Let’s start with some basic definitions between our job and our work: Our job is what we do day-in and day-out to bring in income. It is the duties we perform, most often for an employer, sometimes as our own employer, for which we receive money. A company’s job descriptions are written for whoever happens to have the job. Once the job description is written, the search begins to find a person who will do the job well.
Our work, on the other hand, is what God has designed us to do. It is our purpose for being here, what we are uniquely created for. It is distinctly linked to the gifts, talents, passions, and assets we have been given by God. While many people may have identical jobs, no two people have the same work, because each of us has a unique plan for our lives.
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
Those works God has prepared for each of us to do—that is our work.
We must understand the difference. When this is not clear to us, we can encounter many difficulties.
For example, one of our most common mistakes is to expect our job to fulfill us. In the past Americans seemed to have a love affair with their careers, but have you sensed how is changing now and changing rapidly? We see industries shuffling, companies downsizing, and management levels reducing in almost every company and industry. People no longer expect to work for one employer throughout their career and build a family relationship as we have in the past. This passion we’ve had for our careers is becoming more like a fatal attraction.
Yet, because we’ve seen our jobs as our work, many people continue to look to the workplace to find meaning and purpose in their lives. If you don’t know the difference between your job and your work, you can see how frightening and disillusioning this could be for some people. They lose their job, and they lose their identity.
Now, here we are as Christians in the workplace, and we need a biblical perspective of our jobs, don’t we? Let me ask you: As a Christian, is it essential for you to have a job which is personally fulfilling? Is that your right? Should that have a high priority in your life?
I have a feeling if that is true, many of you would stand up right now and say, “My job is not fulfilling,” and we would have to conclude your life is in shambles. But the good news is, you may be able to say, “My job is not terribly fulfilling, but my life is fulfilled because I know the work God has given me to do. That fills my life with meaningful activity.”
Let’s consider some significant differences in our job and our work:
- Your job may employ none of your gifts; your work employs all your gifts.
Now, first, do you know what your gifts are? Do you know the spiritual gifts you’ve been endowed with by God? We all have at least one spiritual gift, and many times we have several. Let’s look briefly at Romans 12 to learn a bit about these gifts.
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully (Romans 12:6-8).
And again in 1 Corinthians 12, we read:
Now to each one (that means everyone who is a believer) the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7).
The manifestation of the Spirit is your gift or gifts. If you have been born from above, you have blessed with a gift, and the reason you’ve been given a gift is so you can bless others with it.
The neat thing about our gifts is we love to do it, and it doesn’t come hard for us. God is an incredibly smart manager of his human resources. He knows if I love to do what I have to do, I’m going to do it much better. Therefore, not only does he give me gifts to use for the common good of the Body of Christ and to bring glory to his name, but he also gives me a love and joy in doing it.
It’s a joy to exercise your gifts, isn’t it? Now that doesn’t mean you never grow tired or weary or that you don’t want to run away occasionally. But I know, as you do, a few days away from doing my work, and I’m restless. I’m ready to go back.
Not true with what used to be my job. I traveled around the country doing business seminars. I looked forward to the weeks I didn’t have to travel and had to do some strong positive thinking to keep from getting a little depressed when a trip was coming up. When I made the decision to give up that job so I didn’t have to travel like that again, I did not shed one tear. That was my job.
If you told me I could never use these gifts God has given me, I would feel empty. Life would be tasteless. My gifts are the things that bring meaning and purpose in my life, because they come from God to be used for him.
- Your job will inevitably result in income; your work may never result in income.
We all are willing to go to our jobs each day primarily because we get a salary or compensation at regular intervals for performing that job. I traveled around doing the same seminar over and over because they sent me a check, and I needed that check to pay my bills. If they had said to me, “Mary, we’ve decided we can no longer pay you for doing these seminars, but we sure hope you’ll keep doing them. You’re good at them, and we like what you do,” I would have said, “Well, thanks, but you won’t see me around anymore. I do my job for money.”
I’m not saying you can’t enjoy doing your job or there aren’t other motivational factors and rewards involved. But I’d be very surprised to find anybody who would continue going to their job each day without compensation.
Your work may never pay you a dollar, but it will pay benefits that cannot be valued in earthly terms. When you are doing your work, what God has called you to do, you’re putting deposits in God’s heavenly bank, where thieves don’t break in and steal and rust cannot destroy your investment. It’s not that you are without compensation; it’s simply deposited in a different bank and held as a long-term investment.
In our society where people are valued by the size of their salaries and bank accounts, this is a totally different perspective and one we adjust to. This is one of those areas where we must fight not to allow the world to shove us into its mold, into its way of thinking. You and I need to get in our minds a picture of God’s bank in heaven. Now, we are judged and valued by the size of our accounts in God’s bank. What have you been sending on ahead to deposit?
Our work—doing what God has called and gifted us to do—puts money in the heavenly bank, whereas our jobs usually just put money in the earthly bank. Big difference in the two.
- There is always someone else who can do your job; there is no one else who can do your work.
If you called your employer on Monday and said, “I’m not coming back; you won’t see me again,” guess what? They would survive. It might cause some temporary problems, but somebody soon would move into your shoes, learn your job, and do it. The world would keep on revolving with hardly a blip.
We all like to think we’re indispensable, but in our jobs, we’re not. However, you are indispensable when it comes to your work. If you don’t do the work God has called you to do, it will go undone. Nobody else can do it. Now, that’s a frightening thought and quite frankly, it should frighten us to think we could miss the work God has called us to do.
Your corner of the world is where you have been sent. The people you interact with every day are your special people group. If you don’t use your gifts to do God’s work for the people in your world, nobody else will fill in the gap. It will go undone.
- Your job may sometimes produce frustration; your work will most often produce fruit.
Jobs carry no guarantee of inner tranquility or accomplishment. You can work as hard as possible and never feel like you’ve done a whole lot. You may never get appropriate recognition for the job you do, and indeed others may take credit for what you have done. You may discover the harder you work at your job, the more frustrating it is. Often our jobs bring a great deal of frustration into our lives, for all kinds of reasons.
On the other hand, your work will energize you, because you know you’re doing something eternally significant. Your work will bring satisfaction. You surely can grow weary in doing your work, but you won’t grow weary of the work. You may experience some short-term frustrations associated with your work, but it always leads to something fruitful in your life.