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Do you ever worry about your work? Of course you do. I suspect most of us do from time to time. According to Murphy’s Law: what can go wrong, will go wrong. That may be a little on the pessimistic side. But certainly plenty of things in the workplace do go wrong. Things can’t be mended and parts go missing. Pipes spring leaks and circuits blow fuses. Sales fall through and deadlines get missed. Customers get irate and bosses become unreasonable. And that’s just on Monday!
The workplace can be a place of extreme stress. It might be the work itself. You can’t do what you’re supposed to do—at least, not in the timescale required. Maybe you’ve made a mistake or the task is beyond your abilities. Maybe it’s colleagues or suppliers who’ve let you down. Or it might be other people who make work stressful: awkward colleagues, difficult customers, an overbearing boss.
What do we do in those moments of stress?
There are lots of tools to help us cope with the pressures of work—emails, online calendars, task lists, wall charts, smart phones. And there is huge value in many of these. But we need to beware the illusion that we can always be in control.
Think about what happens if we think we’re in control or that we can tackle every problem simply with more effort.
We’ll tend to overwork to ensure everything is under our control.
We’ll put excessive pressure on co-workers to ensure everything is under control.
We’ll grow anxious when things don’t feel under our control.
In 4 v 35-41 Mark describes an evening when Jesus was in a boat with His disciples. A number of the disciples were fishermen by trade. So this was their working environment. Jesus had spent the day preaching. Perhaps the disciples felt relieved to be doing a task they knew how to do. This was their area of competency.
But then a furious storm comes up. Soon their workplace is in chaos! They are figuratively out of their depth and it is starting to look as if they might be literally out of their depth! In this chaos Jesus simply rebukes the storm: “Quiet! Be Still!” And immediately everything is calm. Jesus is in control. Complete control.
He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
It seems a bit harsh. After all, some of the disciples were experienced fishermen. Surely their assessment of the storm was accurate. And indeed it was. It was their assessment of Jesus that was inaccurate. “Who is this?” they ask themselves. If they had known the answer to that question, then faith would have replaced fear.
“Who is this?” they ask themselves. If they had known the answer to that question, then faith would have replaced fear.
What problems do you face at work? What “storms’? Your assessment of your work problems may be accurate. It may be chaos. Disaster may be approaching. But what about your assessment of Jesus? What’s your answer to the question, “Who is this?”
Here’s the truth that we need to hang on to: Jesus is in control of our work situations. He does answer prayer and He can sort out work problems.
That doesn’t mean every “storm” will be calmed or every disaster averted. Projects will still fail, jobs will go wrong, colleagues will let us down. We may even get fired. But Jesus is in control. And His purposes for us are always good. It’s not always the “good” we might choose for ourselves. Sometimes it’s even better. For God’s purpose for us is that we might know Him and enjoy Him and become like Him (Romans 8 v 28-30).
God has designed a programme of activities to prepare you for heaven. That programme of activities is called life.
Hebrews 12 v 4-11 says that God disciplines his children. It’s not that He punishes us for our failure—He is always gracious towards us, and all the punishment has been taken by Jesus on the cross. Instead, think of it like an induction programme. A new employee is often given a programme of activities to introduce them to a new company, perhaps doing a number of different roles in the firm so they understand the business. God has designed a programme of activities to prepare you for heaven. That programme of activities is called life. All its ups and downs are specially selected by God to lovingly shape you into a good servant and a happy child of God. The current problems you face at work are part of that programme.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12 v 11
This is an extract from Gospel Centred Work, by Tim Chester
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Tim Chester is a senior faculty member of Crosslands Training and has written over 40 books. He has a PhD in theology and PgDip in history along with 25 years' experience of pastoral ministry. He is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in rural Derbyshire, where he is part of a church plant.
