Have You Established Christ-Centered Core Values?
Your workplace has probably adopted core values. These guiding principles, or fundamental beliefs, are designed to help an organization function well as a team and work toward a common business goal. A few of the most common core values are teamwork, inclusion and respect.
As a follower of Christ, have you adopted personal core values, as well? In today’s fast-paced, high-pressure work environments, our faith can take a back seat if we aren’t intentional about including God in every aspect of our work life. After all, it is the Lord who has given us our work position to begin with.
There are four core values I want to share with you that I have found to be very helpful in keeping my own work-life focused on Christ each day:
Be dependent on God: We love our whiteboards, planning meetings and strategic plans. Those can be important steps to meeting business goals, but don’t forget to include God in your plans. Begin each day by asking God to guide and direct your decision-making and your priorities. When it comes to the daily tasks at hand, everything tends to be urgent, and there’s pressure to deliver. If we don’t maintain a prayerful dependence on God and asking Him for discernment, we default to operating in our flesh and finish up stressed and without peace. Go to work completely dependent on God and remember that without Him, you can’t do anything! (Proverbs 3:5–6; John 15:5)
Be an ambassador for Christ: In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul said, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). Let’s remember that back then people didn’t have television, radio or digital media to hear about the Gospel. Rather, they saw people acting like Christ. I continue to believe the workplace is the largest untapped mission field that exists. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commands every Christian to make disciples (not just pastors-their job is to equip us). The Lord has left us here for a reason after we place our faith in Him, and we have opportunities every day to represent Christ’s love through our actions, words and availability. Every morning ask God, “How do you want me to be an ambassador for Christ today?” and ask Him to bring you opportunities. And if you are uncomfortable doing this, just tell Him you are uncomfortable, but that you are willing to be made willing. Ask Him to help you.
Conduct yourself with integrity: This is a decision you must make in advance. At some point in your career, and probably more than once, you’ll be faced with a circumstance or opportunity that your gut is telling you is not right. Your “gut” is the Holy Spirit guiding your heart, offering a gentle conviction that you shouldn’t ignore. I’ve learned that those decisions are very difficult to make if you haven’t already committed to upholding what is right, no matter what the cost is to your bottom line or your career. In the moment, it can be tempting to bend your beliefs or justify a decision, but I know from experience that your integrity is worth more than the deal. I have seen careers and reputations destroyed by making that one bad decision that compromised their integrity. Never let your integrity get a chip in it, as it can never be repaired. You will be forgiven as a Christian, but you will have violated someone’s trust or made it more difficult for people to trust you in the future.
Be outward-focused: Over the years, God has helped me to develop a greater level of empathy toward others. I am still not an expert, but I have certainly seen the power in it, and I have to be intentional about it. In the workplace, that has meant being intentional about getting to know people at all levels of the company. Take a genuine interest in others at work. Be known as the one who cares not just about the water cooler chat, but also the struggles and pain in your colleagues’ lives. Showing that you care may one day give you the opportunity to share what God has done in your life, and even pray together. Yes, you can pray at work! Of course, you should never make someone feel uncomfortable, but I’ve never had anyone refuse prayer.
Remember, your work life is an extension of who you are as a Christ-follower. Prayerfully consider how you can approach each day with God’s core values in mind, remembering that we work as for the Lord, first and foremost (Colossians 3:23).