common hope: the good of work →
My reaction to commonhope:
Imagine this Scenario: You come across a young man who has been affected by Jesus’ teachings. His whole view of life and relationships have now been flipped around. So much so that he tells you that he wants to spend the focus of his life loving God and loving others. What should he do? What would you recommend?
It’s funny. Most Christians hear someone talking like that and automatically say, “You should consider going to seminary.” Or “You should think about missions.” Neither of those suggestions are bad, but they may not be fair either. What’s hidden in those comments is the assumption that the work of loving God and loving others is reserved for full-time ministry. It may be subtle, but it’s there, and it damages the way we think about God and work. It certainly leaves the young man confused about his options.
As someone who is in “the working world”, I am typically asked by fellow Christians something to the effect of: “how is your personal ministry with your co-workers?” (Or in coarser words: “have you been able to see any conversions?”)
A thriving personal ministry can sometimes appear to be the full extent of the meaning of work and life in Christendom. It certainly was my own understanding when I graduated from college. After graduation, I spent two years as a full-time staffer with a Christian missionary organization, and during that time it really was my complete understanding. It’s what I assumed my financial supporters believed as well; that they were making money in order to fund my work — God’s work — with no thought as to any other value of their work.
After my stint in vocational religious work, I returned to the working world and began to discover for myself the meaning of work. I have been enchanted continuously by the idea that perhaps maybe I could possibly experience God in the art and science of the job itself — not only by evangelizing my co-workers.
I’m a software engineer. Does God have any idea about building software? Can I find him in the work of software architecture? Can I relate with him in the exercise of programming? Why should we limit holy work to the occupations of vocational Christians and employees of 501(c)3 organizations?
Back to the original question: how are my relationships with co-workers? Am I reaching out to them? I really don’t know, I’m not really trying too hard at it. I’ve made friends and I enjoy some of the people I work with, but I’m not really being intentional about sharing the good news. What really excites me is the idea that God could be the God of software engineering. What if he is the Lord of computer science? Could he be the original designer of mathematics and formal logic? To me, that is exciting, but at the same time, it is uncharted water. I don’t know if God is there…I think he is, I hope he is, but I’m not sure.
I was hoping the Bible would tell me so, but I’ve only found bits and pieces of anything remotely pointing out such a God. There’s the time he designed that big boat…and, oh yeah, he did talk about magically granting extra skill to artisans building a temple. But most of the time, I find myself coming from the other direction. When I see a thing of beauty in the universe — Euler’s identity, a Gaussian distribution under Fourier transformation, or an elegant software design, I feel a sense of wonderment, as one would when pondering how a tree grows or while listening to a Bach fugue. I sense these things have traces from an entirely different plane of existence.
But as one who has been spiritually raised in a culture where the only real things are the “word of God and the souls of men,” I sometimes wonder whether I’m quietly being lulled away to be taken out of play. I question whether it’s a fool’s errand to find God in the soul-less space of science. Maybe I don’t want to grind it out with people, so I am seeking the safety of academia. Its in that ambiguity that I live.
