Work: The servanthearted way (Mark and Titus)

No-one, whether a child or a fully grown adult particularly enjoys being told what to do. Often when making the decision about whether we do something or not, we ask the question...."If I do this, then what will I get out of it?" and if we don't get the gain, what we'd really like to reply is, "Why should I... Do it yourself!"... "You get paid more than me, you do it!" I've noticed lately that as people seek promotion, they are working solely for the money. Further, people don't like to do things unless they are being paid for it, its all about self gain. Someone told me off this week, for doing a job that I was asked to do... "You shouldn't have to!"... But that's not the point.

As I've read the Bible, it has really struck me that how I work is just as important as every other aspect of my life. In all I do I am to live a godly life and to live consistently for Jesus, my life as a Christian should be focused on bringing God glory. God isn't limited to Sundays, he isn't limited to evangelism, but God is also interested in how I do my work. Christians in the work place by attitude and motivation should be so distinct!

So when I'm being told what to do, how does God want me to respond? 

Titus 2:9-14: Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, ¹⁰ and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. ¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹² It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, ¹³ while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. 

This passage is so humbling. We are to submit to our bosses in everything - to please them... not to talk back, not to question their decisions, not to tell them to do it themselves, but to show them that we can be fully trusted so that... the gospel, God our saviour is attractive. Surely this should spur me on to be godly in my workplace, not to moan and to serve... so that people will see something of Jesus.

Sometimes I struggle with this, I don't want to be a doormat, I get tired, I don't want to be used and abused. But this is the wrong concern, my concern should be... Am I bringing glory to the Gospel, Am I making the Gospel attractive?  Yes there is wisdom, we shouldn't burn out, God gave us rest... but when we truly look at our motives or reasons for not doing something... is it because we're more concerned with ourselves than the gospel? Is it because we'd rather be a sluggard than an ant... how dangerous that is!

Mark 10:45: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Surely this humbles us all, even God came to serve! And he served in the most remarkable way, he didn't tell people where to go because he was tired. But he did make sure he spent time with his heavenly father before working!

Colossians 3:23-24: ²³Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, ²⁴since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

And when we struggle to submit to our bosses, this is one of the most helpful verses.  As I work, I am working not only for my earthly master, but my heavenly master... I'm serving Jesus. When I battle to say yes to something I don't think I've got time for, or when I'm feeling fed up... remembering I'm serving God should motivate me to say yes with a joyful heart. 

As we work, let's work to bring Glory to God... let's work to make the Gospel attractive. My prayer as I head back tomorrow and for me friends at work is that we'd be those who live such radically godly lives in our work places that God is given glory and that the Gospel looks attractive. I'm praying too that we'd have the humility to serve, and to serve joyfully remembering that ultimately its God we serve... as we care for his world (Genesis 2). I'm praying too that we wouldn't have self focused minds, but minds that are servant heart-ed, like Jesus. 

I've loved reading the Bible this week being challenged about work. And I'm so thankful for all that God has been teaching me. I am definitely seeing work very differently.  

Work: Good but its not God (Ecclesiastes)

I'm now in my 2nd year of being a 'real teacher'. This year has felt much harder than last year. I have felt more and more pressure and I have felt pulled in all sorts of directions. There are disheartening moments in teaching, and yet remarkable rewards too. Sadly as I mentioned in a blog below, work has become a chore. Its easy to get sucked into the moans and groans in the staff room... its easy to have your mind occupied by the negatives of the job... and foolishly I've had a bad attitude this half term when it comes to work!

But... this week, during half term I've been soaking up what the Bible has to say about work, and allowing the Bible to shape me. My prayer has been that I'll go back to work on Monday, refreshed and with a godly mindset.

Earlier this week I was challenged and encouraged to view work as good and created by God (Genesis 1 and 2).  I loved reading Colossians 3 remembering that in all I do I am to work as serving the Lord. I was really challenged by proverbs - not to be a sluggard but an ant! (my love of being horizontal has been truly challenged!)

Today Ecclesiastes has also cut deep into my heart. I've been challenged, rebuked and encouraged that: Although work is good, it is not God. Work will not provide us with what only God can. I've asked myself... What is it about work that you don't like? Is it that its hard, or is it because of misplaced values?

It doesn't take a genius to suss out that 'work' is effected by sin, most 'work' involves people in some way shape or form - and us people are sinful! Wherever we look in the world of work there is sin, work is infected by sin and this means it will be tough... it can have good results (which are a gift from God)... but it will be tough!  Genesis 3:19, "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

Ecclesiastes 5:18 "This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for people to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives people wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God."

Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, "My heart took delight in all my labour, and this was the reward for all my toil.    Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun"

 I've loved the reminder that I'm to work hard (like ants)... but also to ensure I don't seek ultimate satisfaction in work - if I do I will end up with heartache. If I do, I will dread work. 

The bible is clear that only partial satisfaction and 'happiness' will come through toil. The fact that it will be toil should alert us to understand that work is not where we will find ultimate, true delight. How foolish we are to place more than we should in our work! (Romans 1-2) Work is not a source for us to find our identity, nor is it a foundation of our significance in life. I wonder how much of our lack of delight in work is due to the wrong values we place in work... 

And so, when we ask ourselves honestly why we don't enjoy our work or why we dread going in... is this due to the value and hopes we place in our work that will never fulfill? When I get frustrated by work, I need to ask myself the question: Am I placing too much significance in work? Am I seeking what only relationship with the creator God can give me? When work fails to satisfy, is that because I'm neglecting my relationship with God and so seeking what only God can give me elsewhere? Has work replaced God in my life? Has success at work become an idol - that will only fail me?

The more I focus on God and the more I delight in my relationship with God, the smaller the frustrations with a working life become. The more I focus on God, the more I can experience delight in my work. When God is big... everything else is small.

As I head back to work, I need to remember the encouragement and challenge reading Ecclesiastes has brought. I need to focus on God more. I need to seek my ultimate delight and satisfaction in my heavenly father and ensure its not in my work - which will only ultimately bring partial and temporary joy. I need to remember that although God created work, and that work is good (and its important to remember this), I need to ensure that my identity, my values and hope lie ultimately in my loving heavenly father who is not tainted by sin and not in His creation. As I work, I need to remember that although God created work, and there is some joy and satisfaction from work... It is only relationship with our creator that brings ultimate joy and satisfaction. What joy our Father brings, and I can experience this joy, I can be delighting in knowing my heavenly father as I work... 

Psalm 42:1-2 "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?"

Work: You really don't want to be a sluggard!

Proverbs have really helped me to re-evaluate my motivations and attitude towards work and have been a useful kick in the right direction.There is no doubt from reading Proverbs that being a sluggard is a foolish thing, you really cannot read proverbs without wanting to avoid being a sluggard... and without wanting to work hard in all you do (like the ants!). I'm sure we all know the feeling of wanting to stay in bed, but this has helped me to remember, it is good to get up and go to work.

On a day off, I love to do nothing... however I fear the sluggard in me is creeping into every aspect of my life. Previous experiences have meant that I am hesitant to allow myself to work to exhaustion, however this means that if I am honest, sometimes I now don't work hard enough and can use tiredness as an easy excuse to do nothing. Proverbs 22:12-14 was helpful on this ( ¹³ The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!" or, "I will be murdered in the streets!")

Reading about the Sluggard in proverbs has been a good wake up call for me and has encouraged me to work harder in aspects of my 'work'. Below are a few proverbs regarding the sluggard, that have helped be to sit up and take stock of my attitude.

Proverbs 6:6-11

 ⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard;
       consider its ways and be wise!

 ⁷ It has no commander,
       no overseer or ruler,

 ⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
       and gathers its food at harvest.

 ⁹ How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
       When will you get up from your sleep?

 ¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber,
       a little folding of the hands to rest-

 ¹¹ and poverty will come on you like a bandit
       and scarcity like an armed man.

This proverb speaks for itself, a great reminder of how laziness is actually stupid.

Proverbs 10:26

 ²⁶ As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
       so is a sluggard to those who send him. 

The idea of being a sluggard is not attractive at all. Having had smoke in my eyes this past week from a camp fire, it really isn't pleasant - the eyes sting and you just want to keep them shut, avoiding the smoke - very annoying! 
 

Proverbs 21:25

The sluggard's craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.

Again - how foolish being a sluggard is!

Work: God made us to work to serve Him

As soon as we begin reading Genesis we find an active, working God. If we are seeking to live godly lives we too will want to work. In fact as God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden, he is put straight to work. It is important to remember that even before the fall, there was work, and work had great benefits.I have also been really struck that living as a Christian means that God is the ruler of my live and it is him who I am serving in all I do - this will bring a great deal of Joy.

Genesis 2:15, "The LORD God took the man and put him n the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it".

Colossians 3:23-24, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ that you are serving."

Mind set and Attitude change:
a) God works and we too are to work. We are to work to please our heavenly father.
b) I need to work with the attitude that I am working for God and serving Him.

A working life

This past term at school has been a tough one. Sadly work has not been something I look forward to. Of course there have been highlights, but I have viewed work negatively.

How wrong I have been. As I have reflected over this past term I know I need to have a new attitude and motivation towards work.

Over these next few weeks I'm going to soak up what the Bible has to say about work, to help me come freshly to work each day and to delight in serving God in school.

Humility

I'm convinced that we have all at one time struggled with submission. It is easy to think that we are right and that they are wrong. it is easy to get into a cycle of negative thoughts about that person, or even to join in with bad mouthing them in the staffroom. When someone grieves us, wrongs us or hurts us, it can be difficult to truly forgive and be humble, to do the godly thing.

When we have been wronged or treated badly, our instinct is to think of ourselves... we get 'woe is me' syndrome. A situation becomes bigger than it needs to be and we easily loose sight of the gospel and the reason that we are serving in the first place.

In our morning services we are studying Hebrews. It has been mightily refreshing to be reminded of the superiority of Jesus and our need to not get complacent about his identity.  As we were studying Hebrews this morning, I was reminded of Jesus' humility and of Philippians 2. Of our need to be like Jesus, in putting others first.

I was struck by my need to be humble in every circumstance, even when I am wronged. To fight against selfish ambition and to trust in God's sovereignty.

Philippians 2:3-10

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Misconceptions about Faith Schools and Religious Education...

Faith Schools and Religious Education seem to be a popular target of criticism from atheists such as Richard Dawkins and his disciples.  Dawkins and his disciples believe that the main danger of Religious Education in Faith Schools is that it indoctrinates students. If this really was the case; Why do the majority of students who leave faith schools leave as atheists? If this is the case; Why do students know more about evolution than what the Bible teaches?
In the past couple of weeks both Channel 4 and the Guardian newspaper have produced programmes and articles surrounding this topic. Both Dawkins and the disciples of his who produce these media seem to lack solid evidence and are hugely biased. Dawkins would benefit from visiting more Faith Schools over a longer period of time to see what is really taught within schools. Rather ironic then that Dawkins wants to encourage students to ask for evidence and not just believe what they are told!

However at the outset there are a few good things that the above favour. Firstly they want to promote critical thinking amongst students, this is crucial and something that Faith Schools themselves are working hard to encourage. Secondly the Guardian wants to see an improvement of Religious Education, again this is no bad thing. However I would disagree with Dawkins who takes the above a step further and argues that faith must be removed completely. Surely if Faith is removed from Faith Schools, you don't just remove the concept of God, but also the theory of evolution? Interestingly a question that is not asked is; Is it wrong for science to teach unproven theories as fact against faith?

It is publicity such as this that can make teaching this subject very difficult. However, I would also like to point out a few things about Dawkins and his opinions.

Evolution Vs Creation: Dawkins views evolution as a fact. However there is no scientific evidence to support evolution as fact, it is merely a theory or proposition. It does not disprove God. If it was a perfect theory, surely there would be answers to problems such as; If people evolve to be more of the perfect human - why do humans still cause evil and suffering? why aren't people now superhuman? Why are apes still around. Dawkins provides an unsatisfactory answer to why apes are still around by saying, we are apes... yet how does this answer the question as to why Apes in their original form still exist!?

Indoctrination:
One of Dawkins concerns is that students are easily influenced. Interestingly most students come to RE lessons convinced that evolution is true, as this is what society tells them. When one asks them about evolution they cannot explain the theory! Moreover when they are shown what the bible says, and the flaws of evolution, rather than being indoctrinated, students begin to think and evaluate for themselves which they think is more reasonable.  No students are ever asked to 'sign on the dotted line', nor can anyone force anyone to believe something!

Sex Education:
Dawkins belives that all faith schools do is teach from a biblical or religious point of view. Often students don't need to be taught what non-Christians believe as they already know it. It is stunning to listen to what students already know about sex.it should also be noted that for students to pass exams they need to know both opinions, thus all schools teach both points of view.


Christians will obviously view the role of Religious Education very differently from Atheists. Often a Christian teacher will be passionate when speaking about the gospel to their students and will prayerfully be sharing what the Bible teaches to their students. One of their motivations (maybe a primary motivation) maybe that they want their students to come to know Jesus as Lord. When sharing with my students I am happy to tell my students what I believe the bible says is truth. I am also happy to speak to my students about why I believe other things are not true. I encourage my students to think about things critically and come to their own conclusion. I in my own power cannot change a students mind and bring them to know Jesus - that is the work of the Holy Spirit. I am very privileged to have the job that I do, and I pray that God would help me to make the most of every opportunity.

Interestingly, the Guardian proposes the following  (all of which were in the Lib Dem manifesto in the last election):

1) Religious education should be about what different people believe, not what pupils should believe. I don't have an issue with this.

2) It should be in the national curriculum and inspected by Ofsted. Ofsted do inspect this subject.

3) Non-religious people should not be excluded from helping to draw up the curriculum. Under current arrangements of local determination non-religious people should be included equally and allowed to be full members. Why?! Do not subject specialists draw up the curriculum for other subjects?!

4) It should teach about a range of world views, both religious and non-religious. Most schools do

5) It should not pussyfoot around controversial religious views (on sex and gender, for example) but tackle them head-on. Pupils should learn what the doctrine is but be encouraged to question and debate it. It doesn't dodge these issues and does encourage debates.

6) In those communities with a high proportion of children whose parents are of a particular religion, the curriculum can be skewed towards more coverage of that – but not to the exclusion of other religions and world views. It often does

7) End the right of withdrawal from RE classes, which would no longer be needed because the subject would be academic not proselytising.

8) Offer optional religious instruction classes after school if parents want that from a particular school. Would they want to? I'm sure schools would be happy to do this

9) End collective worship in state schools. It is law for this to happen

10) Worship opportunities made available on an optional basis for children if they or their parents want it.

95% A*-C - Record Breaking Results - Bothered?!

This morning I popped into the Academy to congratulate students and find our how our department had done. The Academy has achieved amazing, record breaking results this year. I expect that for some time to come we will be hearing about how our students have improved and where we stand nationally. But does it really matter? Will this really bring true joy and satisfaction?

For some there were big smiles, for others tears of disappointment. There were jumps for joy and there were cuddles of reassurance. You'd speak to some and they'd just be gutted for missing the A* or for not getting the grade they wanted in a particular subject, to them it felt like their life was over.

I remember all too well my first year at Durham, searching along the wall to see how I'd done. I couldn't find my name and was very confused. How my heart sunk as someone pointed me to the board where those who'd failed would find their name. Yes, my name was there, on the failed list. At that moment, I really did feel like a failure, 39% - when the pass was 40%. I had to resit, and in fact I did worse on my resit 37%! Did this mean I was a failure from that moment on? Did this mean that I would never make it in life? Was my life over? Would I have to leave Durham? In 5 years time would I still be known as the girl on the failed list?


What a joy it is that with God we are not saved by exam results! What a delight it is that I am not judged by God on how I do in a particular exam! What a relief that life doesn't depend on exams! How brilliant that successful in life isn't based on our performance. I praise God for this. Seeing the students reminded me afresh this morning, that my life must not be focused on the temporary but needs to be focused fully on our wonderful God and the inheritance we await. We must be so careful not to portray the impression that anything but a relationship with God will bring utter satisfaction and joy in life.

1 Peter 1:3-7
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade— kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith— of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire— may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.