When You Feel Abandoned by God in Your Work
Lessons from the Easter Story
In this week’s newsletter:
Insights from the Easter story for those times we feel abandoned by God in our work,
A couple of podcast episodes you might enjoy, and
A FREE download for you!
Feeling Abandoned by God
Rob leaves the Zoom meeting and stares at his monitor. He knows he needs to take a few deep breaths before his next meeting, but his mind is spiraling. Why must his boss continually try to make him feel small and unimportant—a nobody without her help?
Defeated, Rebecca slumps in the chair in her office, wondering how she, a beloved professor with glowing teaching evaluations and an impressive list of publications, could be denied tenure.
Jenna scribbles her name across the bottom of the check for her son’s field trip. In her mind, she sees the balance in her account drop again. She wonders how long it will be before it hits zero since she’s recently been laid off.
In the evening hours, before their heads hit the pillow, Rob, Rebecca, and Jenna wonder, Where is God? Does he see? Does he notice? Does he care?
When work hurts, it can be devastating. It can make us feel alone and hopeless. But the Easter story reminds us that God is there, in the middle of the mess, if we have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Wondering Where Jesus Went
On the third day after Jesus died, Mary stood outside his tomb, utterly distraught. Her Lord, whom she loved—where had his body gone? Two angels seated where Jesus’ body had been laid asked her why she was crying.
‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him’ (John 19:13b, NIV).
Jesus was not where she expected him to be.
Mary noticed someone nearby. He, too, asked her why she was crying and who she was looking for. Desperate to find Jesus, she asked this stranger to tell her if he knew where his body had been taken.
Then this stranger spoke again.
On hearing her name on his lips, Mary’s eyes were opened, and she could see it wasn’t a stranger after all. It was Jesus. He had been right there with her all along.
God is With Us All Along
This familiar story reminded me that God is always present with us in our work, but maybe in ways we don’t expect, in ways that we can’t see. When work hurts, we long for God to make a powerful show of his presence. But he could be working quietly behind the scenes to orchestrate a new job for us. Or he could be faithfully walking alongside us, beckoning us gently to trust him more.
It can be hard to see God when we’re hurting. It can be difficult to hear his voice when our grief is loud, and when the world is telling us how we should respond and what we should do next. But we can develop our capacity to see and hear him in these dark moments.
For more on how, consider reading chapter 3, “Learning to See in the Dark,” in When Work Hurts. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from that chapter:
“We have to know God’s voice—not necessarily the audible sound, but the consistency and character of how God expresses himself. God’s voice reverberates in tones that sound like life in the kingdom. It resonates with virtues like love, hope, mercy, justice, compassion, redemption, and reconciliation.”
Podcast Episodes
Recently, I listened to two podcast episodes featuring Brené Brown, Simon Sinek, and Adam Grant discussing the world of work. I especially loved their conversation on work engagement, which was the subject of my last newsletter.
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