The hours and the glory?
Last month I asked a group of about 50 Christians in the workplace whether they thought they worked:
a) too few hours b) about the right amount of hours c) too many hours
The results were revealing.
No one said they worked too few hours. 40% thought they worked about the right number of hours. 60% considered they worked too many.
So why - if you're one of the 60% - do you feel you work too many hours? Demands from the boss? Pressing deadlines? The long hours culture in your workplace? The fear of being fired? All those are genuine reasons. But I wonder whether there are issues underlying those reasons which cause us to work - not just long hours - but too many hours week after week after week.
Issue number one is our identity problem. Too often our assessment of who we are is wrapped up in the job we do. That's why so many struggle when they retire - they feel they have suddenly lost their identity.
Issue number two is our value problem. Too often we get our value, our sense of self-worth, from the size of our salary, or the comments on our annual appraisal.
Issue number three is our purpose problem. Too often we think our purpose in life is to get promoted as fast as possible. To climb the career ladder faster than everyone else.
But God's Word tells us something very different.
As Christians, our primary sense of identity should be the realisation that we are 'God's workmanship'. His work of art. Literally His masterpieces. That is who we are. Our identity isn't defined by our job.
And where should our feeling of value and worth actually come from? Not from our pay package - but from God's pay package. We are so precious to God that He paid for us with the death of His Son. We are 'created in Christ Jesus'.
As for our purpose, God's desire is for us 'to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us'. So that's providing food for your family. It's being an integral part of the team you work with - earning the right to share your life and your Lord with them. It's working to keep the business afloat and people's jobs in existence. All of those are good works for God - and they may cause us to work long hours. But too often our purpose at work is far more egocentric, and that fuels us to work too many hours.
Sometimes a 60 hour working week is just what God wants us to be doing. Sometimes it's not. And a knowledge of the truth - the truth of our true identity, value and purpose - is the first step in assessing the godliness of our hours.
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