Finding God at Work

Healing is part of the Good News. It's Good News that Jesus has power to heal. It's Good News that people can come to him in faith and receive healing. It's Good News that Jesus heals not only the wound, but also the shame that goes with it. As we think about proclaiming the Good News at work, we realize we are called to minister the healing presence of Jesus to those around us. A daunting calling...

Kingdom. Redemption. Deliverance. There are so many beautiful images from Scripture that describe what God has done, is doing, and will do in the world. Perhaps no single term is as commonly referenced—or as commonly misunderstood—as "salvation." Salvation is not less than forgiveness. But it is more.  Salvation is a life. Sources: Colossians 1:13-14 (ESV) C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York:...

What is the Good News about Jesus, really?   Sometimes we use transactional language to describe atonement, what Jesus accomplished on the cross. But the Good News is much more like a wedding than a business transaction. It's not two-dimensional "barcode faith"—getting scanned the right way so you go to the right destination. It's an announcement about what God is doing in the world, and how anyon...

We kick off a new series with this episode— Gentle Witnesses: Sharing Your Faith at Work In A Way That Actually Makes Sense . If you've had a life-changing encounter with Jesus, it makes sense that you would want to share your faith with others. But have you ever felt stuck about how to share your faith?   We know that there are obnoxious and forced and even manipulative ways to "share your faith....

In this bonus episode for Series 2, Chris interviews Mike Henry, Sr., founder of Follower of One, a global community helping others move one notch closer to Jesus. Mike shares his story of coming to faith and learning that his job *is* his mission field. Chris shares a testimony of participating in a recent Marketplace Mission Trip hosted by Follower of One.   Join Follower of One for Marketplace...

Only living things can bear fruit. A rock can move around, but it can't move itself around. It can't grow. It can't reproduce. It can't bear fruit. The Bible is the story of how God gives us a certain kind of life. He gives us a kind of life that lets us bear fruit. He leads us into a way of life where we can choose our deepest and truest desires over our more superficial ones. He makes it possibl...

If you could name the one thing that matters most, what would you say?   In Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul "shows his cards." He tells us what he thinks, in the end, really matters: "The only thing that counts is faith working through love" (5:6 NRSVue).   But what does it mean for faith to "work through love"?   We know that we're saved by faith. The same faith that saves us also, by God's grace,...

Sometimes at work, I just feel stuck. Sometimes I feel stuck somewhere dangerous. What's going to happen to me here? Sometimes I feel stuck all alone. No one's got my back. No one's in my corner. I have to fend for myself. When we're stuck fending for ourselves, it's hard to feel free. We turn inward on ourselves. Jesus offers us a different way. He helps us uncoil our spines and rest in the love...

Way back in the 400s BC, the Greek playwright Euripides wrote, "For among mortals happy man is none."   In other words, nobody's happy.   It's easy to feel helpless against the vicissitudes of life. One day things are going our way; the next, tragedy strikes.   What would it even look like to experience truly *secure* well-being?   When we turn to the teaching of Jesus, we discover good news about...

Scholars describe "emotional contagion": the way we feel affects the people around us. You can "catch" anger, cynicism, and despair from the people around you. Emotions like these drive violent conflict all around the world, and the more mundane conflicts in our workplaces. But you can also catch peace. You catch it from the Lord: "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right ha...

When do we get impatient with someone? When they throw a roadblock in our agenda. Rather than pushing ahead to whatever place we want to be, patience allows us to be present right here, right now. Whether we're waiting for the workday to be over, or for a job offer to come through, or for a coworker to finish their part of a project—there's something there for us *now* that we often miss. Get more...

Does kindness count at work? The norm at work is being nice: superficial social harmony. But the kindness that the Spirit produces starts in the heart. Going through the work day is an obstacle course. Not just in terms of everything we have to get done, but also in terms of doing each of those things *with kindness* to everyone around us. The Holy Spirit is our coach as we face this obstacle cour...

It sure seems like certain dogs are better than certain people. But what makes a person "go bad"? Or, to put it positively: What does it mean to be a good person? If we don't have a sense of what it means to be a good person, we don't know how to live. But people who try really hard to "be good"—especially religious people—often end up "going bad" in a different way: They get self-righteous, triba...

If someone is faithful, that means you can count on them. They're sturdy. They're reliable. When the Bible uses the word "faithfulness," it's often talking about the covenant God made with his people. He swore to be true to them. God proves his faithfulness by sending his Holy Spirit to fulfill his covenant in us, from the inside out. We can be true to each other because God is true to us. We can...

Our working world is often harsh.   But gentleness is part of the fruit of the Spirit.   What is gentleness? A tender response to the weakness of others.   When a coworker shows weakness, how do we respond? With judgment, or with compassion?   When we begin to view human beings as precious, like Jesus does, then we begin to respond to their weaknesses differently.   If we see Jesus as someone who...

We kick back against self-control because we want freedom, we want to be able to choose. But self-control is actually all about finally being able to choose. It's the restoration of your will to the C-suite of your life. Often, something else is in charge of our lives: our bodily habits (whether we want them to be or not). The body makes a good servant but a bad master. By the power of the Holy Sp...

Religious communities often try to solve their problems with rules. When we think about living out our faith in the workplace, some of us fall into thinking about "following the rules." People do really problematic and destructive things sometimes, so this intuition makes sense. Let's make rules against the problematic and destructive things! But the rules can't heal us. They don't address *why* w...

The Stoic philosophers had some bright ideas. The New Testament both draws on the Stoic tradition and challenges it. The Stoics' key idea was "mind over matter." If you can just *think* about things in the right way, you'll reach a joy that doesn't depend on circumstances. But there's a step missing here. We're not just brains on a stick. We have bodies. If we want to experience deep inner goodnes...

What kind of fruit am I bearing at work? Fruit pops up all over the Bible. It's there from the Garden of Eden to the New Jerusalem. It's one of the predominant metaphors in the Bible for describing human beings and their relationship with God. But what does it *mean* to "be fruitful" or to "bear fruit"? Jesus teaches that, "no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. ....

"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "Oh, Lord, open his eyes so he may see" (2 Kings 6:16-17 NIV). Just like the servant of the prophet Elisha in this story, we need our eyes to be opened. The reality of God's kingdom is always there, right around us. But we often miss it. We forget that it's there. We don't nee...

An emissary is an ambassador or messenger. Sometimes, an emissary is a trailblazer. They connect kingdoms that have never been connected before. Jesus is the emissary who bridges the kingdoms of spiritual reality. Paul writes, "For [the Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves" (Colossians 1:13 NIV). Jesus rescues us. Then, he sends u...

Are your coworkers your friends? Are you a friend to your coworkers? When we act as a friend, we love the people around us. We will their good. In the workplace, that often means we bring two things to the people around us: productivity and presence. Productivity: The first way we can be a good friend to our coworkers is by doing a good job at our job. Presence: But often we have a unique opportun...

When Jesus faced a Kingship temptation, he responded with a Servant solution. The devil offered Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" (Matthew 4:8 NIV). Jesus responded by saying, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only" (Matthew 4:10 NIV). A servant does their master's bidding. What gets Jesus out of this bind is his commitment to be a servant to his Master, his Father. Eve...

Each one of us has a kingdom. A place where we're in charge. It may be no bigger than our cubicle, but it matters. That means each of us needs to learn how to be a king. Bible history and world history give us plenty of examples of kings gone bad. The Jeroboam Problem still besets Christian leaders today: Clinging to authority more closely than we cling to Jesus. But King Jesus can teach us how to...

The Bible says that you can be a builder. Specifically, you can be part of a team of restoration workers. There's a promise, but it comes with a condition: "If you do away with the yoke of oppression. . .  and satisfy the needs of the oppressed . . .  you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings" (Isaiah 58:9-12 NIV). Can we do our everyday work with justice? Can...