My background in becoming an aerospace engineer coupled with my early involvement in a solid Bible-believing church right out of college created a tension I spent several decades trying to reconcile. What does having Christ as the Lord of all of my life, as I learned in church, have to do with the daily grind of building complex aerospace products? In your case, you might be keeping an office organized, accounts efficiently managed, juggling day jobs with night jobs to make ends meet, laboring as a stay-at-home parent, or closing a large deal as a managing partner in a private equity firm.

What is it that relates what we are doing with our work lives directly to living in and for the Kingdom of God as Jesus commanded? Just how does God respond to our deepest questions about work?

At our recent event, Reimagining Work Vol. 8: Aerospace in LA, Kristen Yi, the VP of Finance / Controller of an independent film production company and one of our thoughtful panelists blessed attendees with a prayer of benediction written by our own, Steve Lindsey, to encourage them in their daily work.

In this piece, we’ll dive into 4 reasons why the command to live in wholehearted devotion to God and love for our neighbor is not only possible but is, in fact, achieved mostly through our work.

We often hear that our work somehow has dignity. In Christian circles, we even are told that there is a mandate way back in Genesis 1:28 which cryptically implies that our work is good and given to us before sin even entered the world. It turns out that chapter 2 of Genesis has three much more explicit and easy-to-remember points that drive home both the goodness and beauty of the gift of work.

Lately, I’ve experienced an especially busy and stressful season at work and at home. After 18 difficult months, I’ve noticed that on top of the physical and emotional exhaustion, I am—as I’m sure many others are as well—making more mistakes, more forgetful, and finding myself increasingly challenged to stay mindful of all the good God has given amidst these hard times.

Continuing to heal and move forward toward a “new normal” begs for grace at home, at church, and at work. The posture in Scripture that Jesus displayed in the face of heavy burdens and trouble is surprisingly that of gentleness.