Job

In the world of professional football, certain players get the most glory and recognition, like quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, or even certain defensive players. Offensive linemen rarely get noticed. But the offense wouldn't be able to move down the field with the largely hidden, unspectacular work of the linemen.

That's why it was gratifying to see a linemen honored for his service to the team. On Sunday, October 22, 2017 Cleveland Browns fans gave offensive tackle Joe Thomas a standing ovation in the third quarter as he left the field after an injury. Prior to that injury, Thomas had played every snap for his team since he was drafted in 2007—a streak of 10,363 plays in a row.

Thomas wasn't a flashy superstar, but his quiet, consistent, and humble faithfulness was a big part of what made the offense work. When asked about his streak of over 10,000 plays, Thomas said:

Something I've found comfort in is, Just do your job. I've got people in my family who get up and go to work every day and they don't complain…. I am blessed to do what I love to do so much. I just hope it means I'm a regular guy who gets up every morning and goes to work, and plays as hard as he can, and is a good teammate. I hope that's what they say about me.

Joel Prusak was an employee at the ice cream chain Dairy Queen. One day, as he was serving customers their food, he noticed that a blind man had dropped a twenty-dollar bill on the floor. A lady standing in line quietly bent down and put the twenty dollars into her own pocket. Young Joey Prusak approached the lady, asking her to give the twenty-dollar bill back to the blind man. She refused, quite aggressively, claiming it was her own. And then Joey did something very generous. Quietly, he opened up his own wallet and handed the blind man a twenty-dollar bill of his own. The man took the money gratefully, and the Dairy Queen resumed normal business.

A customer in line observed the whole episode and sent an e-mail to the Dairy Queen management, informing them of Joey's act of generosity. The DQ management then posted about it on Facebook, and the event went viral. A couple of days later, Joey received a call from the billionaire Warren Buffet, a big investor in Dairy Queen. He thanked Joey for showing such integrity and asked him to come to the next Dairy Queen investors' meeting. As Joey was an employee and representative of Dairy Queen, Buffet wanted him to be there as an integral part of the fabric of the organization.

Joey's act of generosity inspired thousands of people to believe that they, too, could do something small to impact the world for good. It was a small act—with a huge impact. And so it is with God. He takes our small acts of obedience or kindness or goodness and multiplies them for his good, and ours. So don't wait until you can do big things; start small. Sometimes small seeds grow into large trees, and sometimes they fail to thrive.

Do you think your boss is tough or unfair? Try working for the world's worst boss—Mike Davis, aka Tiger Mike. Davis started as a chauffeur and rose to become a Houston oil and gas magnate. But he earned an even more notoriety as "the world's worst boss" and "the world's grumpiest boss." Throughout his career he routinely issued grumpy memos to his employees.

For instance, on January 11th, 1978 he sent the following terse memo to all his employees: "Idle conversation and gossip in this office among employees will result in immediate termination. DO YOUR JOBS AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!"

A month later he banned office birthday parties with the following memo: "There will be no more birthday celebrations, birthday cakes, levity, or celebrations of any kind within the office. This is a business office. If you have to celebrate, do it after office hours on your own time."

In another memo he explained why he could swear but his employees couldn't: "I swear, but since I am the owner of this company, that is my privilege, and this privilege is not to be interpreted as the same for any employee. That differentiates me from you, and I want to keep it that way. There will be absolutely no swearing, by any employee, male or female, in this office, ever."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Employer; Jobs; Work—a great way to set up a sermon on the difficulties and challenges of work. (2) Encouragement—a good example of how NOT to act as a boss or how not to encourage people in your life.

New research has revealed that employees waste an average of $1,500 and an 8-hour workday for every crucial conversation they avoid. These costs skyrocket when multiplied by the prevalence of conflict avoidance.

According to the study conducted by the authors of the New York Times bestselling book Crucial Conversations, 95 percent of a company's workforce struggles to speak up to their colleagues about their concerns. As a result, they engage in resource-sapping avoidance tactics including ruminating excessively about crucial issues, complaining, getting angry, doing unnecessary work and avoiding the other person altogether. In extreme cases of avoidance, the organization's bottom line is hit especially hard.

The study of more than 600 people found that eight percent of employees estimate their avoidance costs their organization more than $10,000. And one in 20 estimate that over the course of a drawn-out silent conflict, they waste time ruminating about the problem for more than six months. Joseph Grenny, author of Crucial Conversations, says it's time organizations stop viewing interpersonal competencies as soft skills and start teaching their people how to speak up and deal directly with conflicts rather than avoiding them.

American essayist, historian, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote: "It is not enough to be industrious. So are the ants." The British science magazine New Scientist put out an issue on the psychology and future of work. One of the articles, "I Work Therefore I Am," cited Brent Rosso, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Management at Montana State University. He penned six unique attributes that help people find meaning in their jobs. Rosso mined hundreds of academic surveys to come up with the list. He believes almost any job can have at least one of the attributes. (Note: attributes copied verbatim because of their brevity)

Authenticity Going to work makes you feel you are accessing your "true self"—maybe that you are following a calling or can be yourself.

Agency You are able to make significant decisions and feel as if you "make a difference." This taps into our desire to believe that we have free will.

Self-Worth Your job makes you feel valuable; you are able to see milestones of achievement, no matter how small.

Purpose You see your work as moving you closer to a strongly held goal. The downside is that you are more likely to sacrifice pay and personal time too.

Belonging It's not what you do, it's who you do it with. You belong to a special group of colleagues, even if your job seems mundane or poorly rewarded.

Transcendence Your job is about sacrifice for a greater cause. Your meaning comes from following this, or perhaps a truly inspirational boss.

Possible Preaching Angles: This would make a fascinating illustration for a sermon on faith and work. It poses the following questions: What drives or motivates you as a worker? What should drive you as a follower of Christ?

A church in Buffalo, New York has found a unique way to bless its local community—open a Subway franchise in its building. In a riff off the popular TV show, Undercover Boss, in which business leaders from large corporations spend several days working alongside lower-level employees, Don Fertman, Subway's Chief Development Officer, goes undercover at several locations across the United States. Most of the episode includes your typical Undercover Boss fare—bumbling executive, dedicated workers, tear-jerker employee recognitions—but Fertman also visited a restaurant in Buffalo, New York located in the same building as True Bethel Baptist Church. The church owns and operates the franchise.

The reason? To provide employment and job training to the surrounding neighborhood. On the episode Senior Pastor Reverend Darius Pridgen explains the origins and aim of the idea:

The reason we actually put it in the church was because there weren't a lot of opportunities in this neighborhood when I got here. We had a high murder rate, and a lot of people not working. So, a lot of people always talk about, "Just give people jobs." Well, that's not the key, if they haven't been trained. So we started collecting an offering. We called it a "franchise offering"—literally called it a "franchise offering." But we've got to do more than build a business. We've got to train people. We try to push people into the next level of life.

The episode concludes with Fertman waiving the franchise fee for the church to open another similarly suited store in a nearby neighborhood. In addition, he encourages a room of Subway executives to consider it as a model for the future.

Is it rational to trust God even when we do not fully understand what he is doing? One of the most illuminating answers was put forward by the Oxford philosopher Basil Mitchell in his celebrated parable of the resistance leader.

Imagine you are in German-occupied France during World War II and you want to join the resistance movement against the Nazis. One evening in the local bar a stranger comes up to you and introduces himself as the leader of the local partisans. He spends the evening with you, explaining the general requirements of your duties, giving you a chance to assess his trustworthiness, and offering you the chance to go no further. But his warning is stern: If you join, your life will be at risk. This will be the only face-to-face meeting you will have. After this, you will receive orders and you will have to follow them without question, often completely in the dark as to the whys and wherefores of the operations, and always with the terrifying fear that your trust may be betrayed.

Is such trust reasonable? Sometimes what the resistance leader is doing is obvious. He is helping members of the resistance. "Thank heavens he is on our side," you say. Sometimes it is not obvious. He is in Gestapo uniform arresting partisans and—unknown to you—releasing them out of sight to help them escape the Nazis. But always you must trust and follow the orders without question, despite all appearances, no matter what happens. "The resistance leader knows best," you say. Only after the war will the secrets be open, the codes revealed, the true comrades vindicated, the traitors exposed, and sense made of the explanations.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Os Guinness adds, "The parable of the resistance leader is an apt picture of the … dilemmas of faith in a fallen world ….. Evil is not a problem because God is too small, though doing his best, but because God is so great that we cannot be expected to know what he is doing." The parable explores if we have good enough reasons to trust the resistance leader. Christians can look at Jesus and say, "Father, I don't understand everything that you're doing, but I trust that you are good and that you're on my side."

In the early days of his Christian life, Os Guinness believed that he had to prove his commitment to Christ by becoming a minister or missionary. So, urged on by his spiritual mentors, he worked for a well-known church, but he was miserable. God changed his heart and refined his calling through a random encounter at a gas station. Here's how Guinness described it:

[In the days before self-service gas stations], I had just had my car filled up with gas and enjoyed a marvelously rich conversation with the pump attendant. As I turned on the key and the engine to [my car] roared to life, a thought suddenly hit me with the force of an avalanche: This man was the first person I had spoken to in a week who was not a church member. I was in danger of being drawn in a religious ghetto … . Ten minutes of conversation with a friendly gas pump attendant on a beautiful spring evening in [England], and I knew once and for all I was not cut out to [work full-time in a church].

Instead, as Guinness continued to pray and seek God's guidance, he discovered that God was calling him to work in the world so he could use his gifts and build relationships with people who didn't know Christ. After God released Guinness from what he was not supposed to do, Guinness found the freedom to pursue God's true calling for his life.

Martin Luther was approached by a working man who wanted to know how he could serve God. Luther asked him, "What is your work now?" The man said, "I'm a shoemaker."

Much to the cobbler's surprise, Luther replied, "Then make good shoes and sell them at a fair price."

Luther didn't tell the man to make "Christian shoes." He didn't tell the man to leave his shoe business and become a monk.

As Christians, we can faithfully serve God in a variety of vocations and jobs. And we don't need to justify that work in terms of its "spiritual" value or evangelistic usefulness. We simply pursue our calling with new God-glorifying motives, goals, and standards.

After her daughter was born, Nancy [Guthrie] knew something was wrong. Though she named the baby Hope, there wasn't much to be hopeful about. Born with clubfeet, extreme lethargy, and an inability to suck, among other problems, Hope was officially diagnosed with Zeilweger Syndrome. This rare metabolic disorder is characterized by an absence of peroxisomes (cell structures that rid the body of toxic substances). There is no treatment or cure. Most babies with the disease live less than six months.

"At first, I thought it was my fault," says Nancy "that I didn't pray enough for a healthy baby and was now paying for it." Nancy was familiar with prayer. She grew up going to church, attended a Christian college, and had a great job in Christian publishing. Her life was filled with the pursuit of Christian things but as she later realized, not necessarily with the pursuit of Christ. "There was a sense of hypocrisy, you know? I was so busy for God and interested in theological things, working with Christian authors and books, and working hard at my church, but I wasn't talking to him or listening to him by reading his word …

"I think for those of us who have grown up in the church, it takes a miracle rescue touch from God to break out of going through the motions. It takes great humility to say 'What I've been doing hasn't been working, and it hasn't been real.'" Nancy began by telling God, "It's been so long since we've talked, and I don't even know how to do this or why you'd want to talk to me, but can we start talking?"

For Nancy, talking meant committing to regular Bible study. Slowly, she felt the hypocrisy being replaced by a hunger to know God more …

She considered a recent Bible study she had done on the Book of Job. At the time, she wondered if she could do what Job did. She recalled the passage where God said, "My servant Job will be faithful to me no matter what."

"I remember being so challenged by that," she says. "I couldn't imagine God ever having that confidence in me." As Nancy looked at Hope, she thought, Here's my chance to respond to the worst thing I can imagine in a way that is pleasing to God.

It wasn't easy. Nancy had to make that decision over and over again during the next few months. Her grieving didn't get easier. Hope wasn't healed. The pain didn't lessen. But each day, Nancy tried to respond faithfully despite her loneliness and grief. When people offered to drop off meals, she and David invited them to stay. When people expressed pity at their circumstances, she asked them to celebrate their daughter's life. "Whereas before we talked to our neighbors about our lawns, we never had meaningless conversations anymore. We were talking about life and death and Jesus in a way we never had before." In preparing for her own loss, Nancy began to help others.

On her 199th day of life, Hope took her last breath.

Both parents must be carriers of the recessive gene for Zeilweger Syndrome to occur. The Guthries decided David would have a vasectomy to prevent another pregnancy. Only one in 2,000 vasectomies fail, so the couple felt secure. But one year after Hope died, Nancy was pregnant again. Prenatal testing revealed their third child would also have Zeilweger Syndrome.

Time magazine interviewed Nancy and David for an article in which the writer compared their plight to that of Job's in the Old Testament. The article quotes an entry from Nancy's journal: "[Like Job], we often cannot see the hidden purposes of God," she wrote. "But we can determine to be faithful and keep walking toward Him in the darkness."

Named after the angel, Gabriel was born on July 16, 2001, the same day the Guthries' story appeared in Time. They knew what to expect. Their son's first day would be his best.

Gabriel died 183 days later.

Nancy says that answering how or why begins with another question: what? What do we believe about God? "Do I trust the character of God enough to believe he's in control and whatever he allows in my life will be for my ultimate good—not [that] whatever he allows in my life is good?" says Nancy. "Can I trust knowing him will be good enough to make whatever it cost me to know him worth it? A lot of people say, 'Oh, I could never do that.' And David and I say, 'You couldn't. But if God allows this in your life, he will also give to you the grace you need to respond to it faithfully.'"

"I've experienced one of the worst things that can happen," says Nancy, "and I haven't found I'm strong and I can handle it. But I have found out God's promise is true, his grace is sufficient. Now when I read 'My grace is sufficient' (2 Corinthians 12:9), I believe it not only because Jesus said it in the Bible—I believe it because I've experienced it."

Condensed from our sister publication Today's Christian , © 2007 Christianity Today International. For more articles like this, visit Today's Christian

Once a friend of mine went swimming in a large lake at dusk. As he was paddling at a leisurely pace about 100 yards offshore, a freak evening fog rolled in across the water. Suddenly he could see nothing: no horizon, no landmarks, no objects or lights on shore. Because the fog diffused all light, he could not even discern which direction the sun was setting.

For thirty minutes my friend splashed around in panic. He would start off in one direction, lose confidence, and turn ninety degrees to the right. Or left--it made no difference which way he turned. He would stop and float, trying to conserve energy, and concentrate on breathing slower. Then he would strike out again, blindly, of course, for he had lost all orientation. He was utterly lost until, finally, he heard voices calling from shore and was able to guide himself by the sounds.

Something like that feeling of utter lostness must have settled in on poor Job as he sat in the ashes and tried to comprehend what had happened. He too had lost all landmarks, all points of orientation. Where should he turn? God, the one Person who could guide him through the fog, kept silent.

The whole point of the "wager," in fact, was to keep Job in the dark. "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan had asked. Anyone will trust in a God who spoils his favorite with the greatest wealth in the Middle East. But remove all props, withdraw into the darkness, and then see what happens. The moment God accepted the terms of the wager, the Fog rolled in around Job.

God ultimately "won the wager." Although Job questioned everything about God in a stream of angry outbursts and bitter complaints, and although he despaired of life and longed for death, still he stubbornly refused to give up on God. "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him," Job defiantly maintained. He believed when there was no reason to believe, when nothing at all made sense. He believed in the midst of the Fog.

Job stands as merely the most extreme example of what appears to be a universal law of faith. The kind of faith God wants seems to develop best when everything fuzzes over, when the lights get turned off, when the Fog rolls in. As Paul Tournier said, "Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either."

Faith like Job's cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken.