By Chris Armstrong, reprinted from Humanism as a Way of Life; part three of a series.
For spiritual practices toward vocational joy, see Denise Daniels and Shannon Vandewarker’s Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work. Categories of practices in this book include a “liturgy of commute,” “surrendering the calendar,” “lamenting work,” and “prayer of examen for work.”
In my talk [see previous posts in this series] I reflect on re-framing our view of work biblically and theologically. This kind of re-framing for vocational joy is described by psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski, who calls this strategy cognitive crafting. Two more allied strategies are task crafting—leaning into tasks that may not be on our job description but that align well with who we are at our core, and relational crafting—managing relationships with colleagues, bosses, and others, and finding sustaining relationships we can develop with work colleagues. Wrzesniewski summarizes these practical tools in this pdf. Barry Schwartz illustrates them with real-life work stories in his brief book Why We Work.
On practices related to gratitude, see the works of psychologist Dr. Robert A. Emmons. A number of gratitude journaling apps are available that draw from and extend Emmons’s work.
We might also wish to build practices that foster rest, restoration, and resilience into our calendar. There are plenty of widely available resources to help with this.
For an ecclesial approach to faith and work see Matthew Kaemingk and Cory Willson’s Work and Worship: Reconnecting our Labor and Liturgy. From Old Testament and early church ways of integrating the working lives of people into their worship, this book offers vocationally aware worship practices related to communion, gathering, and scattering.
Gene Veith has said “the doctrine of vocation amounts to a comprehensive doctrine of the Christian life. . . . It is a key to Christian ethics. It shows how Christians can influence their culture. It transfigures ordinary, everyday life with the presence of God.” [Gene Edward Veith, God at Work, Kindle edition, location 134 (print edition: God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life, Crossway, 2011)] Ethicist Brent Waters provides a midrash on that insight in his Common Callings and Ordinary Virtues: Christian Ethics for Everyday Life (Baker Academic, 2022): see especially chapter 2, “Calling and Vocation.”
For nuanced, scholar-written accounts of how each book of the Bible speaks to our working lives, plus many accessible topical articles, videos, and other supporting material, see www.theologyofwork.org. Of particular interest on the site is this substantial article on calling and vocation.
We can read up on faith and vocation not only in Scripture, but also in early Protestant sources. Gustav Wingren’s book Luther on Vocation is one resource for this and Lee Hardy’s The Fabric of the World is another – especially the second chapter: “Our Work, God’s Providence: The Christian Concept of Vocation.” For a contemporary conservative Lutheran take, see Gene Edward Veith’s God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life and his short primer Working for Our Neighbor: A Lutheran Primer on Vocation, Economics, and Ordinary Life.
If you wish to explore further what Ecclesiastes has to say about joy in our work, Daryl Charles’s book Wisdom and Work: Theological Reflections on Human Labor from Ecclesiastes is one good source.
Highly recommended is Alexander Schmemann’s book For the Life of the World: paperback and Kindle editions are available.
The Green Room 