Values
WHy VALUES?
We are encouraged to be led by our values and become the best version of ourselves. Self-improvement is a big industry with many suggested ways to follow our dreams, pursue what makes us happy and gain the good life. Organisations play an important role in giving people opportunities to thrive as human beings as they are treated with dignity and helped to reach their full potential. This is a priority for organisations wanting to develop confident, effective and engaged staff.
However, when values are a personal choice, they are often ill defined, and virtues are not always rewarded. The pressure is to ‘go with the flow’ and fit in with everyone else, even when that goes against what we feel deep down is right. This conflict in our minds causes damage in our hearts as we want to be what we know we’re not. Self-mastery of the heart is the ultimate challenge. Our attempts at self mastery fail, we cause damage and move from thriving to surviving. It’s as we admit how far we fall short that we discover how much we matter to God and are met with grace. Added to this is the tyranny of always wanting more and finding that when we get what our heart is set on, then the world’s never enough. The question we are left with is: “how can I live rather than exist?”
HOW VALUES?
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 (Romans 8:1-17). 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!). Being true to who you are involves letting go of created things as your source of meaning (Jonah 2:7-9) and instead seeking the God who gives ultimate dignity, security and significance (Matthew 6:19-36). Like the tree planted by streams of living water (Psalm 1) the blessed man or woman works with integrity shaped by values drawn from God’s Word, making wise choices with the mind of Christ and led by God’s Spirit in all of life.
Reframing our work
A talk at Work Lights Singapore by
Sharon Lim, Co-CEO of Browzwear, a fashion tech company
Discussion questions
1. 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?
2. Sharon shared: “The reality is that I’m not God, but I have a God who loves me and calls me His child. It stems from knowing our identity. My faith teaches me that I’m a child of God, so being who I am is attached with whose I am.”
How would knowing a God who loves you and involves you in his eternal purposes reframe how you see yourself, your work and other people?
3. 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?
Sharon asked: “The Bible says that godliness with contentment is great gain. What have you gained from work if you cannot find contentment and cannot be who you are?”