All of our battles with productivity, efficiency and everything else cannot be solved by tips, or apps or hacks. There is a place for all of these things. But, they are not the solution. The solution is perspective. I am convinced that in order to have the right approach and motivation in our work, an eternal perspective is required. Too often there is a disconnect between our work, our daily grind, and our calling as Christians, our salvation and our eternity. So, I have been examining this question a lot recently – How does eternity shape our approach to the daily grind?
What do I mean by eternity?
This is the crucial question to start with. I am a Christian and so I need to sketch in what I believe here before I can talk through how this impacts the daily grind. Jesus clearly taught that humans are eternal creatures. For the Christian believer, we believe in salvation by grace through faith in Christ. We do not deserve salvation, we are not worthy of it, have not earned it in any sense whatsoever. It is a gift of grace.
Jesus teaches us that one day he will return and on that day, for the person saved by his grace, there will be a welcome into eternity with him in his perfect new creation. There are few things are really important to note as without this, the rest of what I plan to say makes less sense.
- This eternity means that the portion of life in the here and now is less that a drop in the ocean of what is to come. The line from Amazing Grace come to mind. When we’ve been there 10,000 years….we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun. I do not expect to live on this earth for 10,000 years. I do expect, because it has been promised to me, that I will live with Jesus for a length of time which means that the passing of 10,000 does not make a dent in the years remaining. i.e eternity.
- I do not deserve this. I have not earned it and there is nothing in me that means I can look down on anyone else in this matter. Salvation and eternity are a free gift of pure grace.
- This eternity is secure, not because I am living now in a way that means I am worthy of it, but secure on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, this eternal promise cannot be lost or forfeited by my own failure and weakness.
With those three things rather boldly stated, we can already see how this is going to have an impact on our daily lives.
Eternity provides perspective on what is important
Recently I’ve been thinking about issues of focus and discipline. One thing I have said is that often in the moment, what is good, right and wise for the long term good of ourselves and others, will actually be objectively the worse option. The example would be running in the cold and wet. Our long term good is served by regular exercise, but from the perspective of ONLY the next 20 minutes, going out in the cold and wet is objectively worse. Only from a broader perspective of the whole of our life can we find a good reason to go out in the rain.
Eternity provides this perspective on the whole of our life.
Without eternity in view, the very best we can do is consider the 60, 70, 80+ years as the full sum of what matters. But, from the perspective of eternity, our temporal lives become a single drop in an everlasting bucket. This means that this world is a temporary home, not a permanent one.
This perspective crashes in to our lives and regrades the importance of everything we do and every relationship we have. With eternity in view, we are forced to re-grade the importance of earthly success in our careers. This is both encouraging and it is challenging.
Many of us face regular discouragement at work. It could be that you missed a promotion. It could be that we didn’t get the job we applied for. Or it could be a bigger thing, that we find ourselves in our 40s or 50s, wishing that we had made different choices and chosen a different path. Eternity is a huge encouragement for us in this. There seems to be a trend in Christian thinking right now to try and find encouragement for the worker in their daily work. This is a good thing, as long as that encouragement is not artificial and manufactured. I can think of nothing more encouraging than the reality that in 50,000 years all of your regrets will be long gone.
It is challenging because too often we sacrifice a lot to the idol of our careers. Maybe we sacrifice church, because we are either too busy or live too far away. Maybe we sacrifice our family or perhaps our own spiritual life. In eternity, our career will matter far less than the people of God. How does eternity shape our approach to the daily grind? Eternity reshapes our perspective.
It is encouraging because Jesus is clear that our presence and godliness in our work and workplace could not matter more in eternity. How we go about our daily grind, how we treat those we work with, how we conduct ourselves in the office, our integrity, these things will matter well beyond our time in the office. They can serve as a beacon of eternity for those around us. But, perhaps more importantly, this is the life that God has called us to and it pleases Him.
Eternity provides perspective on what is difficult
As we consider this, we must take great care. The difficulty of the hardships that we suffer in life are very real. I would not want to say anything that lessens this. I also want to make it clear that only difficulties that I have in view here are those that relate to our work. So at the larger end of the scale, I am referring to the kind of disappointments and losses that I have already mentioned. Job loss, missed opportunities and career regrets. On the other end of the scale could be the daily frustrations of your work. Your accountancy package has crashed again. A staff shortage means that your workload is more than you can reasonably cope with. A colleague has made a mistake and it has caused problems, or you have made a mistake. Then there are the aspects of our jobs that we really dislike.
These things are hard. How does eternity shape our approach to the daily grind? These things can be very hard to approach with faith and patience. But, the prospect of eternity gives us many reasons why we can.
- Consider why work is hard. It is hard because the world is fallen and the curse was directed to the ground. In eternity there will no longer be any curse. However hard and diffilcult work is now, it will not be so in eternity. Cling to this fact.
- As already stated, the gospel teaches that our careers and work here and now represent an infinitesimally small proportion of our existence, when you consider it in light of eternity. This perspective provides the grace we need to bear up under the difficulty
- As with the rest of our Christian lives, hardship brings about patience. If there is nothing to wait for, then patience is not needed. If there is nothing to wait for then anything that causes us difficulty in the now, must be changed at all costs as our time is so limited. With eternity promised, patience is possible as we have a certain hope ahead
- Eternity provides different categories with which to evaluate our difficulties. Examples of what I mean here will be our conduct and hope under the strain of trials, acts as like a beacon of that eternal promise to everyone around us. As we serve in roles and serve those we work with, we demonstrate a small worked example of the power of grace in our lives. It also trains us to see that life now is not all about getting as much success as we can in our lives now. There is far more at stake in life than just climbing the ladder.
Eternity provides perspective on what success means
Which brings us here. If this life is all there is, then success in this life is all that matters. Within the idea that ‘success in this life is all that matters’ there will be a multitude of different views on what success is and what it will look like. But, with eternity in view, any definition of success that does not consider this is going to be woefully inadequate. This therefore will massively upend your aims and objectives for your working life.
I do not propose to give a definition of success here in this post. But, I trust that you can see quite clearly, that without considering eternity in our definition, we will get it hopelessly wrong.
It is worth asking ourselves at this point if our aims and objectives for our work and careers are missing this key perpective.
Eternity gives us a view of the finish line
There is a now famous story of a swimmer, Florence Chadwick, who attempted to swim the Catalina Channel. This stretches from Cataline Island to the Palos Verde peninsula on the South California Costs. On July 4th 1952, after swimming for 16 hours and with just half a mile to go, she gave up and failed. Two months later, she completed the swim in 13 hours 47 minutes. The difference, she says, on that first attempt was that it was foggy. “if I could have seen land I might have made it” she said.
Seeing the finish line, is a key factor in our ability to keep going. The promise of eternity secured at the cross, is a key factor in our ability to keep going. Our working lives are full of frustrations and difficulty. Often it feels like keeping going is going to be impossible. If this is you, then I encourage you to gaze deeply at the promise of eternity. Keep the finish line in view.
This will keep you going.
Eternity shapes how we conduct ourselves in everything we do
If considering eternity makes your life here and now seem insignificant and pointless and like none of it will matter in 10,000 year anyway, this can lead you to the conclusion that nothing you do matters. This could not be further from the truth, In fact, the opposite is true. I would be tempted to go so far as to say that actually, eternity is what gives the things we do in the here and now their value.
With an eternal perspective and priorities shaped by our eternal hope, this will have a very real impact on how we approach our daily work. This will lead us to work diligently and hard, not just when under scrutiny, but all of the time. It causes us to love and serve and those around us and not just ourselves. This will give us humility and lead us away from a proud arrogance and self importance. I have often heard it argued that the reason for all of this is because of the evangelistic opportunities this creates. If we conduct ourselves well and live such good lives amongst our non-Christian co-workers, this will point them to the gospel and to Jesus. This is true and this is good.
But it is not the whole truth. Equally, if not more importantly, this conduct is good and right and brings honour and glory to Jesus. This type of living will not save us nor will it bring us any closer to eternity in that sense. It is going to be the manner of our lives for all eternity though. Therefore, the work of God in us, in the now, is to bring about this way of living and this holiness of heart, in the now. Understanding this, is a powerful reason to not stand against that. It is a powerful reason to conduct ourselves in this way, in the now, as far as we are enabled to do so.
Therefore, how does eternity shape our approach to the daily grind?
It shatters into our lives and gives us a totally new outlook and mind. It changes our perspective on so many things. On ourselves, on our lives, on our own importance, on our purpose. Eternity gives us totally different priorities. Viewed from eternity, the frustrations and sadnesses that work can bring us, take on a different look. The hardships of work will not last and they bring about opportunities to serve and grow. This perspective shows us our finish line and redefines what it means to succeed.
This eternal hope, will therefore totally change our approach to our daily grind. It will totally change how we conduct ourselves.
How does eternity shape our approach to the daily grind? We go to work each and every day with a hope that is far greater than anything material success and gain can offer.
