In this third part of a series on working in light of the gospel, we look to find Christ-like ways and motivation for impacting our work and workplace. In this post, we want to consider some practical ways to connect our occupation to the gospel of Jesus.

The sacred act of prayer is releasing control from myself back to God. It’s acknowledging that He is Lord and I am not, and that our hope for any and all circumstances rests in His hands.

I have found myself recently in a season of fear, discouragement, and spiritual drought. An Old Testament account gives me such hope.

It’s like a puzzle. Have you ever been putting together a puzzle and then there’s a piece missing? You did all of this work putting the puzzle together but you can’t see the full picture because there are pieces missing. That’s what happens when one of you is missing. We’re missing pieces of the puzzle.”

I’m sure I’m not alone in hearing one or two sermons on this passage, or even just reading it myself and thinking, “Yep. I feel you, Martha.” Distracted with much serving. Anxious and troubled about many things. Asking Jesus to send help.

God has given the local church shepherds, not to do all of the shepherding, but to equip the members of the body to shepherd one another.

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is our hope in sin and in sorrow. Through our faith in his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus brings us redemption from sin, reconciliation with the Father, and the promise that one day we and all of creation will be restored to all that God intended in the beginning. While these things are true, they are only as helpful for us in fighting sin, recovering from sin, or bringing us hope in the sorrows of life as our faith is deep.

We sometimes treat the gospel as a problem-solving mechanism to fix a bad feeling, like people are robots and if we just type in the right code, we will all function properly. But instead of anything being fixed, I’m afraid we unintentionally create an environment where people believe they can’t be honest about their struggles.

I would suspect that for many of us, if we are honest, participation in Communion (aka. the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist) is not much more than an odd church ritual. We know it's in the Bible, so we do it. But it’s not really a thing we get excited about, and it’s not an act in which we often experience the presence of God. Some might think, why do we take a significant amount of time each Sunday morning observing this ordinance that doesn't seem to have much impact? If you resonate with this, keep reading. We’ll try to answer that very question.

Separation from God, and the communion and friendship with Him we are intended for, is death. But God. “[...] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). While we were monstrous, God, longing to know and be known by us his creation, to share community, joy, life, and friendship with us, sent himself to make us lovely.

We hold tragedy and redemption together only by the grace of God. Alone, we cannot continue holding these two truths.

Is the world irreparably broken? Does my work have any hope of being truly fruitful? Can the gospel inform my motivation, purpose, and approach to work?