Whistle While You Work #4: Subduing the Flesh

This is the last section on "Whistle! Your Work Matters for You!," which is the first point in "Whistle While You Work" - the sermon, or series of blog posts. This is a little more abstract, or at least less tangible than the previous two posts - your job providing needs and wants in a material way. This one has to do with how work can be used, if we let it, to subdue our flesh, making us more like Christ. This came from a book my friend Keith loaned me for sermon prep called The Other Six Days by R. Paul Stevens. It was a helpful book, but on this point he pretty much lets Bonhoeffer make the point on "the therapeutic value of work":

Work plunges men into the world of things. The Christian steps out of the world of brotherly encounter into the world of impersonal things, the ‘it’; and this new encounter frees him [or her] for objectivity; for the ‘it’-world is only an instrument in the hand of God for the purification of Christians from all self-centeredness and self-seeking. The work of the world can be done only where a person forgets himself [or herself], where he loses himself in a cause, in reality, the task, the ‘it’. In work the Christian learns to allow himself to be limited by the task, and thus for him the work becomes a remedy against the indolence and sloth of the flesh. The passions of the flesh die in the world of things. But this can happen only where the Christian breaks through the ‘it’ to the ‘Thou’, which is God, who bids him work and makes that work a means of liberation from himself. (from Life Together).

If I understand this correctly, work will, if we let it, take us out of ourselves and focus us on something external. This is valuable because we can spend so much time thinking about ourselves and feeding our flesh, our selfishness. When we put our hand to the task, we take our focus off our selves and, if we let it, God will use this to make us less "fleshly," less selfish, less self-focused.

I can honestly say that during my warehouse forklift days I remember spending a bunch of time while I was at work seething with contempt for my job. But there were plenty of times where I was focused on the task at hand, which means I wasn't focused on myself. I wish I would have used that time better. In ministry I can honestly say the work has never been incredibly frustrating. It is enjoyable, but there have been peripheral matters that have weighed heavily and made me focus on my dissatisfaction. I guess this is a huge benefit of loving what you do. You can get lost in your work easier if you enjoy the task.

This is an interesting perspective on work. Do you think this is a valuable insight by Bonhoeffer? How do you think it works? How has it worked for you?

Next: "Whistle! Your Work Matters for Your Neighbor!"