Why Does My Work Matter?
“Unless there is a God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.”
Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor
1. We are designed for work
2. Our work has a problem
3. Our work has a purpose
1. We are designed for work-participating in Creation
“Creation is not something that, once made, remains a static quantity. There is… an unfolding of creation…. We are called to participate in the ongoing creational work of God, to be God’s helper in executing to the end the blueprint for his masterpiece.”
Albert M. Wolters, Creation Regained
2. Our work has a problem-contending with thorns & thistles
“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not *in* them, it only came *through* them, and what came through them was longing.~~
These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
3. Our work has a purpose- participating in “Thy Kingdom Come”
“My work is a critical way in which God is caring for human beings and renewing his world.
-Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Former Executive Director, Redeemer’s Center for Faith and Work
“The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”
Martin Luther
“In the Lord, your labor is not in vain.”
1 Corinthians 15:58
Our Work Matters
“Unless there is a God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.”
Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor
