Why

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of coming up with the devotional for our directors meeting at work.  I was driving home one day, listening to 1080 KRLD (yes, I'm a nerd and I LOVE the news), and one of those short, 30 second programs came on, talking about why we work.  I was so excited because it fit so perfectly with our jobs in healthcare, and the thought of WHY I do what I do is so special to me.  So I thought I'd share my thoughts with the team.

You see, my job at THH is an answer to a prayer I’d been praying for over 2 years.  I was coming from a place that offered little to no work/life balance, my boss was incredibly mean to me, I was commuting over an hour one way, getting stuck in traffic and developing my road rage; so for me, I wanted to truly challenge myself to figure out why I do what I do.  Regardless of everything, my mission at my previous job was always a good one - I had the privilege of finding the means to help people eat.  That was always incredibly rewarding for me.  But when I realized I was going to make a big shift in career focuses, and if I’d been praying and praying for a job like this one, when I finally got it - how did my new WHY impact my work now?

I came across this story and it really drove that point home for me.  It goes like this:

In the late 1660s, Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to re-design St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. According to legend, one day he visited the construction site of this great edifice and was unrecognized by the workers. Wren took advantage of this and walked about the site, asking several of the men what they were doing. One worker replied, “I am cutting a piece of stone.” A second worker responded, “I’m earning five shillings two pence a day.” A third, however, had a different perspective: “I am helping Christopher Wren build a magnificent cathedral to the glory of God.”

Why we do what we do is extremely important, particularly when it comes to our working lives and careers. That’s why Paul challenged the Ephesians in Ephesians 6, “Respectfully obey your earthly masters but always with an eye to obeying the real master, Christ. Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God.”

If we do our work merely to earn a paycheck or satisfy a supervisor, we will fall short of the highest motivation—doing our best as evidence of our devotion to God. So, why do we work? As that laborer told Wren, we work “to the glory of God.”

No matter who signs your paycheck, you are really working for God.

This is why we work.  It is not for what we get.  It is about what we can give, and the biggest thing we can give to others is Jesus.  Just as our mission states – we are here to “extend the healing ministry of Christ.”  And just like our mission at the food bank stated - I was passionately pursuing a hunger-free community.

So live it out loud.  Share what will last.  Glorify God in the workplace, and be satisfied not only in the assignment we’ve been given, but in the one who gave it.  Let’s remember that our work on this earth matters because God is glorified in work well done. And one day, either on earth but most likely in heaven, we will know the impact we’ve made throughout our careers. 

And THAT is why I do what I do.