March 23, 2021
Are you someone who hates their job? Struggle with viewing work as something positive and am constantly living for Fridays and your next vacation (not that vacations are bad)? Today’s podcast episode is for the person who hates Mondays because you struggle with viewing work as something good.
Full disclosure: This episode is coming from our foundational beliefs and worldviews as Christians and believers in God’s word. And we don’t apologize for that. We’ve never shied away from sharing our faith, and today’s topic is SO foundational to the way God created us to live.
We’re diving deep today on if God intended work to be good or if it is a byproduct of the fall. We’re chatting about practical ways you can deal with your job if you are currently in a job you loathe and hate. How can you steward where you’re at with grace and a good attitude? And lastly, we chat about the opposite of work, REST. How important work and rest are in balance with each other, and so much more!
Hopefully, this is gonna challenge you and encourage the crap outta you on your mindset regarding the work you do – whether you love it or hate it.
God gave us work as part of His perfect plan. Work was not a part of the fall or curse. In the garden of Eden before the fall, work was a part of perfection. It was a part of His design. That was a task and a job He called Adam to do. God gave us work as part of His perfect plan, He told Adam to name the animals and tend to the garden of Eden. It was a part of his responsibility.
We are created in the image of God, we are modeled after God in the sense of what He did. When He created the world in seven days He did work. He did Holy work and meaningful work. Therefore us being created in His image, we have that same role to create good works in this world for good.
A lot of people who sat around when Covid hit and weren’t able to work, was it fun for a little while? Yeah, for a little while it was somewhat fun, we learned how to relax. The lack of work is awesome for a little bit, but the extended lack of work for a long period; you feel like you don’t have a purpose anymore.
Work is a holy calling. We were designed to work. It’s a part of our DNA, we want to make an impact and a difference, and work is the biggest way we do that in this world.
We are not supposed to live for the weekend and just Fridays, it’s not about working through the week begrudgingly so that we can use the money we make on the weekend and vacations. That’s not how life is supposed to be lived, work is a part of God’s design for our lives.
Working hard to create something beautiful and great for this world is a direct reflection of how we were made in the image of God. He created this world and everything in it, and called us to create beautiful things and do work too. Work is a holy calling.
So many people view work as begrudging things we do to make money. We just have to suck it up in this life, then live our free lives on the weekend. Too many people live for the weekends, for Friday, for their next vacation, and work is not supposed to be viewed that way.
Lindsey’s experience: I have had a lot of jobs over the years before this career that I hated, but the one that comes to mind most is when I was a waitress at a brewery. It was right after college so right before I stepped into photography and entrepreneurship. I remember I loved the job purely for the paycheck, but everything else about it I hated. I felt demeaned by the manager, nothing I did was right. Every time that you put on the shoes and apron, that feeling of putting on your work uniform, you hate it and your heart sinks. We relate to that and get it because we were there.
Our encouragement for anyone that is there, is even if you are in a season, job, or career that you hate. How can you steward where God has put you in that moment? How can you steward what He has given you now and be open to the possibilities of the future? If you are going to work every day, hating it, having a piss-ass attitude, and letting that saturate about your day. How are you going to be in a good mindset if an opportunity comes along that could get you out of that season, you might miss it because you are too busy worrying about how much you hate your job.
Pay attention to your attitude. You can change your attitude in your situation even if it is a pretty crappy one and you truly hate your job, your coworkers treat you terribly, and your employers treat you terribly. You could have all the cards stacked against you, but instead of going to work thinking this sucks, I hate this, I want to go home and focus on the negative side of things. A great replacement is to switch your mindset and think “I don’t love this job, but how can I use this job to bless the people today that I interact with?”.
Evie’s experience: This is something that I tried to do in that season of the restaurant where I didn’t love it, but I also looked around at my coworkers who also were miserable and hating their work. How can I bless them? How can I support my managers? How can I encourage my fellow servers, hostess, and kitchen staff? Every time I went into work they would be like “Evie is on today, it’s going to be so much fun, you’re always so happy and encouraging!”. When I left the everyone was so sad, and said they were going to miss me so much and I was like what?? I hated this place but I’m glad you liked me. You can impact your work environment even if you hate it. You can seek to love, serve and bless the people around you even if you hate it.
God sees that. God loves when we make the most of a crappy situation and are faithful with what is in front of us. Luke 16:10 says “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much”. When we are faithful with the little things God gives us, steward the little things well, He gives us more and more. If you are wanting more responsibility and more blessing, more impact, then be faithful with what is in front of you no matter how much you might hate it.
Stewarding where God has put you, even if it sucks. How can you open your eyes and pay attention to the opportunities that God is putting in front of you?
If you aren’t stewarding something that you hate, what makes you think magically you will steward something that you love. If you haven’t practiced that discipline and mindset, what makes you think it is going to suddenly change because you like what you’re doing now. Even if you love your job there are still going to be days where you don’t.
If you are not stewarding your finances well now, what makes you think you will be able to handle $100,000? Your responsibility, your blessings, everything increases and grows as you continue to steward what you have well from the beginning. Don’t despise the season you are in, even if you don’t like it, find ways to be faithful and seek to steward it well.
If you work too much, you are going to burn yourself to the ground. Just as work is good, rest is just as important. It needs to be a part of the equation.
Biblical example: God created the world in 6 days – He did HARD work. And then He rested on the 7th. He took his sabbath. Rest in conjunction with good work is CRUCIAL.
Working yourself to the bone and using the excuse “work is good” isn’t healthy.
On the flip side, slogging through work and waiting for the rest is also unhealthy. We were designed to handle work but also commanded to REST. It’s a balance. It’s about giving both your work and your rest to God. Steward both your work and your rest with equal value and honor – both were designed and given by God.
A very good book on this topic is, Garden City by John Mark Comer if you want to hear more thoughts on this concept. Disclaimer: neither of us have read it yet, but we’ve heard really good things and it’s on our lists.
Lastly, some thoughts we wanna leave you with to challenge and encourage you:
Ask yourself:
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WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
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