Tim Keller
By Ashley Andrews, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –Why do we work? Do we work for a paycheck, or do we work for a job title? Timothy Keller, pastor and speaker, thinks that work has its place in our lives, but too many of us have the wrong mindset when it comes to our jobs. In fact, he urges us to ask ourselves: how do we define our work? Is it what we do, what we get or who we are? In his new book "Every Good Endeavor," Keller encourages his readers to find God in their work.
PURPOSE AND DIGNITY
In taking on the topic of work and God, Keller turned to Genesis, which has plenty of material on the matter. "It is remarkable," he said, "that in Chapter 1 of the book of Genesis, God not only works but finds delight in it...Like all good and satisfying work, the worker sees himself in it...The second chapter of Genesis goes on to show that God works not only to create but also care for his creation. This is what theologians call the work of 'providence.' God create human beings and then works for them as their Provider...Finally, we see God not only working, but commissioning workers to carry on his work. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 28, he tells human beings to 'fill the earth and subdue it.' The word 'subdue'," he continued, "indicates that though all God had made was good, it was still to a great degree underdeveloped. God left creation with deep untapped potential for cultivation that people were to unlock through their labor."
Ultimately, Keller pointed out, Genesis shows us that "work was part of paradise." And some, if not most of us, tend to disagree. We see work as a "necessary evil" or "punishment" when that was not how God intended it. "Work," he explained, "did not come in after a golden age of leisure. It was part of God's perfect design for human life, because we were made in God's image, and part of his glory and happiness is that he works, as does the Son of God, who said, 'My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working' (John 5:17)." In essence, we were created to work. It is a part of who we are. As a matter of fact, "Work," he continued, "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 insignificant inner 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."
But of course, we need to have the right balance when it comes to work. "Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization," Keller writes, "slowly crushes a person..., and undermines society itself." If our identity is based solely on what we do, a few things tend to happen. "When you make your work your identity, which of course is what we are invited to do in our culture now...you identify with your work, and that means if you are successful it destroys you because it goes to your head. If you are not successful it destroys you because it goes to your heart, and it destroys your self-worth; and what you need with faith is that it gives you an identity that is not in work or accomplishment, and that gives you insulation against the weather changes. So if you are successful you stay humble; if you are not successful you have some ballast...making your work your identity - kind of an idol, to use biblical terminology - is maybe the big sin of New York City."
So what are we to do? What happens when work becomes pointless, fruitless or dominating? Keller reminds readers of Ecclesiastes 2:24. "A person can do nothing better than to...find satisfaction in their own toil." What's more, he points out that Scripture tells us that work will never be perfect for us. "Nothing will be put perfectly right, as St. Paul says, until the 'day of Christ' at the end of history (Philippians 1:6, 3:12) Until then all creation 'groans' (Romans 8:22) and is subject to decay and weakness. So work will be put completely right only when heaven is reunited with earth and we find ourselves in our 'true country.' All in all, Keller suggests that we remember that
THE DAY OF REST
Work itself is not a curse. As Keller described, "We were built for it and freed by it. But when we feel our lives completely absorbed by work, remember that we must also honor work's limits. There is no better starting point for a meaningful work life than a firm grasp of this balanced work and rest theology." Even God took a break after creating the world. Sunday, the day of rest, was meant to be just that. Rest, Keller said, "It has always been enormous, because it is one of God's ten basic commands for human life. But if possible it may be more important for our frantic, work-without-boundaries, manic culture. The Sabbath was radical in the time of ancient Israel, because it meant that work and profit-taking has limits, like a river that must not burst its banks. Life is not only about work and about making money. Bodies and minds need rest...But the New Testament makes it clear that the practice of the Sabbath points to the deeper 'Sabbath rest' of the gospel, in which we learn to rest in Christ for our salvation rather than in our works. This is the 'rest under the rest' that we need in order to keep modern work from driving us into the ground with its endless demands for increasing profits and productivity."
THE CHURCH AND WORK
In researching Scripture, Keller found just how vocal the Bible is on the topic of work. As he shared, "The Bible begins talking about work as soon as it begins talking about anything - that is how important and basic it is..." But what about the Church? How does the church get involved in the work of their congregation? Overall, "the Church has not always been able to articulate a singular vision for how to integrate faith and work...There is a tendency for churches and organizations emphasizing faith and work to be somewhat unbalanced, emphasizing one or two of these story lines to the exclusion of the others. Yet simply combining all the emphases - and hoping they add up to something coherent - is not the solution." For Keller, it requires a personal touch.
"At one point in my ministry," he shared, "I regularly visited my members at their workplace - either eating lunch with them in their office or just going by to see them there. Usually these visits had to be brief - 20 to 30 minutes. But this made it possible to learn quite a lot about their work-issues and the environment in which they spent so much of their time." For other church leaders, Keller encourages them to do the same. "Another thing," he continued, "to do is gather some people from your church who work in the same field and ask them to come up with a set of issues or questions they have about how to integrate their Christian faith with their particular kind of work. Then try to answer those questions with Biblical theology and pastoral wisdom." Of course, another way that church leaders can encourage work discussion is through teaching. "Preach often on passages of the Scripture that relate directly to our work in the world, but also about work from passages not directly on the subject. And always ask, 'Does this text have anything to say to people in their work?'"
In the end, Keller offers hope to his working readers. "You can accept gladly whatever level of success and accomplishment God gives you in your vocation, because he has called you to it. You can work with passion and rest, knowing that ultimately the deepest desires of your heart - including your specific aspirations for your earthly work - will be fulfilled when you reach your true country, the new heavens and new earth. So in any time and place you can work with joy, satisfaction, and no regrets."