Working with Identity
Reframing our work
A talk at Soul Factor Singapore by
Sharon Lim, Co-CEO of Browzwear, a fashion tech company.
The message people are told is to study hard to get a good job so you get things in life and then you have many more opportunities. In other words, I work because I want to gain something and I gain something because I want to be someone.
How has that message framed your attitude to work and what are the consequences for how we live?
Sharon said: “Work is an extension of me, I’m not an extension of my work.”
What does it look like when this is true in practice? What happens when the opposite is the case?
Sharon shared how when we sugar loss, whether that be of money or our job, we can be hit by a crisis of identity if our identity is attached to what we’ve lost. But when we accept ourselves as beloved children of God we gain an identity as royalty in God’s family and our work becomes an extension of our Father’s work.
“The reality is that I’m not God, but I have a God who loves me and calls me His child. My faith teaches me that I’m a child of God. Being who I am is attached with whose I am.”
Read John 1:11-13
What are the privileges and responsibilities of being a prince or princess in God’s royal family?
Read romans 8:14-15, 31-39
How does knowing we are loved by God reframe how you see yourself, your work and other people?
Growing at work
The workplace is an excellent place to grow. As a beloved child I know that when I make mistakes I’m still accepted and can learn and develop through them rather than be crushed by them.
For a Christian, dignity is found in a Master who approves of us by grace not performance – knowing forgiveness and becoming a dearly loved child of God who lives a life of love. The Christian worker is a work in progress. Work is a place of personal formation where values are practised and challenges are opportunities to develop character, becoming more like Christ (the best version of Christ not yourself!).
How are you growing at work and through work?
Does your identity give you confidence to step out in faith?
the rich gains of work
Read Ephesians 2:8-10
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Grace can be spelt ‘God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense’ because it was paid for by Christ’s death for our sin. The riches of grace are in God’s covering our sin and shame with forgiveness and love. The result is we become God’s masterpiece and work in response to God’s riches not to earn favour. What difference would it make working having the riches of God’s grace?
We are finite but God is infinite and his grace is active and sufficient whether we make great or not so good decisions.
Sharon asked: “The Bible says that godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Knowing who you are, what do you gain from work?