I have recently been grappling with the challenge of balancing my faith and work life, and I am seeking advice and experiences from this community. As someone who deeply values my relationship with God, I find it difficult at times to integrate my faith into my daily professional life.
In the hustle and bustle of work, it is easy to lose sight of spiritual practices and values. My job demands a lot of my time and energy, and I often find myself exhausted by the end of the day, leaving little room for prayer, reflection, or community involvement. This has been weighing heavily on my heart, as I do not want my spiritual growth to take a backseat to my career.
Also, Do you have any strategies or routines that help you stay connected to your faith amidst a busy work schedule?
Thanks for the great question! As many of us spend much of our waking hours at work, there may be many others in this community who will have important insights to share. Though I am not currently working, I hope to share from my past experience and what I have learnt from the lives of other matured believers.
As for me, I have found that I had more to offer at work, both in how I related to colleagues and in my work performance, when I consistently set aside time to meditate on God’s word. This meant waking up early/or staying up late and making sure that my heart is in right relationship with God before the start of my day at work. After meditating on scripture, even if its just a short reading, thinking about ways to apply the reading has been helpful in living out the faith. Sometimes I simply listen to Bible audio when driving or doing busywork. When we miss our time with God or lack motivation, we can simply confess and receive forgiveness from the Lord. The goal is not knowledge or discipline but about growing in our reliance on the Lord.
Connecting with other people at work who share the same Christian convictions either by having lunch with them or going on short prayer walks during the work day has also been helpful. Such friends were a source of support through the ups and downs of work.
Through the work day, there are many choices we make and we can stay in the spirit of prayer as we bring our decisions and feelings to God. I think Carson’s book, Together based on Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the presence of God is a great study, which will help understand how to stay in tune with God. It requires being intentional about being in fellowship with God through the day.
If possible, planning ahead to have at least one day free off work each week where you can focus on God, community, and His creation can be spiritually refreshing. It can help build gratitude in our hearts as we become aware of God’s gifts in creation and community. The rhythm of rest and work as instituted in Sabbath will help us persevere in faith through the long haul.
Balancing work and faith is more than how we do our devotions or share the gospel at work. Tim Keller’s book, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work is a helpful resource on theology of work. The gospel makes a difference in how we view our work and the choices we make. Here’s a quote from the book that illustrates this point -
“If the point of work is to serve and exalt ourselves, then our work inevitably becomes less about the work and more about us. Our aggressiveness will eventually become abuse, our drive will become burnout, and our self-sufficiency will become self-loathing.”
“But if the purpose of work is to serve and exalt something beyond ourselves, then we actually have a better reason to deploy our talent, ambition, and entrepreneurial vigor—and we are more likely to be successful in the long run, even by the world’s definition.”
The secret of balancing work with faith seems to be in whole life application, living humbly, having godly goals at work and valuing others we work with who are made in the image of God. We may not see the fruit of our obedience in the short term but it will pay off in the long term. I have seen it in the lives of other faithful older Christians.
This reply is just a start to the conversation. I look forward to learning from experiences of others in the community.
You’re not alone in the struggle to prioritize God in the midst of work and the busyness of life. As @lakshmi shared, there are many who have had their own experiences with this; so, I really look forward to hearing what has been helpful for others!
For me, I think you summed up much of how I felt in grad school this year as well as during busy times in the past:
The exhaustion of the day can make even small steps toward God feel so difficult. What I found particularly helpful this past winter was something @Carson shares in the LookUp course in the Uncommon Pursuit Academy which is to start small and celebrate spending even just one minute reading a verse and in prayer!
Hearing that, really helped me to take the pressure off of my devotion time and to focus on enjoying time with God. Of course I want to spend more than a minute with God each day, but, in seasons of exhaustion, the reminder to start small and celebrate every step is just so refreshing and it helps me shift my mindset from seeing a daily devotion as a burden that I do not have the energy for to an accomplishable step that draws me closer to God!
Whenever we work towards growth there will be times and areas where we fall short. So along with celebrating the small steps, it’s important to remember the grace and steadfast love of God through all our missteps on the path to growth, knowing that our righteousness comes from Him alone.
Other things that have been really helpful are prayers of gratitude and podcasts, sermons, and audio books.
Even at my busiest, I still need to eat, drive, wash dishes, do laundry, etc. and I can listen to podcasts, sermons, and audio books during all of these. Honestly, it’s wild how much extra time to grow in my faith and praise God this adds to my day! It has also made dishes and driving, which I didn’t particularly like before, times of learning, prayer, and spiritual refreshment that I cherish and look forward to.
As for prayers of gratitude, I have made a practice of recognizing the little things I am grateful for throughout the day - a beautiful flower, the feel of the sun, a conversation with a friend - and just giving a short prayer of thanks to God for it. I’ve noticed that it helps me see far more all of the ways God is at work in my life, appreciate how good He truly is, and feel much more connected with Him throughout the day.
These short thought prayers throughout the day can be about more than just gratefulness too! @Carson has a great short video about them here where he talks about it is as taking a moment to notice what thoughts or feelings are on your heart and sharing them with God.
I hope some of these practices will be helpful for you! When you’ve found what works for you and helps you connect with and prioritize God throughout this busy season, if you want to share, I’d love to hear what it is and what God has taught you along the way!
I’m looking forward to hearing more thoughts from others and continuing to learn and grow in this area!