Job Satisfaction?

So you've left the ministry. How do you find job satisfaction? I mean, as a minister, you were SAVING SOULS - well, God was actually doing the saving, but it sure FELT like YOU were doing the saving, right? So you had this sense of job satisfaction. Or rather, you probably didn't do a whole lot of saving, and you probably got a lot of criticism and almost no encouragement...but you sure THOUGHT what you were doing was important and meaningful. And now that's gone. How can you ever feel important find meaning in your work in the...shudder...common realm?

The typical answer you'll get, and it's one I've heard from a thousand sources, is that you should pour your passions into your church and into your family, but your JOB is just a means to an end, a means to support the other two. Your job is just something that ENABLES the other two. This is very typical reformed wisdom.

I'm not comfortable with this. It just didn't sit well with me. Let's bring some scripture into it.

Col 3:22 Slaves, obey in everything those who are your masters according to the flesh, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, do it from the soul, as to the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are slaving for the Lord Christ.

I've made a few refinements to the ESV translation of these verses. I have to mention these.

Slaves: sorry, but it's slaves, not bondservants or some other less shocking word. A big pet peeve of mine is when people INSIST that Greco-Roman slavery was NOTHING AT ALL like slavery in America, when it was race based and very cruel. But the fact is, slavery in those days WAS race based. Everyone thought that people from their country or nation state was a higher life form than those outside the empire, the barbarians. Barbarian is an ancient Greek word for anyone who's not a Greek. And it was Aristotle who said that slaves were merely a tool, a possession. And if ancient slavery was a kinder, gentler slavery, why does Paul have to command people in the church to stop threatening their slaves in Eph 6:9? Let's just face it: the slavery that the Bible does not explicitly say should cease is exactly like the slavery of 19th century America. And every time we soften the biblical notion of slavery, we are trying to make the Bible say something it doesn't say.
Masters according to the flesh: you'll see translations say "earthly masters" here, but this is what the Greek says. I like the Greek phrasing, because it implies that you have a Master who is not of the flesh, which is to imply the Spirit.

Do it from the soul: this is the key phrase in this passage. I think perhaps a modern equivalent would be: "Whatever you do, pour your very soul into it as if you were working under direct orders from God himself, not mere men because you know that your reward from the Lord is your inheritance in the new heavens and new earth."

You are slaving for the Lord Christ: well, this is the verb it uses, the same root as the word slave. I just don't like trying to hide this word. It means Jesus OWNS us. Like Aristotle said of slaves: merely a tool, a possession. Jesus owns us just as much as I own this computer I'm typing on.

So for those who say that we should pour our passion into our family and our church, and that our vocation is MERELY a means to that end, I say, no, this is not biblical.

Col 3 says that our work should be done from the soul - that we should pour our very souls into it; not, obviously, to the exclusion of our church and family. 

Col 3 also says that as we do, we testify to our hope of a reward in the age to come.

If Jesus was your boss, what kind of worker would you be? Would you render the minimum acceptable performance necessary to avoid getting fired? Would you demand that you always get your two 15 minute breaks and your hour long lunch hour? Would it be all about you? Would you say of work left undone, perhaps by someone else, "That's not my job!"? Would you be content to let the organization fail to accomplish its mission, so long as you can personally avoid blame? Would you spend half your day surfing the internet?

Or would you pour your heart and soul into your work, doing the very best job you can, maximizing your efforts, focusing on the task at hand and not letting yourself get distracted?

But Jesus IS your boss. He's the one who gives you your ultimate paycheck: eternal life, the universe, himself.

And how would you behave at work if he was always watching? He is.

No, it's not biblical to say that you shouldn't feel the need to pour your passions into your work. Now of course, we should be careful not to get so involved with work that we neglect family and church. We need to have these in balance to the extent possible.

Kuyper speaks of three spheres: family, church and state. Your work falls into the category of the state, assuming you work in the common realm rather than the redemptive realm.

If we accept this, then that means something more than that we should pour our passions into our work. It also means that our work serves the sphere of the state - or the community if you prefer; the common realm community that is. Our work in the common realm is for the common good. We are contributing to the realm of common grace, where the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and our work will benefit the just and the unjust alike.

Our work in the common realm will be more satisfying to us as it looks more like the work God intended. That is, it will be more satisfying the more it tends toward the common good of our fellow human beings in the realm of common grace.

God himself exists in community: "Let US create man in OUR image". And he did not create man alone in his image...

"So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them."

One man by himself cannot bear God's image. "It is not good for man to be alone." God created man in community. Male and female together are created in God's image. This short poem clarifies what it means for God to create man in his own image. It means he created him male AND female. 

This does not mean, as the pagans say, that everyone has a male and female aspect to them. No, it means that we cannot bear God's image apart from how we interact with others who are different from ourselves. We cannot bear God's image apart from being part of a community, part of a family.

Gen 1:2 points out that there are three things about the creation that render it unserviceable to man. 1) it's dark, 2) it's formless and 3) it's empty. So on days 1-6, God goes about serving mankind by 1) creating light 2) giving the earth, heavens and seas forms and boundaries and limits and 3) filling these with creatures. Finally, when all is ready, God creates man in community.

God is satisfied with his work, and so on the 7th day he rests because his labor is complete. He has made the creation a perfect dwelling place for man. He is satisfied because he served man.

God himself exists in community. One God, three Persons: Father, Son, Spirit. He created us in community: male and female. His work satisfaction came in serving those in his community - because the whole point of creating was to enter into covenant with man and reveal himself to them. That was the whole point. That's the way the creation narrative is structured - with the creation of man being the high point.

So our job satisfaction will be greatest when what we do most clearly benefits others, and when this is most tangible and visible to we who are working. This is what it means to work to the glory of God, to most clearly bear his image: when your work serves others. When your work serves only yourself, this will be empty. When you cannot SEE that your work is benefitting others, you will not be as satisfied.