Confronting the Bondage of Consumerism

Monday at Work

Last month I wrote on how the consumer driven culture we live in has influenced how we conduct ourselves on Sunday mornings. This month I want to look at the influence it has on Monday mornings when many of us head back into the work place after the weekend.
Let me start by asking you this question, “Why do you get up and go to work in the morning?” Chances are you have asked yourself this question at least once, if not every working morning of your life. Quickly I can think of two motivations you might have. One primary motivation may be to earn money. You want to provide for your family’s basic necessities as well as earn a cushion to allow for entertainment and recreation. Another primary motivation you may have for going to work is to find value for your life. You find a deep contentment for how your job helps or enhances the lives of other people.
While it is neither wrong to earn money, nor to help other people, if either of these are your primary motivation for going to work in the morning, then you are approaching your job as a consumer. In both cases, (and in many others), at the end of the day the truth is that you are working for your own benefit, so that you may either have riches or a feeling of value. Ironically, both of these motivations will at some point leave you disappointed. If you are working for riches, you will be dissatisfied when you lose money or don’t make enough of it. If you are working for a feeling of value, you will be dissatisfied when you are unable to help other people or when they don’t appreciate you.
Scripture gives us a superior motivation for getting up to go to work in the morning, which is simply this: to serve Jesus. Col 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. This verse tells us not to work for men who could only give us temporary riches and value, but rather that we should work for the Lord who has already given us riches and value in Himself at the Cross. As we read on in the passage, we also see that we are to serve Christ because He has promised us an inheritance as a reward: Col 3:24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Unlike the possibility of rewards we might or might not receive from an employer or a customer, this reward from God is guaranteed and therefore will never leave us disappointed.