Work it Out

We are all in this together.

When I think about the importance of work in our lives, the obvious comes to mind. Work provides a means to interact with society in an economic capacity both in earning money and being able to spend money. Work also provides a social environment where as most people find their best friends and possibly arch-enemies, as the popular show the Office so masterfully exposed the dichotomy of workplace relationships in its extreme comedic exploration. Work, in all venues, can be categorized down to the basics of an exchange of goods or services or a combination of these attributes.

In pondering the benefits of work from a holistic perspective one unifying theme emerged: Work assists people in their development. The development of skills, creativity, work ethic, charisma, conflict resolution, learning, and character. As a Christian, my first inclination is to say that work allows us another avenue to explore our main mission in life: to become more like Christ. There is power in this idea. Recently, this phrase has been overused, and without discipline of mind, the idea could be reduced to glib. Similar to the explosion of WWJD (a great idea) which in the process of marketing lost some of the impact, the phrase “to become more like Christ” has not made a connection for all believers in the totality of its practical impact. I will attempted to make a small connection to this in the work place.

Stress in a work environment can be extremely productive. Since the majority of the American workforce participates in the exchange of services, customer care and customer satisfaction are extremely important interactions in daily life. In the exchange of services one will encounter many customers who are dissatisfied, frustrated and possibly just angry because they want to be angry. How should a Christian respond to this in the workplace?

I believe on the most elemental level one should respond with kindness. It takes courage to be kind to one another in the work environment with the customer, and as a response to stress. Since Christians desire to be like Christ, let’s look at what Jesus would do in this situation (see what I did there?). Jesus was the epitome of kindness. I've found that sometimes the best way to redefine an idea is to explore the opposite idea bringing renewed clarity to the scope of the original idea. The opposite of kindness is hatred, or missplaced anger. Jesus expressed anger. So how does one handle the times we would like to respond with anger, or when we fail to manage our stress and sometimes attack others out of our own anger.

In the religious Christian culture, kindness replaces the emotion of anger. Kindness is not always the answer, neither is anger. Anger in itself is not a sin. Jesus responded with anger in situations where people were being hurt by others. When He spoke about children suffering Jesus’ language was violent as he stated that drowning with a large weight would a better fate for those individuals than the judgment of the Father. Jesus also responded in anger towards those who made other people feel like they were never "good enough" or second class. The Pharisees and Sadducees enslaved Jewish souls by prescribing holiness with an ever growing list of rules and a constantly shifting landscapes of requirements. Jesus exposed their end goal was to always elevate themselves while putting others down, but that they were death walking around in fancy clothes. Jesus also expressed anger towards those who were trying to profit off of people’s desire to become pure by taking advantage of the weak, poor, and destitute. the Money Changers were met with the fury of their shops being destroyed. I believe this gives us a guide for when it is not a sin to act in our anger.

If we can really aspire to become like Jesus in our daily lives we will have to explore the role of anger in our daily lives. Default should be extra grace and kindness, but have the courage to be angry when people are being taken advantage of, or intentionally put down, or suffering because they are vulnerable. In doing so maybe we can be a champion to those who cannot fight for themselves.

Let's become like Jesus, the real Jesus who is God: full of love, kindness, jealousy, wrath, justice, grace, hope, and joy overflowing as He invites all in because of who HE is to His creation. Good.