For me, the last year was a lesson in patience. I had come to the end of my time as a university student and was looking for a job to start my career – a process that took 11 months and involved many rejected applications, apathetic feelings towards work, and a lot of questioning what my future would look like. During this time, there was a lot God taught me about work, waiting, and his faithfulness, and I thought I’d share some of these lessons.
Work is a blessing
For most of my life, work was never something that excited me, it was something I dreaded. The idea of 40-hour work weeks, Monday mornings, and having to repay my student loans really didn’t seem all that fun to me; and it wasn’t helped by countless adults telling me that being a student is the best time of your life, and it all goes downhill from here. Naturally, because of this outlook, applying for jobs felt like a depressing task, so I delayed it as much as I could. I filled my time recording music, making TikTok videos, and taking Everton FC to triumph in football manager, anything other than applying for jobs really.
However, it didn’t take me too long to learn that actually, not working isn’t all that fun either. Whilst having a break from work for a couple of weeks for a holiday or having a few days to just regroup feels like a wonderful thing, if it goes on long enough you get restless. I found myself constantly feeling bored, unmotivated, and the days would regularly slip by without there feeling like any real accomplishments. It was pretty rough – and certainly wasn’t helped by a pandemic limiting the social things I could do, but I think even without that I would have reached the same point eventually. Eventually, though, I found myself… actually wanting to work? What was going on?
What I was learning is that work is a blessing. It gives us purpose and meaning, it allows us to partake in shaping and cultivating the world we live in. It’s also at the centre of what it means to be human. If we look back to the story of creation, God commands the first humans to “rule the earth and subdue it”. The world God made for us, was never created as a finished product for humans to just relax in; it was made for us to work alongside God, shaping it, maintaining it, and adding to its beauty. I love Timothy Keller’s definition of work that expresses this:
“[work is] rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish.”
Timothy Keller
When we view work in this way, it stops being a burden, not because it stops being hard but because we understand it as a primary way that we can interact with our creator, creating with tools he placed in the world for us and using the unique skills and gifts he gave each one of us.
This also has implications for how we approach our work because in our work we are participating in shaping part of God’s creation. Therefore, we should know that when we give our all to our work and produce our best work, it is an act of worship and glorifies God. As it says in 1 Corinthians 10:31 “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Viewing my work with this mindset has transformed work from something I wanted to avoid and minimise to something that is a central part of my relationship with God and that draws me closer to him.
God is faithful in the waiting
Though learning the value of work was a central part of what God was teaching me as I looked for my first full-time job last year, it wasn’t something I was that aware of at the time. I was more caught up in the frustration of trying to find that job. Very early on in my 11-month search for a job I had an opportunity that on paper looked perfect, and I had successfully gone through the application and interview process and been offered the job when some small problems started to emerge around relocation and a couple of other issues. In the end, it culminated in God telling me this wasn’t the right opportunity and that he had something else for me, so I turned down the offer. I did so with confidence as well, not at that stage realising how long I would have to wait for God to bring that something else along.
This led to the next few months passing without any other good opportunities coming up, and getting little to no response from the other roles I applied for. During this time, I became increasingly anxious about my future and started becoming increasingly frustrated with God for not immediately giving me what I wanted, at times doubting whether he still had something good planned for me. It sounds pretty petty doesn’t it, getting annoyed with the God of the universe for not immediately giving me what I thought was best for me, but that was how I felt at times – and I’m sure you know what’s coming next too.
Yes, not only was God faithful to his promise, but he answered it in a way that immediately made the waiting feel necessary, and made me feel quite silly forever doubting him. In leading me to the Worship.Works internship, he placed me somewhere where I could start my career and grow professionally, whilst also being discipled and learning how to put God at the centre of my work. In hindsight, I really think the waiting was such a valuable season for me because it allowed God to show me where my faith in him was limited by him surpassing my expectations. Here are scriptures to hold on to in your season of waiting:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11
“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”
Deuteronomy 7:9
Therefore, my encouragement to myself and anyone else for the next time we find ourselves in a season of waiting, that God is faithful and always working to our good.
Paul Cranston was a Worship.Works Graduate Intern in 2021. To find out how you could get involved, learn more about Worship.Works Graduate Programmes here.