A New View of Work: Introduction

Eighty percent of Americans, according to one study, are dissatisfied with their job.

You would think in the worst economy since the Depression, those with a job would be grateful to even have one.

It’s not just specific jobs but work in general. I don’t know what percentage of people want a shorter workweek, but I bet it’s even higher than 80%. We hate Mondays, love Fridays and live for the weekend.

All this leads me to the not very  insightful conclusion that people generally do not like to work. It’s not that they just don’t like their job; they don’t like any job. Given the choice of work or play, people choose play almost every time.

Now this is probably not a shock to you. It probably seems perfectly natural to you. In fact, you are probably wondering about now why I’m telling you something so obvious. It’s because I want to challenge you with a new way to look at work, not new like I invented it but new like you may not have heard of it before.

The subtitle of this blog is “Exploring the good news of the kingdom of God,” and when it comes to the subject of work, the kingdom theology of work is good news. But it is so different from what you and I have been brainwashed by our culture, and seduced by our corrupt nature, to think about work that I can’t get you there in one blog post.

I also can’t get you there without your help. For starters, I need you to do a Costanza on the issue of work. You remember the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza, whose life was such a failure, decided that from then on he would do better doing the opposite of what he thought he should do? It’s not a bad place to start because we all enter the kingdom as losers and perfect candidates for a renewed mind. Starting from the assumption that the way we’ve thought in the past is probably wrong makes a lot of sense.

So, with that in mind, check in tomorrow and we will get started. GS