"He said to them, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.' So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish." John 21:6
This is one of my favorite pictures in the gospels, because it shows Jesus helping them in their work; it's safe to say the main point of the story isn't them catching a lot of fish, but instead Jesus revealing himself through a miracle. However, I think everyone will vouch that work and making a living matters quite a bit to us, so I believe that's why Jesus made this happen.
If you don't remember this part or haven't read it, this is during the time Jesus was revealing himself after the resurrection; some of the disciples have been up early fishing and they haven't caught anything yet, but then some random guy shouts to them to cast their net on the right side. Now you have to remember that these particular disciples were professionals, fishing was their vocation, until Jesus recruited them all they did was fish, so when this stranger told them what to do I can imagine they were talking trash about him to each other and rolling their eyes, but to be polite they did it. After they caught the most fish they'd probably seen in a long time John knew right away who it was--Jesus.
(To a non-believer, this has to definitely sound like a cute story. Again, I can't blame anyone for not getting this.)
The Church and Work
Spurgeon called the church, "the dearest place on earth," and when you find your family and community in it then it truly is the best place to be. Spurgeon called it the dearest place in spite of all the imperfections that an ekklesia comes with (since it's made up of us.) And if he had found a perfect church then he himself would have spoiled it by just walking in. But these imperfections aren't meant to be ignored, we have to address them while accepting them. Each us individually have flaws that we need to work through and grow in, likewise, we also have them when you put us all together and call us the church. One of these imperfections is our view of work.
Work is already a hard thing to get into, but it's even harder to care about when you're told to be a world-changer, or have a culture that divides and favors ministry workers over "lay" workers, or always using the scriptures as a way to interpret our passions as God's way to call us into our jobs. And let me tell you, I relentlessly chased after my passions for a while and it never landed me my dream job--led to a lot of stressful years after becoming a believer.
The whole perception of work in a lot churches is seen only as a mission field and not something that matters in itself, which leads to the obsession with passion. It's also hammered into us that if we don't close the deal and save the guy or girl on the spot then we need to be bring them to service on Sunday; so at the end, the only message we hear from all of this is: God only cares if you "soul-win." When we should be told our job can help the broken cosmos.
We know work matters, we know without it the world would probably stop. But there's more to working hard than we give it, because excellent work is worship. For whatever reason, though, when some churches get involved with the topic we kind of mess it up. Sometimes when we combine it with Jesus we tend to turn it into a prosperity gospel. "Jesus doesn't want you to be poor, he wants you to be rich." Did Jesus help the disciples catch a lot of fish, yes, but that doesn't mean worshiping Jesus will give us our idea of prosperity. He helped them in their vocation and he definitely helps all of us, but it's a co-labor and humility thing. It's not so much "we want to prosper, therefore we want Jesus," rather "without him, we'll never prosper, genuinely."
Another way we sort of muddy it up is with that obsession with passion I mentioned; there's no doubt God has given us passions and a heart for particular subjects, I'm definitely not arguing that. I just don't want new christians or seasoned ones to hate where they are, because we believe our passion is code for our calling. Do I believe there's a reason God gave us these interests and he'll use it, absolutely, but what that looks like will be different for everyone, however, we can't all have the dream job. Our calling is what we are in right now. We may not be in this forever, but as of right now God has called each of us to do excellent work in what we're in at this very moment and, believe it or not, he's really excited about it.
God and Work
God worked hard to create the universe and everything in it. He worked really, really hard...He made different types of dirt...He took the time and energy to come up with different types of soil in different types of regions so that different types of plants can grow in different types of weather conditions. He definitely put his heart and mind into getting every detail exactly how it needs to be, setting the tone for what excellent work looks like. Then he tasked Adam with something very important, to watch over and now be in charge of all that he just worked on. We still to this day have this mandate, to maintain and cultivate your "land."
I can remember when this finally hit me. I was laying on my couch reading something Keller had written about work and instantly I saw my little, silly valet job in a totally different light. I saw this annoying task of picking up someone's car as a major role in God's creation and I could feel the value of what God is trying to do with it. I started to look at valet as this particular "land" God had given me to maintain and steward; now knowing that in all of history, I was the one at this moment to make sure I could turn it into a reflection of what valet would look like if there was no sin..that's a big task to do.
Whatever God has called us into this moment, we need to treat it as our domain that He wants us to steward. If you're a cashier at Target, just think how all across the world, throughout all of time, you have been placed in this particular spot to take care it of for him; he put you in charge and entrusted you as a representative for him to make sure this piece of His world is running smoothly, properly, and flourishing so that his plan to reconcile all things will happen (even if that means you just prevent us from having a terrible shopping experience by simply caring.)
So every job is much more than just a mission field, it's something God made with his hands but damaged by our sin. Stay at home parents, cashiers, accountants, pool cleaners, CEOs, janitors, engineers, landscapers; these are parts of his creation that need to be done well and honorably to help battle the brokenness. When he made all that dirt, he was also envisioning the world running in a particular way that would cause us to praise him by just walking outside..and these careers were in that blueprint stained by the fall. So, our other role as christians is to restore our vocation back to that perfect vision within in our capacity but through the spirit, which will be in itself evangelism.
The World and Work
It's in this mindset of "excellent work is worship" where systemic injustice can be confronted; whether it's gender inequality, racism, discrimination due to age, prejudice against certain socioeconomic backgrounds, etc, all of these issues will be addressed through us trying to work as if we were in charge of reflecting the gospel version of our job. In the gospel version, we wouldn't show partiality, the root of most discrimination and injustice, and we couldn't allow it to happen, because that is a very thing God loathes. Christians working in their domain with the goal to be salt and light will lead to more than only "soul-win," but there can be discipleship and visible movement towards an entire reconstruction of that space (at least while we're there) to reflect the kingdom.
If we commit ourselves the best we can to the industry and position we've been temporarily placed in, we will be able to hear where Jesus wants us to cast the net. We will be able to serve the customer appropriately without any preconceived notions because of their culture, we will be able to hire good people based on character and not looks, we will be able to do a thorough job instead of the minimum because of what they can afford. We will be able to truly love our neighbors through our jobs and disciple others into doing the same.
This is what some churches miss out on: the opportunity to equip and encourage their members to restore and redeem actual parts of the world for Jesus by simply working hard and being faithful and content with where they are.
Again, I know it's hard to do all of this at a job we can't stand, but we have to endure while we look around for our next vocation and calling. I did valet for a long time, from a runner to an account manager and I can't ever say I was passionate about it, but I continued to pray and search and now I am at a place that I would clean the floor for. However, until I realized my duty to showcase the gospel version, I was causing more harm than good, because my attitude affected my work ethic. We just have to be faithful to where God has us now and cast the net where we're told to; and when we see ourselves flourishing and work is going good and catching a lot of metaphorical fish we'll recognize what's going on...Jesus.