Lacking Faith in All Kinds of Work

Apparently secular workplaces aren’t the only offices that can crush a person’s faith.

At a recent Christian publishing conference I attended, a roomful of editors, publishers and writers lamented the difficulty maintaining their faith and joy at work. They talked about things like the threat of busyness to their spiritual perspectives, the competitiveness that sneaks in, and – sit down for this – the hypocrisy of those who work in Christian organizations. As people lamented, that last one is particularly frustrating, when they work in organizations that exist to spread the gospel to others.

At a luncheon the next day, a publisher sitting next to me shared the same perspective. She described people who have left their faith because they couldn’t reconcile the holiness of their work with the behavior of their co-workers.

Who knew that working in a secular office would offer me such an advantage? Because despite my naïve wishes to the contrary, I know my co-workers, boss, customers and the night janitor are going to act in ways that benefit them first, the company a bit later, and me, probably pretty close to dead last (unless I have some role to play in benefiting them).

My heart goes out to those who work in a faith-based organization. I need them to be in their ministry roles to encourage and minister to me. I cringed when one person said that he sometimes thinks he should just chuck it and head to the secular workforce!

For any of you who might be considering that, please don’t! There’s a much easier answer. Simply adopt the same low expectation that millions of your secular co-workers have, and you’ll be fine. Expect that people will be selfish pigs, and, when the occasional nice comment comes out, or someone stops to pray before a meeting, rejoice!

You won’t find that in the secular workplace... Trust me on this one.