90,000 Hours
Paul Valler reviews 90,000 Hours by Rodney Green
How do you want to spend 90,000 hours of work in your lifetime? Are you focused on money and the mundane, worn down and frustrated; or integrated with God's purpose and presence?
Rodney Green packs a punch in challenging every Christian to whole life discipleship in the workplace.
Deep insights are unveiled here about motivation and stress, attitudes and expectations, and anger and suffering at work. Confronting and curbing anger is a difficult topic - rarely tackled in books on work - and I found it a fresh and courageous contribution. Green has anchored his insights in four scriptural themes: Creativity, Rest, Harmony and Perseverance. He demonstrates that Scripture is intensely practical in helping us with the challenges and possibilities of working life in a broken world. He shows how God's character can fuel our motivation and attitude towards work, challenging us to 'co-operate with God in bringing order, purpose and meaning to our small part of his enterprise'. Tough doctrine about stress is presented, but sensitive and practical ways to cope are offered. Being distinctive as a Christian employee or employer in an environment of profit and power is also handled well. But it is the chapter on perseverance where the gold lies. Green takes the lid off the reality of hidden anger, and shows how healthy frankness twinned with healthy restraint can strengthen the workplace - modelling behaviour based on God's character. This is a book that smashes the sacred/secular divide, written by a Christian with the personal credibility of working his own 90,000 hours in the real world. Green doesn't pretend to have all the answers, but he freshens the smell of a fallen workplace with the fragrance of Christ.
90,000 Hours is published by Scripture Union, 2002.
Paul Valler
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