July 10: Humility at Work

Your boss doesn’t notice what you do. A coworker took credit for your idea. You can feel the resentment building like steam. What now?

Paul wrote these words to people who had far less control over their work than you do. He told them to work hard, from the heart, as if they were working for the Lord. Because in the end, they were.

Work is one of the hardest places to practice humility. Your job is tied to money, to pride, to who you think you are. When someone overlooks you or takes from you, it hits deep. And for many people, the drive home after a bad day was the start of the drinking.

Humility at work doesn’t mean being a doormat. It means doing honest work without needing everyone to see it. It means letting go of the scoreboard. It means you can speak up when something’s wrong, calmly, without making it a war.

Look at your inventory. Did resentment toward bosses show up there? Did pride? Did fear of looking bad? Those are the defects you’re asking God to remove this month. Work is where you’ll get chances to practice the opposite almost every day.

The opposite of resentment is not pretending it doesn’t bother you. It’s praying for the person. That sounds strange, but people who try it find that it changes them more than it changes the other person. Pray that your boss has a good day. Pray for the coworker who annoys you. Do it even if you don’t mean it yet.

If you use the Steps & Scripture app, you could talk through a work resentment with your sponsor in the app before you go back in tomorrow. Say it out loud before it goes sour inside you.

And here’s the freedom in Paul’s words. If your real boss is God, then you don’t need applause from anyone else. He sees the work. He sees the effort. That’s enough.

One thing today

Do one task at work today really well, without telling anyone about it. Then pray by name for the person at work who bothers you most.

A prayer

Lord, I want to be noticed so badly. Help me work for You instead. Take the resentment I feel toward the people at my job, and help me pray for them even when I don’t want to. Amen.

Work resentments are exactly the kind of thing Step Seven asks God to take.

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