Encouragement for Life

By: Dr. Andrew Spencer

Searching the phrase “work-life balance” produces an avalanche of results. The recommendations provided to create a work-life balance vary widely based on the author and the outlet of publication, but the popularity of the question shows that it is a significant problem for many people.

Among other mistaken predictions, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted an abbreviated work week as material prosperity increased. By 2030, he expected the average person’s work to consume as little as 15 hours per week. Despite our material prosperity, Americans continue to work long hours. Our work is stressing us out.

It may help to reexamine why we work. That will, in turn, help determine where the balance between work and the rest of our vocations should be.

The Problem: Over-Working

In 1970, economist Staffan Linder wrote The Harried Leisure Class in which he made the case that as cultures have largely defeated material poverty, they have only become busier. In industrialized societies, there often seems to be an inverse relationship between available leisure time and material wealth. This phenomenon has real social implications in the United States, as it reduces the sense of well-being and can often produce a sense of despair, even in households with a great deal of material wealth.

Linder argues that in “rich countries all slacks in the use of time have been eliminated, so far as is humanly possible. The attitude of time is dictated entirely by the commodity’s extreme scarcity.”

This poverty of leisure time has led to a focus on life hacks and time-saving tricks that can be helpful but often illustrate the poverty of time many experience. Left unchecked, our work can demand all our time and energy, leaving no room for rest. It can rob us of Sabbath. It can diminish our delight in God’s creation. 

The reaction to this strain is to look for a technological solution. We try to find an app, a widget, or a process that will help us do more with less. But technology can contribute to the problem rather than the cure. Daylight no longer limits the hours that productive labor can be done outside. Our cell phones make us accessible anytime and any day. The internet allows us to work at home—a great blessing during a pandemic, but it can erase the boundaries between our career and other parts of life. 

There are blessings that come with technology as it pushes back the effects of the Fall, as with the healing of diseases, but technology can also take blessings like work and turn them into something less. “Always on” technology can enable our work to become a master no less demanding than Pharaoh. In an attempt to overcome nature’s limitations, we may have allowed ourselves to be conquered. When the busyness of our careers drives us to forgo taking delight in God’s creation, our priorities need to be realigned.

The Solution: Sabbath Rest

Work is a gift from God. Creation was intended for humans to cultivate and keep the garden (Gen 2:15). This call to creativity, innovation, and diligence was not diminished by the Fall; it was made more difficult (Gen 3:17-19). Work is not a part of the curse, but it can become a curse if we fail to observe rhythms of work and rest, which can be seen through God’s gift of the Sabbath.

God gave humanity the Sabbath for our good. The Sabbath was not intended to be a barren duty, but a delightful rest. As Jesus tells the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) This is not a revision of the fourth commandment, but an explanation that when “the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Ex 20:11b), it was intended to be a blessing for humanity. The blessing of the Sabbath rest is even more explicit in Deuteronomy 5:12–15, since it roots the Sabbath rest in a memorial to Israel’s unjust toil while in slavery in Egypt.

There is no easy solution. Work-life balance will always be a give and take effort. There will be seasons when the demands of work crowd out our need for rest when we have an ox in a well (Luke 14:5). We must regularly return to Christ’s assurances that “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Matt 4:4), trust that we need not be anxious about our life (Matt 6:25-33), and pursue faithfulness in the vocations we have been given.

All of our efforts in life should be done “with a good will as to the Lord and not to man” (Eph 6:6b), which reminds us that we can only serve one master (Matt 6:24). The master we ought to be serving is the one that calls us to come to him as we labor and are heavy laden so that we can get rest (Matt 11:28). Only when we find our identity in Christ and our purpose is honoring him through our work will we gain rest from the relentless demands of our careers.

As Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”

Editor’s note: This article is reprinted with permission from the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (www.tifwe.org). The original article appears here.  

By: John Pletcher

Are you certain you are ready to go back to work?

For many of us, the current season is full of great eagerness and anticipation. Perhaps you’ve been working from home, and now there is the potential of going back to the office soon. Perhaps you were furloughed over previous weeks, but now you are hearing the news of being called back. Some places it’s a reality; in others, it’s still a wishful hope. For everyone everywhere, great patience is still required.

Serious question: Are you sure you’re ready to go back to work? 

I know, you’re chomping at the bit. You are probably ready to throw yourself back into your labors with great gusto. And that’s good. Very good! After all, God made you in his image. He wired you for creative productivity. But hold your horses. Pause long enough to ponder. You see, it could be very easy—tempting even—to just plunge back in and go absolutely crazy, bonkers about your labors. You might jump onto the job floor and become utterly consumed, giddy drunk in your endeavors, and utterly overwhelmed with your to-dos.

Before you head back, don’t miss the opportunity to hit reset. With advanced thoughtfulness, you can actually return to your labors with a renewed and strengthened perspective. Consider these three essentials. (I bet you already know these, but it’s really good in times like these to recall essential truths you already know.) 

Remember Your Work is a Gift

When God created humans in his image, he supplied his blessing, including that initial call (often dubbed humanity’s cultural mandate) to “rule and to reign.” He also supplied those initial resources. “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth . . .” (Gen 1:27-31). These are serious gifts “from the Father of the heavenly lights” (James 1:17). 

In Made to Matter: Devotions for Working Christians, Randy Kilgore reminds us: “It isn’t adoration or statues or even the satisfaction of a job well done that is God’s gift to His children. It’s the work itself!” Timothy Keller, in Every Good Endeavor, supplies motivation: “A biblical understanding of work energizes our desire to create value from the resources available to us. Recognizing the God who supplies our resources, and who gives us the privilege of joining in as cocultivators, helps us enter into our work with a relentless spirit of creativity.”

If we don’t remember our work is a gift as we return to the workplace, we are likely to grow arrogant and too quickly self-reliant. As a result, our creative energies will likely be less than their best.

Remember Your Work is Service to Others, to the Glory of God

This truth is a game-changer when it comes to our purpose and motivation. Under normal circumstances, we struggle to remember such vital truth. We stumble through our busy days with self-serving, push-harder, do-it-for-my-glory perspectives. But during these upcoming days of exciting work comebacks, such self-serving attitudes could be all the craftier and more deceptive. Important reminder: our work is not all about us.

With winsome strokes in The Integrated Life, Ken Eldred reminds us: “The real goal of business is to serve others to the glory of God.” If we are not careful, that pure, simple, life-giving goal could get lost in the dust of our crisis-time comebacks. Let’s re-enter our offices and marketplaces with God-given clarity and fervor. We are there to serve others, to help make God even more famous.

Remember the Importance of Rest

One potential upside for many people during this season of downtime has been exactly that: downtime. Rest. Rejuvenation. Sabbath.

This was God’s brilliant idea on day seven (Gen 2:1-3). The amount of rest many people have been forced to take might be the biggest block of do-nothing that they have experienced since childhood. Oh yes, most of us have rushed to fill the void or been forced to add other side hustles. But no one can disagree. There has been a marked change of pace in work patterns. Less rush. More family time. 

With our return to daily labors, there will be the temptation to ramp up, work harder, push more, and drive harder than ever to get ahead. Let’s make certain we do not lose sight of the sacred value of rest, those regular rhythms to which God our Creator called us. He saw the importance of a finish line each week, a holy stop, an intentional time to pause, to celebrate, and to rejuvenate. Let’s not lose sight of the importance of rest.

Remember that work is our Father’s gracious gift. Remember our divine purpose, to serve others for his glory. And remember to “call it a day.” He did.

As we remember these essentials, we are more likely to be truly ready to go back to work.

Editor’s note: This article is reprinted with permission from the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (www.tifwe.org). The original article appears here.

By Jimmy R. Lewis

Fighting for joy in the midst of a busy schedule is sometimes difficult even for strong, mature Christians. As a young professional in Washington, D.C., I have experienced and struggled with some of the pitfalls surrounding busyness. In a city and society that views busyness as a badge of honor, these struggles are inevitable, but succumbing to them doesn’t have to be.

Whether you’re a soccer mom with a full-time job or a day trader on Wall Street, I know that busyness can easily steal your joy, if you aren’t vigilantly fighting for joy in Christ and striving to glorify him in all that you do.

Disclaimer to Busy People

First, allow me to state that being busy and productive are not sins. On the contrary, these things can be sanctifying works for the Christian. Proverbs is full of commands for God’s people to be diligent, hard-working, and not lazy (Prov. 6:9, 10:4 14:23, 20:13, 21:5). Likewise, a major theme of Ecclesiastes is to find joy in one’s work (Eccles. 2:10, 24, 3:22, 5:18-20, 9:9-10). However, busyness can have many negative effects on your spiritual life. Here are four:

Compromising Quality for Quantity

We are called to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31) and to “work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Col. 3:23). If busyness causes you to compromise the quality of your work, then you’re likely unhealthily busy and something needs to change. Anyone can be involved in and signed up for multiple clubs, jobs, events, internships, and classes, but not everyone can perform well in all of them. If you don’t know your limit and consistently stretch yourself too thin, causing a lack of quality in your work, then God is not being maximally glorified through your schedule or your work. There may be a great quantity of work in your life, but if the quality is compromised then the impact of the work is limited, counterproductive, and potentially self-destructive.

Misprioritization

If God is the center of your life and the source of your joy, then your schedule ought to reflect it. We must take time for ourselves to be led and fed spiritually (Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16). Allow nothing to creep into the times in your day and week that are protected for Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship with other believers—to allow this is spiritual sabotage. Time spent with God ought to be a treasure nothing else eclipses. Often times, once the day begins it is difficult to find moments (much less minutes or hours) of solitude, especially for busy people, so scheduling and protecting time early in the morning before the day begins is often our best chance to set the tone for the day and set our minds on Christ.

Non-Holistic Living/Tunnel Vision

I’ve found that people often make themselves busy with things in one area of their lives (e.g. they focus on their intellectual life and spend all of their time reading and doing little else, or they focus on their physical life at the gym and their diet, or even busy themselves with their spiritual life and fill their schedule with nothing but church events and volunteering). The problem with each of these is that we aren’t merely intellectual beings, or physical beings, or even spiritual beings. As C.S. Lewis noted in Mere Christianity, “God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than He is of any other slacker.”

Our greatest commandment is to love God with all we have; with our heart (emotions), soul (spirit), mind (intellect), and strength (body and wealth/resources). To neglect any of these capacities which God has given us is half-hearted Christianity and won’t do.

Blind to Our Spiritual Needs

Finally, busyness can also blind us from recognizing what we desperately need spiritually. We can be on spiritual autopilot for days, weeks, even months, or years; just coasting through life, accomplishing things in our professional and personal lives, without focusing on Christ and without hungering and thirsting for him whatsoever. Busyness steals joy from us by distracting us from the most important aspect of our lives—our reliance on Christ. We need Christ in order to have true joy, comfort, satisfaction, and a myriad of other spiritual blessings, but the busier we become, we often feel more self-sufficient and are blinded to our need for Christ.

Good time management is understanding how to orient and structure your time in such a way that enables you to serve God and others well. Time management can be an act of worship toward God, if you allow it to be. Finally, as Christians, everything we do should be for God’s glory (1 Cor. 10:31); this includes the way we arrange our schedules. Billy Graham once said, “Give me five minutes with a person’s checkbook, and I will tell you where their heart is.” I will be so bold as to say the same about a person’s calendar. Time is the greatest gift we can give, because it’s the only thing we’ll never get back. Let us be a people who live in light of this and devote our time to God and to the task of making him known to those around us.

This article is reprinted with permission from the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (www.tifwe.org). The original article appears here. 

By: Dr. Art Lindsley 

In the many vocational interviews I have done over the years, I have heard numerous stories about difficult bosses and strained relationships at work.

Even in the organizations working for the highest causes, the tone of the corporate culture does not always match the lofty vision of their group.

According to Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street Journal, this disconnect between an organization’s cultural values and the reality of what an employee experiences firsthand can lead to high turnover rates and job dissatisfaction, especially among millennials. She reports,

Some 7% of workers ages 24 to 36 say they dislike their employer’s culture so much that they intend to quit their jobs in the next two years, according to a 2019 survey by Deloitte of 13,416 millennial employees.

Likewise, you might have expected to get more out of work relationships.

You can have great relationships at work, allowing you to work closely with others and even have fun doing so. Part of wisely building work relationships is understanding what it means to develop nuanced and careful trust with people.

Here are three guidelines that can help us to set reliable expectations about relationships at work (and in life).

1. Love Is Never Safe Apart from Character

How can we risk loving our co-workers, friends, spouses, neighbors, and fellow citizens when we are unsure of whether we can fully trust them?

Sometimes, we are called to love without regard for our own safety, as when we obey Christ’s command to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). However, it is wise before entering into a relationship to consider the other person’s character.

We need to exercise godly caution when entering into business partnerships. I have heard many stories about people having been burned by trusting the wrong person.

One friend wanted to help another believer and helped set him up in a small business. Unfortunately, he neglected to do a background check, only later finding out that the person had a criminal record. Because of his partner’s dishonesty, he was saddled with a very large debt.

Building different levels of trust in work relationships should depend on discerning character.

2. Relationships Can Only Rise as High as the Character of Those Involved

Plato argued that you cannot be good friends with a bad person because sooner or later, your friend’s bad character will manifest itself. Your relationship can only rise as high as the lowest level of character between the two of you.

For instance, a friend got a large personal loan from a business associate, and gave his house as collateral. Despite assurances that he would never do so, the man took his house when he couldn’t keep up his payments.

Even though someone claims to be a Christian doesn’t necessarily mean they will be good to their word. But how can you know how much you can trust a business associate?

3. Look at Whomever the Person in Question Has Treated Most Poorly

To discern a person’s character, look at whomever that person has treated most poorly, and you will see the degree to which his or her character can descend.

It is not wise to trust the person beyond that level of their character. Given enough time and opportunity, they will likely do to you what they have done to others.

The book of Proverbs warns us to distinguish between people who pretend to be our friends and those who are the real thing.

Some friends play at friendship but a true friendship sticks closer than one’s nearest kin (Prov. 18:24).

For instance, it would not be wise to trust someone who is habitually a liar or has been violent in other relationships.

Can People (and Their Character) Change?

Does this mean people cannot change?

No. People can change their patterns of behavior (their character).

I have worked with former inmates working at Prison Fellowship and have found a number who have demonstrated exemplary behavior.

However, it would be unwise to trust much beyond the evidence that they are trustworthy. A person can be a true believer and yet have remaining weaknesses, making it difficult for them to move forward at work or in relationships outside of work.

To close on a positive note, one example of a former inmate who demonstrates character, and has had an immense impact, is Chuck Colson.

When he was at the White House, they called him Nixon’s “hatchet man.” He was said to be willing to run over his own grandmother. He went to prison as a result of the Watergate investigations.

Yet he became a believer and was a “burning and shining light” during his life after prison. He wrote many books, started Prison Fellowship, a ministry that still ministers to inmates worldwide, and was a consistent, reliable friend.

I got to know him very early in his faith journey at the Ligonier Valley Study Center with R.C. Sproul. In the many interactions I had with him over the years, he proved to be a generous and gracious friend. Even those who were initially skeptical of his conversion were later persuaded of its genuineness.

I’m sure you can think of further examples. However, we need to be wise and not naïve when we trust someone. Jesus said that we need to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16).

The key is that relationships at work can grow if there is a foundation of well-evaluated trust between people. Entering serious partnerships should be done based on reason to believe that the partner is trustworthy. Trust can be built a little at a time to prevent taking large risks on little trust.

On the other hand, there is no steadfast rule to determining trust. People can prove that they have changed, even after they have made a mistake. Relationships at work can grow if there is a level of trust that matches the issue at hand.

This article is reprinted with permission from the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (www.tifwe.org). The original article appears here. 

By Steve Lindsey

Whether a book, the news, or someone’s facial expression, we all read things regularly in our daily lives.

But have you ever considered reading your work? This type of reading requires discovering wisdom about what practices and principles best apply to your unique job.

This skill of reading our job can lead to flourishing and prevent impoverishment.

Mis-reading Our Work

When we lack the specific insights over the structures, skills, and processes most appropriate for our type of work, we often swim upstream and impede progress.

We all have examples of this from our lives:

• We over systematize our business and get bogged down in bloated and inefficient bureaucracy, driving overhead way out-of-line and threatening profitability;
• We under systematize and lack the structure and organization to manage the complexities of daily work and provide clear direction on how to get essential things done.

Learning the principles of what works best in a given work environment is reading our work well.

Reading Creation

Daniel Doriani, in his recent book Work: Its Purpose, Dignity, and Transformation, provides some excellent explanations and examples of this concept. As Christians, we learn in church that God provides two ways to understand ourselves and the world: special and general revelation.

We are given special revelation (the Bible) to teach us about God’s unfolding plan, purpose, and redemption in the world and general revelation (the created world) to learn the nature of what he has made and how we can shape and use it to fulfill God’s purposes.

We intuitively know there is a treeness to trees, a wetness to water, and flightness to birds of the air simply from observation.

God has similarly made human work with built-in natures. There is a schoolishness about an institution of learning, a scientific method for doing research, a need for composition while creating a painting, and proper stakeholder considerations in conducting business.

How does God teach us these built-in principles and align our fields of work for his good purposes? Unlike reading the Bible, learning to read the nature of our work requires experimentation, observation, and discovery.

Whether it’s learning to farm through soil preparation and care, proper seeding and irrigation, and timing the cycle of planting and harvest, farmers must apply their accumulated learning and ongoing improvements to farm well.

Reading Our Job Well

Maybe you’re wondering: is this something we do independent of God so we can get on with the more important tasks of church activities and serving our neighbor?

Farming, some might say, is just farming after all, and there is no Christian farming to learn.

The sad miss in this statement is that even though it is true, as Doriani points out, that “there is no Christian potato, and there is no Christian light bulb,” we love our neighbor best and worship God the most when we partner with him to discover and creatively leverage the resources and principles of our work to further his ongoing plan and work in the world.

Doriani rightly directs us to the words of Isaiah 28:23-29.

Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. This also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, as Doriani points out, “…God instructs farmers so they know how to raise good crops in their time and place.”

It is God who is instructing us when we discover how to do our job in the way that both works well and honors him.

This is the reading of creation or more specifically reading our job that we desire. Sin and the lack of a written manual for each area of labor make this a much more difficult pursuit than reading scripture alone. Yet, scripture guides us in the purpose and direction for our labors.

Doriani continues, “…each sphere of life has its expertise. Each needs to keep others from intruding, yet each needs to learn from the others, since every aspect of life is connected.” This view allows us to connect the presence and desire of God to every type of work as we strive for a job well done.

Thoughtful Christians reflect on God’s heart and learn to enjoy exploring his design for their sphere of work. They iterate on improvements and learn to ask better questions as they seek to best apply their efforts at work.

Do the Same Principles Work Everywhere?

It’s important to note that applying principles that work well in one area indiscriminately to other areas can cause disastrous results.

For example, are we selfishly seeking to run our schools like a business rather than having the student’s best interest the top priority? Do we sit back and expect the government to be the primary agent in loving the poor instead of taking up the mantel as a church for our local community’s needs? Do we design buildings to maximize leasable work areas rather than promote an ideal mix of functional and beautiful workspace suited to the nature of users?

As Doriani illustrates well, “For Michelangelo, The Pieta is sacred because of the subject matter. But Vermeer’s milkmaid is sacred because he respects her and her labor, and he adorns her with light and color.”

Let’s adorn our work today with the respect, light, and color the nature of our work deserves, knowing God is partnering with and instructing us each step of the way.

Editor’s note: This article was republished with permission from the Center for Faith and Work Los Angeles. See the original article here.

By John Lennox

A Weighty Decision

It is our heavenly Father who provides food for birds and clothing for flowers. We, who are more valuable to him, are therefore to trust him for the necessities of life.

Anxiety and fear are real. Many years ago I was in Hungary and met a man whose demeanor impressed me greatly, a humble man of great grace and warmth. I was eager to hear his story. In the communist era he had been a village-school mathematics teacher, but he was also active in the local churches in the area, much in demand as a teacher of scripture. One day he was summoned to the police station and questioned about his employment.

“You are a math teacher,” they said, “but you are also a Bible teacher, is not that so?”

“Yes, indeed,” he said, “I do that in my spare time.”

“And you get paid for it?” they asked.

“Not at all,” he said, “it is my contribution completely freely given.”

“We do not believe you,” they replied. “You must therefore choose. Either you continue as a school teacher or as a Bible teacher but not both, and you must give us your decision very soon.”

He went home that night to his family with a heavy heart. He had a large family, and it was not easy to feed them all, yet he decided to discuss the matter with them. He called them together and said, “I never want you children to be able to say that they were not consulted by their father in big decisions affecting family life.” So he outlined to them the choice he faced. What should he do?

The youngest boy in the family said, “Dad, I cannot imagine you without a Bible in your hands.”

The decision was made and he had to leave the school. Finding work was difficult, and in the end he had to content himself with the backbreaking work of lifting and carrying heavy slates in a quarry. The slates had sharp edges, and his wife told me that many an evening she had to dress his hands with bandages so that the blood from his many abrasions would not drip onto the Bible he was using in the pulpit.

One day he was called into the manager’s office. “I hear that you once taught mathematics?”

“That’s right.”

“Well,” said the foreman, “I am underqualified for my job, and under new regulations we all need basic qualifications in mathematics. How would you like to teach me, instead of working in the quarry?” He jumped at it and discovered to his joy that his pay was more than he had received as a teacher in the school.

It was a magnificent example of what it means really to serve the Lord in daily work, and I was not surprised to discover that his influence was felt throughout the entire country.

Motivation

This story illustrates that there is more to be considered in Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. He speaks of motivation, contrasting two attitudes: “The Gentiles [pagans] seek. . . . [You] seek . . .” This strikes us as strange at first. Surely we are all to seek food and clothing by working, as God has ordained. That is true, of course, which means that it is not the point Jesus is making. Jesus is adding two further dimensions, the spiritual and the moral, to the quest for food and clothing, which is normally undertaken through our work. It is perhaps easiest understood when we think of it in the context of our motivation for doing that work.

One common motivation is simply to work in order to get money to live. On the other hand, Jesus says that the believer should “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” in the process of gaining the wherewithal to live. The things necessary for living will be added as well, and here is the point—they are no longer the main motive for doing the work. For the believer, the main motive is to experience God’s kingdom, that is, his rule in our everyday lives. In practical terms that will mean seeking his righteousness. Every job, every kind of work, whether paid or not, whether in a hospital, a factory, or a church, gives rise to moral problems, issues of personal and corporate probity.

Think of it this way: There are two aspects to work for a believer, not just one. First, the goal of work (as just mentioned): seeking God’s rule; and then the by-products of work: food, clothing, housing, etc. The sad tragedy is that many people confuse the goal of work with the by-product of work. For them the main goal of work is food, clothing, housing, and all the rest of an inexhaustible list of private possessions, up to private aircraft, yachts, palaces, and even football clubs. Their prime motivation is to get these things. The danger is that their desire to possess them may overrule moral qualms, and they may give in to the temptation to acquire them by dishonesty, cheating, corruption, theft, and a thousand other different ways of manipulating the system.

Character Development

What such people do not realize is that although they may well have gained goods and property, they have lost the main objective for which work was intended by God in the first place—experiencing his rule and righteousness. God is interested in character far more than possessions. His intention is that our work becomes an integral part of the process of character development.

My Hungarian friend exemplified this memorably. Another vivid example I came across is that of a young man in his twenties who had trained as an electrician. After just a few weeks in his first job doing the electrical wiring in new houses, he was summoned to see his boss, who angrily accused him of laziness in that he had wired fewer houses than his workmates. He replied that he could not work any faster, since the wiring under the floors had to be done especially carefully to fulfill the regulations regarding fire hazards. The boss angrily retorted: “Who sees under the floorboards?” “My Lord does,” answered the young man without hesitation. He was fired on the spot but got a new job soon afterward.

This incident captures exactly what Jesus teaches. The young electrician was seeking God’s rule and righteousness in his daily work. He was not prepared to cut moral corners because he believed God was interested in his character. God was watching the way he worked.

Content adapted from Joseph by John Lennox. This article first appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission.