Checking Your Perspective on Work

A friend of yours tells you, "I'm going to get married, because I am spending a fortune on housekeeping. If I get married, I'll save all that money."

Another friend says, "I've decided to have a baby. I just filed my taxes, and if I had a child I would have gotten money back this year."

Another friend says, "I've decided to become a Scientologist because the CEO of my company is a Scientologist. So if I become a Scientologist that's going to advance my career and I'll make more money."

Your 18-year-old son comes to you and says, "I've decided to get a job because I want to earn some money."

We understand that marriage is a structure, parenting is a structure, religion is a structure, and work is a structure. And anyone who enters into that structure with the wrong idea is going to be in trouble. Why is it that we see the structure of marriage as about relationship, parenting as about relationship, religion as about relationship, but we only see work as a way to make money?

I believe that instead of a curse, work should be a blessing. The 3 key elements to shift our mindset about work are Principles of Discipleship, Spiritual Formation, and Kingdom Living. The result is a new way to approach our work, and a doorway to discovering meaning, purpose, and value in whatever we do. That's why I wrote The Gift of Work, and why I love to talk with people about the importance and value of their jobs.

God has you exactly where He needs you. Your work done faithfully and well, blesses others - answers countless prayers for food, clothing, shelter, health, justice, knowledge and joy - and glorifies God. Work is one significant way that you love God and love your neighbor.

The Gift of Work
From the Foreword by Dallas Willard:
"We are now, as disciples of Jesus, members of a divine community that, when we seek it, we find with us in our job and throughout life, and thereby we turn all that we do into work for and under God. Thus, Paul advises: "Whatever you do, do your work heartily"—literally, 'from the soul'—"as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve." (Col. 3:23-24) We are not to try to look good (do "eyeservice"), as men-pleasers, but on our job we simply "do the will of God from the heart." (Eph. 6:6-8)

"Now this book tells us exactly how to do this. Intelligent, well-informed, and biblical to the core, it is intensely focused upon the real-life context of the job: on what really goes on there, and how, for our part, we can turn it into divine work. In this respect the author is telling us how to live a life that is spiritual throughout, full of meaning, strength and joy. He thus stands in the solid tradition of Christian teaching throughout the ages. He does so with the freshness of personal experience and the forcefulness of careful thought."

Bill Heatley has decades of experience in corporate America as an Information Technology professional. He has served Fortune 500 companies and managed his own business, both roles providing him with necessary insights as a Christian. His most recent position prior to exiting "Corporate America" was at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena where he was a Program Manager involved in upgrading their medical records and billing systems, which was the largest project of its kind in the U.S.