It's Monday morning.
You're flying down the passing lane because you hit the snooze button waaay too many times, and now you're running late for work. You didn't even have time to stop for your pumpkin spice latte.
The work day isn't much better. Your boss piles on the workload. Your coworkers just won't stop talking about all of their weekend drama. And it's only Monday.
Sound familiar?
Work can be a grind, and it can often feel mundane or insignificant. However, our theology of God and who He is can illuminate a new perspective on our work and the purpose of it. In fact, we image the very creative nature of the Almighty God each and every time we punch that time clock.
God Before the Beginning
As you may be aware, the book of Genesis starts out by telling the story of creation. “In the beginning…” is a familiar phrase to many. But what was going on before “the beginning”? If God is eternal, then he was there before he created the universe and everything in it. We don’t really have any explicit explanations in the Bible, but we can infer some important details from looking at the entirety of Scripture.
One of the most important inferences we must conclude is that God was perfect, satisfied, and delighted even before he created everything. In eternity past, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shared perfect love and fellowship amongst one another.
This idea is known as the aseity of God: that God is not dependent on His creation for anything. We see this is Scripture in Exodus, when God reveals His name to Moses as "I Am Who I Am". Here, God is indicating that He isn't defined or dependent on anything outside of Himself.
God was not lonely; He wasn’t in need of us to give Him company. God wasn’t bored and needed something to do. And God doesn’t need our love and adoration. He is perfectly complete within Himself.
Therefore, we can conclude that God created the universe in a completely free fashion, with no obligation on his part to do so.
The Creativity of God
Scripture provides a full picture of what it looks like for God to be creative, and to create. There are at least four aspects to the creativity of God: Imagination, Organization, Sustentation, and Redemption.
Imagination
Imagination is what we think of when we hear the word “creative”--an artist with a unique style, or someone who does things in an unorthodox fashion.
We see this type of creativity with God in the natural world around us. God has blanketed some planets in red dust and others with massive amounts of ice; some with elaborate ring systems and some that rain diamonds. Mountains capped with snow year-round and deserts that seldom taste the rain.
Some people have dimples, and others can cross their eyes. Some can perform complex mathematical calculations in their head and others can write music that brings people to tears. Just look up some of the wild and crazy creatures around the world that God has made, like the Saiga Antelope or the Markhor Goat. There is no doubt that God has an imaginative mind!
Organization
This may be my favorite aspect of God’s creativity, as I love to organize things (albeit not always successful in that pursuit). We see God organizing way back in Genesis 1. In verse two of this opening chapter of the Bible, it says that “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.” This is a picture of a chaotic situation, there is no rhyme or reason to the universe at this point. The remainder of the chapter describes God organizing creation--beginning with separation (light from darkness, water from land, etc) and then filling creation (birds in the sky, fish in the oceans, etc). God takes chaos, and organizes it into something orderly and purposeful.
Sustentation
Not only does God create things initially, He also sustains them. Both Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 speak of how Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of His power” and that “...in Him all things hold together”. It is Christ that ultimately keeps the planets in their proper orbit, spins the earth to turn day into night, and causes every synapse in your brain to fire correctly as you read this sentence.
Redemption
Whenever I eat french fries, I like to save the best for last. And so I’m going to do that here as well by saving the best aspect of God’s creation for last: redemption.
I’m referring specifically to God’s work in redeeming a people for Himself, through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Ephesians 2 speaks of the redeemed as “God’s workmanship”. We get a real sense that this is God’s finest work of creation.
It is often rightly pointed out how amazing it is that in Genesis, God creates ex nihilo--out of nothing. But an even greater feat is God’s redeeming work--He takes something that is spiritually dead and hostile towards Him and turns it into something that is beautiful and desires to serve and love Him.
The redeemed people of God is truly His finest work, His masterpiece.
Imaging God in Our Work
Let’s take all of this theology and turn it into something practical, specifically how all of this relates to our jobs.
As humans, we all bear the image of God. Whether we serve God or hate Him, we have this “divine imprint” on our being. This means that we possess many characteristics that are a resemblance to God’s characteristics--and one of these traits is that we, like God, are creative.
Now many of us are not creative in the traditional sense of the word--my own drawings would easily be mistaken for those of a 1st-grader--but when we look at these four aspects of God’s creativity, we should begin to see how our jobs mimic this creativity of God.
Imagination
There are some obvious professions and hobbies that fit into this category. Painters, musicians, and novelists all excel in the art of imagination. But there are many other areas where imagination comes into play. Let’s say you are in a sales position, you may have to be very creative in how you pitch your product or service to a potential client. Or even in computer science: not only do you need to have logical code when creating an application, you need to be imaginative in knowing how to make that application fun and enjoyable for your user.
Organization
Many jobs involve some sort of organizing, and in so doing image the creativity of God. Think that your data entry position is dull and meaningless? You are taking information that is chaotic, and organizing it so that it makes sense and has a purpose. In doing this you are imitating God’s organization of creation in Genesis! Carpentry, masonry, and sewing are just a few more examples of organizing raw materials into something with purpose and meaning.
Sustentation
Upholding and sustaining our business takes up a huge chunk of our week most of the time. Maintenance workers who service machines to keep them working, retail employees who manage inventory and keep shelves full, and accountants who track revenue and expenses are all examples of this. I would estimate that sustentation is about 90% of what I do in a given week at my job. It can seem quite monotonous given how much of our time is spent on just “keeping things running”, but these tasks are essential and find ultimate meaning in Christ. Are you thinking about how your everyday tasks are an image of how Jesus sustains each of us every single day?
Redemption
If we are employed in full-time ministry, or even just involved in our local church, we participate directly in God’s work of redemption. What a privilege that God invites and even commands us to be a part of His finest work!
Even beyond this direct redemptive work, there are other ways that our 9-to-5 work displays redemption. For instance, have you ever encountered a customer who is hostile to your company, and have worked hard to win that customer over, to the point that they are now a fan of your organization? If so, you have “redeemed” that customer, you have turned them from an enemy into a friend. This is a shadow of the ultimate redemptive work that Christ has accomplished.
"I Was Born To Do This"
You’ve certainly heard this phrase before--”I was born to do this”-- in reference to someone and their career. Maybe this is something that resonates with you and your job. But maybe it isn’t. I know that for me personally, I’ve never found a career field where this phrase applies. Or maybe you feel that you were born to pursue a certain career, but the right opportunity just hasn’t come along in that field.
Whatever situation you find yourself in, working to image the creativity of God is a sure-fire way to find joy and satisfaction in your work.
I’ll use an example from my own job: my current position involves managing a delivery route; not exactly the line of work that you grow up dreaming about. But I find satisfaction in this work when my route is organized and running smoothly, and when I can be imaginative in creating situations that please both my customers and my employer.
Maybe you find yourself stuck in a job that doesn’t feel fulfilling or meaningful. My encouragement is this: you can glorify God in whatever job you’re currently in by imaging God’s creative attributes as you go about your daily responsibilities. This is where we can find true joy and satisfaction in our work.
Can you see the ways in which your current position reflects these attributes of God's creativity? You'll likely discover that your work possesses several or all of these four aspects of creativity. I pray that seeing this will enhance your time on the clock, and give it a new sense of meaning and importance.
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