to be sent to the Queen. You probably read it sixteen times before you print it out. And you print it out on the best paper you have. Then you think, 'Well maybe if I just changed the word, it might read slightly better.' So you change it again. Read it sixteen times. And print it out again. And check it again.

How carefully we do our work is often determined by who we think is going to see it. Maybe our letter is not for the Queen or even the president of the company, but that shouldn't make any difference. Most of us are atheists when it comes to our work. We don't think God is looking."

THANK GOD IT'S MONDAY (MARK GREENE)

 
The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the church in Colossae: 

 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."

COLOSSIANS 3.23-24

 

God's word calls us to do our work "as working for the Lord" - as if it were for Jesus Himself. Wow, that's a tall order!!

But on the other hand, it also brings a fresh energy to our work too right? "It is the Lord Christ you are serving..." when we serve in this way and represent Jesus in our workplace, somehow He is served and blessed by that, and the Kingdom of God touches peoples lives! A tall order maybe, but a high calling too, we were are invited each and everyday to play our part!
 
Whether your work is with people or portfolios, spreadsheets or statistics, research or reports, test tubes or telephones, children or animals (although the general advice is not to work with either!) - who you are matters more (and will be remembered far longer) than what you do. The ways in which you find to serve Jesus in going about your work in Christlike ways really can have an eternal significance! 
 
So, whatever you're up to today - "Do a Nimrod!"  "Do it for Jesus." "Do it with all your heart..." (Col 3:23) and just watch as something of the culture of His Kingdom begins to spread! 

 

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession
and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere!

2 CORINTHIANS 2:14

So how about you? In what ways have you seen someone inspire you to be more Christlike in your workplace?