Vocation

I've been thinking a bit lately about remunerative work and what is honouring to God.  It seems to me that there are a few areas in which Christians working is taboo, and the rest is fair game.  We seem to be ok with separating our Christianity from our vocation and I'm not sure that I'm ok with this. 

My thinking on this issue is quite immature and my ideas are not yet fully formed, so I would really appreciate comments from people telling me what you think.

1. I think that what you do matters.  Some careers have the opportunity to honour God, some don't.  We must choose one that does.
2. Why you do it matters.  I'm a teacher, so it's easy for me to be self justified about what I do.  I teach kids in a Christian school and try to incorporate Christianity into what I do however I can. But why I do it is as important as what I do.  I recently got a promotion at my school.  I get paid more, get more time off of class and have some extra authority.  If any or all of those things are the reason I do it then it's all for nought.  I didn't get into my career for the right reasons, but I intend to stay in it for the right reasons so that I might honour my God in my work.
3. Who you work for matters.  If you work for a corporation, business or group that is in the business of hurting people then you are a party to their corruption, greed or whatever.  Some companies are just plain evil and if you help them to do what thy do, no matter how trivial, then that brings no honour to Christ.  If you're not sure about your company then find out.  The old adage that we need Christians in all types of careers and workplaces seems pretty weak to me.  We need Christians to do work that honours Christ.  Period.  Secular vocation can do that, but we need to be careful.
4. Money is only moderately important.  It's so tempting to seek out the best paying job we can get.  We need to be able to make enough money to support ourselves and our families.  Beyond that, the money, really, should be largely irrelevant.  I struggle with this idea because money is so tempting.  But if we really believe that our treasure is in heaven then we will see it this way.

So I guess I should put it on the line and give a few examples...

Take accounting, for example.  It seems to me that lots of accounting work is really seeking to help greedy people have more.  That's not ok.  There are also lots of accounting jobs that help manage money for great groups and causes.  They usually pay less and are not at all glamorous.  But you can make a living off of them. 

If you work in a job that pays pretty well but takes up loads of time so that you have little or no time to pursue ministries then who are you serving?  It's no good having all these skills to make money for a company and yourself if you spend little time actually following Jesus and looking out for and loving others. 

Jobs are a great opportunity for us to meet people to love and tell about Jesus and a great place to learn skills to serve our world.  I think, though, that we should be careful with what we do, why we do it and who we do it for.

What do you think?

Godly Job Applications

Today I wrote a job application. There's a lectureship at UNSW, and I want it. I won't get it, I'm too young. Nevertheless, I think it would be worth their while employing me, and it would certainly be worth my while!, so we'll see.

Anyway, something I really struggle with for these things is knowing how to be godly. The whole point of the application is to sing your own praises, and to infer that anyone they talk to that you've ever come into contact with will do the same.

There are a couple of obvious ones:

Firstly, if you don't honestly believe others would sing your praises, you shouldn't infer otherwise.

Secondly, you shouldn't lie. That's a no-brainer.

Thirdly, you shouldn't promise to do anything you don't intend to do. I said I'd do this and that with students, and that I'd go to OH&S seminars when required, and so if I get the job, I must do those things. I said I would, and so I should.

But the really tricky bit is blowing your own trumpet. On the one hand it's not healthy to think about oneself for so long, nor in such a good light. And it won't do to write a basic overview of what you've done. For instance, with the physics I've done, it's not self evident why these things are significant, nor how many people care. I have to emphasise that this person cared, and this person published it, and these people referenced it. I have to be enthusiastic, and yet I shouldn't be insincere.

It's really tough right? Just thinking out loud...

Living for the Week

Today I intended to catch up on some work I missed this week. So of course, by 2pm I found myself watching Philadelphia - remember that movie? I assume everyone does, it was pretty huge.

Something that struck me at the beginning was this: Andy Beckett had HIV and was getting progressively more sick. Yet he kept working.

There are lots of possible reasons of course (the most compelling being that there is no reason, he didn't exist before minute 1 of the movie), but it got me thinking about work, and what sort of commitment we should have to it.

I have a PhD (well, technically I'll have one in about 14 days, though for all intents and purposes I've had one for about 6 months). That means I have 8 years education in Physics. And in fact my education continues. I still have a supervisor who I rely upon, I still read textbooks and review articles, I'm still learning new techniques and how to apply them. I find all this very satisfying - I also find it easy to procrastinate of course! - but it's very satisfying.

In some very real sense, I am living for my work. I don't go to work solely to support my family, but I also like contributing to society, and I like applying my training etc. These are really great gifts from God.

Another story: I have a friend who recently broke up with his girlfriend. One of the reasons it ended was because they had different values. She values relationships and family and do-gooding (at least in principle) whereas he values his career and getting ahead.

I don't know if this is such a bad thing. I mean, he should value do-gooding of course. But otherwise, why is he obliged to value family and relationships over work? Is there a biblical principle that can be applied appropriately here? Maybe Michael Hill's mutual love relationships? (The idea that ethics is not based on the individual, but two-party (bipartite, bilpolar? i forget) relationships. Maybe there's something in that line of thinking?) I don't know...

Anyone?

More on Work

These quotes are taken directly from another blog I really like, and it is suprisingly relevant to a previous post. Sorry for the quote within the quote!

During World War II, Dorothy L. Sayers, gave a talk, Why work?, which is worth reading. Here are a few choice quotes

[We should view work] not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight and so fulfill itself to the glory of God. That it should, in fact, be thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of the work itself; and that man, made in God’s image, should make things, as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well worth doing.

.....

God is not served by technical incompetence; and incompetence and untruth always result when the secular vocation is treated as a thing alien to religion….

.....

Shall we be prepared to take the same attitude to the arts of peace as to the arts of war? I see no reason why we should not sacrifice our convenience and our individual standard of living just as readily for the building of great public works as for the building of ships and tanks – but when the stimulus of fear and anger is removed, shall we be prepared to do any such thing? Or shall we want to go back to that civilization of greed and waste which we dignify by the name of a “high standard of living”?

I found the last paragraph particularly interesting. If I've understood her correctly, she argues that we should work towards impressive public monuments/spaces/whatever instead of focussing resources on the waste that is ever increasing comfort.

This is a really interesting point. Again if I've understood correctly, this seems to be a theological argument from creation. If we, in working, are mimicking our God in creating, then we would build similar things to him. She argues for great public works in peace-time as an appropriate reflection of this work.

This has interesting repercussions for building nice churches and things like this (something I've never considered to be particularly wise).

However, she realises that during war time, tanks and ships are the appropriate thing to direct public resources toward, and rightly so. I wonder whether she would today argue for public resources going toward the necessities of the poor first and foremost?