Work – Worth Complaining About? (Part 3)

Despite the daily predisposition of many to complain and groan about their work, what we have seen in this little series so far is that work has built-in dignity. The value and importance of our work in this world arises from the original work of God and his purposes for us and creation. The human race carries out its work because God has commanded us to do so as the ones who bear his image. 

So why, given these realities, is work hard, frustrating and sometimes worth complaining about? Well, the Bible tells us that not only is our relationship with God damaged by sin; and not only is our relationship with each other damaged by sin; but our relationship with creation and therefore our work is damaged by sin.

“To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’” Genesis 3:17–19

Far from remaining a joy in service of God, work became, as a result of our rebellion against God, arduous, painful and complicated. But we cannot shake our fists at God for this. Note the words there: “Cursed is the ground because of you!” 

The end result of this, in combination with humanity’s rejection of God, is that we have lost life’s centring power - God is no longer the driving and determining force for our thinking and behaviour. Rather, we are. Our self-importance and desires drive us to create a world of our own delight - which we do through work and because of work. In the end, our identity and purpose become dominated by work rather than by God and our existence in the world becomes determined by what we “do” rather than by “whose we are”. 

Think about those clunky moments when you meet someone else for the first time—what is the question everyone asks… 

“So what do you do?” 

Work has become our defining feature and an end in itself; which is tragic, because work was given to us that we might serve and glorify God. Many employers expect that you will leave your faith at the door as you enter for the day - it’s an understanding of the secular/sacred divide gone made but that’s for another time. 

So work has become a mode for self-gratification rather than a reflection of God’s nature and part of our purpose. Work consumes us, defines us and breaks us - but we cannot let it go. Even unbelievers have noticed this. In the secular book Better than Sex: How a whole generation got hooked on work, the authors Trinca & Fox say:

Work is now at the centre of people’s lives; it’s the thing they do to make money and meaning. Work cannot compete with sex for glamour, excitement and emotion [...] but it is draining people of the energy, time and desire that make sex and intimacy happen. It can push away love, deaden our interest in others and flatten our horizons - and yet still rate as the most important part of our lives.

What can be done about this? Is there anyone or anything that can help us redeem work and find life? Let’s think about that next week.