I love my job?

 

“Learn to love your work and you'll never have to ‘work’ again.  

                                                                            S. Truett Cathy

  Chick-fil-A is my favorite fast food restaurant. It has been nearly all of my life. If you Google their history, you’ll find that the first Chick-fil-A was opened at Greenbriar Shopping Mall in Atlanta, which was less than four miles from my home. It was the go-to place when I was a kid. I’d even ride my bike to the mall to meet friends and eat at Chick-fil-A. 

  Truett Cathy was the founder of Chick-fil-A. He was widely known as a godly man of character. Like begets like. That’s why this story about Truett’s son, Dan Cathy, didn’t surprise me. Pastor Rick Warren shared about a trip he made with Dan, the President of Chick-fil-A. Warren shared that they’d been out visiting some ministry sites. When it became lunchtime, they stopped at a Taco Bell. But before eating they freshened up in the men’s room. Rick Warren said that before they left the bathroom, Cathy took down extra paper towels and cleaned the sinks! Warren acknowledged the powerful impression that left. The President of a massive fast food chain quietly cleaning the bathroom of a competitor. “We teach our staff to try to leave every situation they encounter better than they found it.” Dan Cathy walks the talk. He learned it from his Dad.

  I love reading leadership autobiographies, often about someone who started a business or company. Yet, you’ll often find a sad chapter in these histories of business leaders about halfway through the book. Too often you’ll come to a section where the author says something like “about this time I went through my first divorce.” If you’re familiar with successful business leaders, it’s common. It seems many successful leaders make a choice – to focus on their marriage or to focus on their business. In nearly every situation where the marriage failed, it was because it couldn’t compete with the business.

  What an example Truett Cathy was! Not only was he able to build a remarkable business, but he also kept his marriage healthy and raised a family that loved Jesus. It’s inspiring to me when the positive values of the business match the positive values of the person.

  Yet, Truett Cathy didn’t have an individualistic faith. He believed in the importance of community and the local church. He was a member of the First Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Georgia and taught a boys’ Sunday School class there for more than 50 years. He said that the Bible was his guidebook for life. Because of his strong religious beliefs, all of Chick-fil-A’s locations, whether company-owned or franchised, are closed on Sundays to allow its employees to attend church and to spend time with their families. The policy began when Truett was working six days a week and multiple shifts. He decided to close on Sundays.

  I saw this firsthand. His daughter, Trudy Cathy-White, is a few years older than I am and was a cheerleader at the high school I attended during my freshman and sophomore years. Like her father, Trudy, is a beloved leader, communicator, and entrepreneur. When she was just 19 years old, she began working for the family business and became an operator of a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama - making her the youngest Operator at that time. Though she’d just finished her freshman year at Samford University, Truett believed in his daughter and handed her the keys. She took a year off from school to run the restaurant and, in that time, hired fellow Samford student, John White. “When he came in, I knew I needed to hire him. It didn’t hurt that he was good-looking,” Trudy laughs. They’ve been together ever since.

  Throughout their marriage, Trudy and John White have actively sought opportunities to connect with and invest in others’ lives. They served for 20 years in missions. For ten of those years, they served as missionaries in Brazil.  “When I think back on my time as an international missionary,” Trudy explains, “I remember these words my Dad said to me: ‘If you help enough other people get what they want in life you’ll eventually get what you want out of life.’ Today, I know that true happiness is less about me and more about others. That's what brings me real joy.”

  Most of us spend 40+ hours a week in the workplace. One of our greatest places of influence and opportunity to serve Jesus is at work. A lost world desperately needs Christians who don’t hide their faith, who don’t just talk about their faith – they actually live out their faith. There are many biblical truths that we could highlight about the workplace, let me focus on one.

  Be excited about your job. Last year the church office received a call from an area employer. They mentioned the person’s name and then said,  “__________ is such a great employee. We’re looking to hire and wondered if your church had more individuals like this.” That individual was truly living out what it means to be a Christ-follower at work!

  Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ.” As Christians, while we have employers who sign our paychecks, we must remember that we have a higher reporting chain. Higher than our boss is the One we must work heartily for—the Lord. While our boss might decide our salary, the Lord is capable of giving us a much greater reward.

  What does that look like in practice? Well, here’s something that will please both the Lord and your employer. When people are standing around grumbling about the boss, management, and so on, do your work! Instead of joining in the pity party, do your job.

  In your work, always keep this in mind – Jesus never took the easy way out. He was God manifest in the flesh, and still worked as a carpenter for decades. Jesus never cut corners, produced shoddy output, or complained about the people He worked for. Furthermore, He didn’t miraculously turn wood into structures—He did the work with His own two hands!  

  If you’re going to have a Christ-honoring testimony in the workplace, your work ethic absolutely matters. Your co-workers, managers, peers, and subordinates will take notice. If you’re a Christian, you’d better believe that folks are taking notes! Yet, far more important than the note-takers, your Heavenly Father will take notice. He’s taking notes, too, and the stakes are much higher! Give Him the place and honor He deserves, and serve Him as you serve others on the job. And now it’s time for some waffle fries. Writing this made me hungry!

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

 

 

 

 

A job is NOT the best social program!

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”  John F. Kennedy

  Did you know that if you swallow a piece of chewing gum, it remains in your body for seven years? Did you know that if you leave a tooth in a glass of Coke overnight by the next morning the tooth will be completely dissolved? Did you know that if enough people fill out “Jedi” as their religion on their census forms the government will have to make it an official religion? Did you know that Poinsettias are poisonous?

  None of those are true. They’re all myths. Did you know that, (and you’re going to hear this a lot during the upcoming election year), that “jobs are the best social program out there…that there is no social program as effective as a job.” One of my heroes, the late Ronald Reagan, appears to be the first one to say that “I believe the best social program is a job.” But President Reagan was wrong. Like most myths, this one has been repeated so often that it’s accepted as fact. Since it’s the Labor Day weekend, let’s consider a biblical worldview of the place of a job in our life.

  Statistics show that most voters, even the majority of Christians, vote based on economic values more than any other one issue. In other words, the vast majority of those who are part of the Kingdom of God vote based on kingdom of man values. It may take different avenues. For some it’s job security or the creation of jobs. For others, it’s lowered taxes, a growing economy or the stock market. The bottom line is it is economic and the majority of the time that’s translated into money and – my job.

  Please understand, it’s good to have a job. If you read last week’s Pastor’s Pen or are familiar with 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12, you know the Bible teaches that part of our God-given responsibility from Creation is work. It’s a continual theme of Scripture – God’s plan for human beings is to find fulfillment in work and responsibility, not just leisure and the weekend (that’s another myth we’ll work through at another time).

  Yet, politicians are indiscriminate, after all if “the best social program is a job,” it doesn’t matter what the job is – as long as it’s a job. That’s not what Scripture teaches. It’s discriminatory on what is “good work.” Scripture is permeated with ethical principles on what jobs are appropriate, as well as how employers and employees are to treat each other.  

  Not every job is a moral job. Personally, I’m disgusted at how many “conservative” officials have no issue with increasing gambling. They’re dilatory in their God-given responsibility to their constituents. It’s the responsibility of government to protect its citizens, particularly the disenfranchised who have difficulty protecting themselves. Every study shows that gambling is bad for society, that it takes advantage of the poor, elderly and uneducated. Nearly every school child knows that the nickname for Las Vegas is “Sin City.” Why? Because gambling rarely creeps in alone. The gambling disease is a carrier of adult bookstores, strip clubs, illicit drugs and prostitution. Often the Mob gets its fingers in a community via gambling. Even politicians realize the limitations of this naïve premise, “the best social program is a job” in that so far they’ve not legalized prostitution, lowered the drinking age, or legalized the sale of illicit drugs.

  Not every job is a good for your family. It’s increasingly rare to find those who are highly successful in their career in their original marriage. Often, if they’re still married to the same person later in life, the marriage is little more than a shell. It may be a matter of social convention or perhaps they kept it together for their children. Sadly, a thriving, healthy marriage is not the norm for highly successful individuals. In Scripture, we find those who were successful in their careers yet were often failures in their marriage. King David and his son, Solomon, are tragic examples.

  There are several factors that contribute to this. First, a healthy marriage demands time and cultivation. It’s hard to burn the midnight oil at work and have time for candlelit romantic dinners at home. Then, if you’re successful at work, you usually come home so weary your spouse often gets leftovers. Sometimes a successful person becomes addicted to success. It’s like they have a mistress and their spouse can’t compete. Plus, if you’re successful at work, your need for emotional and social support is usually filled there. Add to that, if you work a lot, when you finally come home, rather than being warmly welcomed, your spouse may grouse that you’re always working which motivates you to want to be away and work more.

  Sometimes to climb the corporate ladder, you must make frequent moves and your children are uprooted again and again. Not only do they resent leaving their friends, Dad is often unavailable because he has to put in inordinate amounts of time and attention on the new position. Success and child-raising rarely mix. And parents who are obsessed with their work, wealth or social standing usually devalue the task of bringing up children.

  Recently, the former CEO of Pimco, Mohamed El-Erian, explained why he’d resigned from his $100 million a year job. His 10-year-old daughter gave him a written list of 22 milestones he’d missed because of work – including the first day of school, a parent-teacher meeting and a Halloween parade. Even though he had legitimate excuses for every absence, he realized that none of the pressing meetings, travelling and so forth really mattered in the long run.

  Not every job is good for you spiritually. American evangelicals have deeply identified themselves with the culture’s unflinching belief that success is the point of human existence. It’s the defining value of American life. Please understand, idolatry is not a small, stone Buddha. Too many of us worship our work, which is why we have so little time for worshipping God. We spend little or no time with Him. Prayer is reserved for moments of desperation. We look for a worship experience that keeps a close eye on the clock because we “have so many things to do.” As G.K. Beale, wisely said, “We resemble what we revere, either for ruin or restoration.” Meaning, whatever we worship, we’ll seek to become like that object. It will either save or ruin our lives. Our walk with God in sanctification is meant to be a steady, faithful climb. That takes time, lots of it. You can’t be a human doing and a Christ-follower. 

  Is a job, is work important? Yes. But the best social program isn’t a job. It’s a relationship. It’s the Gospel. It’s knowing Jesus Christ and living for Him. Amazingly, when our relationship with God is as it should, so is everything else. So don’t believe the myth, believe God’s eternal truth! 

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