How to be a Christian at Your Work – Part 1 of 2Smakprov

Today, we reach the end of our first 5-letter guide to being a Christian at work – the word “NICER”.

For the letter “R”, we look at the idea of being “Responsible to others.” 

God has placed each of us at the workplace where we are for a specific reason. Maybe it is to develop your character, your talent or to prepare you for your next assignment.

Whatever the reason, God wants to use you as His hands and feet right there at your work. After all, it’s not a place where your pastor, missionary or other spiritual care-giver can easily come, is it? So if there’s work to be done for the Kingdom at your work, you might be the only one to do it. 

Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? Let’s rephrase that story in the context of the modern-day workplace…

The “priest” in the parable might be the manager who is too busy to care for his employee. 

The HR department might be the “Levites” who have responsibility to help struggling employees, but are too busy on other corporate initiatives to make time.

And, then there’s you – maybe with no formal responsibility for the well-being of other employees at your company. Even so, you are called to serve as God’s hands and feet, also to those co-workers that might be especially difficult or frustrating to work with.

But wait you say – that’s not my job!

But do you remember the top two commands in the Bible? 

Love God is #1. Love your neighbor is #2. All the other commands and instructions in the Bible are secondary to these.

The Samaritan had no “official” responsibility to help the wounded traveler on the roadside – much less so than the priest or Levites. But Jesus uses this story to point out that this Samaritan just passing by was still to be the “neighbor” to the wounded man – even though Samaritans and Jews did not associate with each other in those days!

Most of us spend more time with our co-workers than anyone else. It’s difficult to think of a better candidate to be our neighbor than those we work with, isn’t it?

This means that how you reach out to help others at your work may be the best measure of how well you are following the 2nd-greatest command in the entire Bible.

Being “Responsible to others” might be the most difficult of the 5 concepts contained in our word NICER, but it is exactly where God wants to use us to reach others!

Can you be NICER at your work?

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, thank you for the parable of the Good Samaritan. Help me to see myself as your hands & feet to help others at my work, even when it’s not my job or desire. Let my actions touch others in a way that glorifies you. Amen.

QUESTIONS:

Have you gone out of your way to help someone outside your immediate work group? How did it feel?

Stepping out to help others is not always easy. Praying and gathering with other Christians to encourage each other is good. Are you in a small group to help with this?

Of the 5 letters covered in the word NICER, which is most difficult for you? What might you do to grow stronger in that area?