Consider this: Many of us are likely to spend a third of our entire lives in the cycle of eat, sleep, work, repeat.

With so many of our waking hours spent at work, how can we honour God with our hours? How can our work be our worship?

Here are 3 perspectives to consider:

1. Our work can be “very good”

Once idyllic and enjoyable, the Garden of Eden became tainted by sin. Work became toil. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

Genesis 1 opens with God creating the world in six days. His words were life; when He spoke, things came into being. Be it day or night, land or seas, or creatures of all kinds, we are told that “God saw that it was very good”. (Genesis 1:31)

The first thing He did after creating man in His image (Genesis 1:27) and giving Adam dominion over the earth was to assign him a task: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15) 

The first job was literally set in paradise!

But with the Fall, sin came into the picture with drastic consequences. Humanity could no longer enjoy God’s original design of work as enjoyable and purposeful.

“To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)

“For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it…”. (Romans 8:20) 

Theologian John Piper writes in Desiring God: “It’s not accurate to say that work is a curse. What’s accurate is to say that the futility and frustration and burdensomeness and painfulness of work is a curse.”

This means work was not a desperate means of survival or search for identity when mankind was first tasked to look after Eden. Just as God’s creation of the world displayed His invisible qualities (Romans 1:20), we too, as God’s handiwork were created for good works. (Ephesians 2:10)

Our work can reflect the character of our Creator God. (Ephesians 2:10)

2. Are we justifying “quiet quitting”?

Is there more to work than weariness, a sense of dread and revenge procrastination? Photo by 人约黄昏后 on Unsplash.

There is nothing wrong with “working to live”. We work because we are responsible for paying the bills. We work because we want to invest and save and give. We work because our natural talents, poured into meaningful work, give us identity and purpose. 

Even so, difficult team dynamics, mounting deadlines, emergency shifts and toxic office culture can make work seem like toil.

Others of us may be weary and burnt out. Nothing sounds better than getting home, crashing on our couch and doing nothing. Doomscrolling sounds like a nice option. We may be tempted to give our bare minimum effort.

How do we guard ourselves from “quiet quitting”?

When we consider that we have been uniquely placed in our roles “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14), we begin to see our job as stewardship and our role as an appointment to steward well our tasks, teamwork and challenges.

Paul exhorts Christians not to drag our feet when we earn a living, but to be effective witnesses, pointing others to Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:7-13)

3. Have we built hustle culture into our DNA? 

Perhaps you belong to another camp: Those who live to work.

How intertwined is work with your identity? Are you preoccupied with filling your resume with impressive accolades? Does scrolling through LinkedIn and seeing other people’s achievements trigger a pang of envy or a sinking feeling of being left behind?

“Falling far short of God’s intentions, work in the West is largely utilitarian and self-serving; money, power, leisure, and self-fulfillment are the goals,” says Author Darrow L Miller in his book LifeWork.

Is life a rat race won by having the most toys? Photo by Matt Wildbore on Unsplash.

“When our life purpose is stunted in this way and our worth is based on how much money we make, on how big our paychecks are, we become bankrupt in the ways that truly matter… But the tragic element of our workaholic society is that because work is separated from God, it becomes equally meaningless. What is promised to give us fulfilment ends up adding to the despair.”

The king in Ecclesiastes had achieved it all. He had indulged in every pleasure – success from large ventures, entertainment and acquiring wealth. Eventually, he concluded that the satisfaction of eating, drinking and finding pleasure in one’s own toil comes only from God’s hand (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25).

Similarly, in the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:13-20), Jesus warns against greed in wanting many possessions and encourages us not to worry about earthly things. If God feeds the ravens and clothes the grass in the fields, how much more will He not provide for us (Luke 12:22-31)?

Setting excellence as a standard for our work is biblical (Philippians 4:8). But it is only when we work to please God, not man, that lifts our work from the pragmatic to the sublime. (Colossians 3:23)

Work reveals the state of our heart

No matter how mundane our work may seem, we are called to excellence and service to others. Photo by Shigeko Fukaya on Unsplash.

Work, like other things we invest in, reveals the state of our heart. What are we channeling our love and our efforts to? (2 Timothy 3:2-5).

Compartmentalising our lives as secular weekdays and holy weekends creates a false sacred-secular divide. Christ is Lord of all, which means we submit ourselves under His kingship by working faithfully with what He gives us. Our job is to steward what He has given us, as we see in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-28). 

In our work, we can model Jesus’ servant-like humility and service to others (Philippians 2:1-11), and in this way be salt and light in the marketplace, pointing others to Christ (Matthew 5:13-16).

RELATED STORIES: 

“I was so foolish to stand on my own”: Founder of Jin Kimchi finds the God of his youth after opening 11 hawker outlets

On the frontlines and far from home: Two foreign nurses draw comfort from giving comfort

Running 200km in 45 hours: Hospice president Dr Tan Poh Kiang says, it is “God’s path for me”