Reflections
FORTY YEARS IN THE WORKPLACE
By Dick Meyer
I have been working for forty years… paper route in elementary school… lawn mowing and baby-sitting in junior high… bagging groceries and bussing tables in high school… weekend catering and desk clerking in college… YMCA program directing after college… church youth directing in seminary… assistant and senior pastoring after seminary… small group consulting… conference speaking… book writing… and by the time you read this, co-owning and managing a retail wine store.
Over those forty years, I have come up with some conclusions about work and the workplace.
Conclusion one: Work is good
After all, God works. Remember the six days of creation and the day of rest? “So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2:3) God even gave Adam work to do after creation: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15) So work is good. It preceded the Fall. God works and so do we.
Conclusion two: Work both drains us and fulfills us — often on the same day!
Maybe you can identify with one man’s ruminations, “It’s a sobering moment when you catch yourself snapping at your babies, not because of their behavior, but because of your job frustrations. It’s a frightening time when you realize that the person you married is drifting away, and you don’t have the energy to reach out. And it’s a dark day when you sit in a corner office with a sunny view and begin to question the meaning of the word successful… I’ve been there… and I decided to get out.”
You may have had moments like that. I certainly have. When I was a pastor I quit my job just about every week. Of course, I only told God and my wife, but many a time I was mentally and emotionally spent. I did not want to preach another sermon, or make another hospital call, or put out another fire, or attend another meeting. Work can drain us.
On the other hand, work can deeply satisfy us. Observing people come alive in Christ or helping folk discover authentic and significant community regularly put a smile on my face. Encouraged by such movements of the Spirit, I would often catch myself saying, “I am making a difference! What I do matters. How could I ever think of leaving all this?”
Conclusion three: every type of work can be done to the glory of God.
A few years ago, Les Krantz wrote the Jobs Rated Almanac. In the book Krantz analyzed data from the government, trade groups, and telephone surveys to rank 250 occupations. He used six criteria to rate the jobs: income, stress level, physical demands, potential growth, security and work environment. His top ten careers in order of their ranking are: website managers, actuaries, computer systems analysts, software engineers, mathematicians, computer programmers, accountants, industrial designers, hospital administrators, and web developers. Krantz ranked the worst jobs (from 241 – 250) in the following order: seaman/woman, roofer, taxi driver, sheet metal worker, dancer, cowboy, construction laborer, fisherman/woman, lumberjack, and roustabout (oil rig worker).
I found this list to be both surprising and interesting. If I had been given the task of listing the ten best and the ten worst jobs, my list would have been quite different. Doing full-time child care would definitely make my bottom ten and being a sports analyst would certainly make my top ten. Furthermore, his bottom ten list make me very nervous, especially when it comes to jobs 242, 244 and 246. I certainly hope the roofer, the construction worker and the sheet metal worker did his or her best when they built my house! I hope they knew that their work, as difficult and unappealing as it may seem to some, could be done to the glory of God.
Conclusion four: there is a big difference between a career and a calling.
John Ortberg put it well, “A career is something I choose for myself; a calling is something I do for God. A career promises status, money, or power; a calling generally promises difficulty and even suffering — and the opportunity to be used by God. A career is about upward mobility; a calling generally leads to downward mobility… a career may end with retirement and lots of ‘toys.’ A calling isn’t over until the day you die.”
Come by the wine store if you are ever in Omaha. We’ll drink a toast to knowing the difference between a career and a calling, and to having them overlap in our experience in the workplace.
Richard C. (Dick) Meyer is the Director of the One Anothering Institute in Omaha, NE, and author of One Anothering, volumes 1, 2 and 3 and his new book, Step Up: A Vital Process for Spiritual Renewal, Augsburg Press, February 2005. Visit Dick’s website: www.OneAnothering.com.
Used by permission from the author
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