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From Luke’s Journal May 2025 | Vol. 30 No. 1 | MIMBY

Many can relate to the exhaustion of our daily grind, working towards our goals. We all desire to succeed in our own ways, and it requires unwavering commitment, discipline, and an unbreakable work ethic. When I am exhausted, I am often reminded of Ecclesiastes 1:2-3.

Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all their labours at which they toil under the sun?

Busyness at work seems inevitable, but this is not always the healthiest outlook on life. Instead, the right approach is to ask – am I busy for the right reason? After all, God made us in His image, which in itself carries a huge significance. It is easy to be consumed by small details and lose sight of our bigger picture. There is a constant pull towards worldliness, living in a secular world. It is easy to let go of our identity in Christ and to adopt our identity in our profession, being a parent, etc.

How can we evangelise at work when we allow our busyness to restrict our outreach? And how do we navigate the many restrictions imposed on us by our workplace?

1. God’s design of work

First and foremost, let us remind ourselves of God’s good design of work. In Genesis 1, we see that God was delighted in His work. He created us to work in His garden and to look after His creation. He did not stop at His creation; He continues to provide for us and rejoices in His works (Psalm 104). One of His commandments to us is that we work for 6 days and rest for 1 day.

Work has been our foundation, even before sin entered the world. When work is taken away, we often find that it leads to distress. In his book “Every Good Endeavour”, Timothy Keller points out that work is not the meaning of our lives, but we will not have a meaningful life without work. When we don’t keep our relationship with Christ as our foundation of life, we can become distorted by and addicted to work, leisure, friendships, and family.¹ God has called and equipped us to do our work as part of worshipping Him.¹

2. Reflect on where your identity lies

There are many factors that influence our identity. There are 5 major P’s from Clay Scroggins’ book “How to Lead when You’re Not in Charge”: our past, our people, our personality, our purpose, and our priorities.²

In this book, the priorities refer to the truth that shapes our identity, which includes passion, aspirations, values, and ideals. The world often rejects our passion and values in Christ. It is easy to choose our comfort by staying silent and letting go of our identity as ambassadors for Christ. We lose sight of the inseparable connection of being reconciled to God and being trusted with the message of reconciliation³. Instead, we revert to the desires of old flesh and idolise our career, wealth, or family. To prevent or to overcome the latter, it is important to know the Gospel and be constantly reminded of the new creation that we have in Christ through our own Bible reading and fellowship.

3. Evangelism at work

Evangelism comes in many forms and shapes. All of us are unique and have our own strengths and gifts from God. Our ultimate goal is to share the message of salvation with others. This may happen in many ways, from 1-on-1 conversations to acts of service to public speaking.

2 Cor 4:6 “For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”.

We subconsciously might censor our speech to leave God out of our conversation when we talk to strangers or colleagues. We reinforce that God is irrelevant to our everyday lives and will later struggle to be open about our faith to our colleagues. If we include God in our conversations, we start to plant seeds in those around us. It might be as simple as sharing about your weekend at church or including God in your future plans. You may also find other Christians at work as a result of which would be a huge encouragement to one another.

4. Building relationships with those around us at work

We live in a fast-paced world where patience is lost, and relationships crash and burn. Effective changes are gradual and deliberate. Building meaningful relationships and sustaining them is important. One of the features of everyday Gospel work is that it takes many conversations and interactions to share the Gospel.

“Taking time to start a conversation with those around us is usually the starting point for friendships.”

Taking time to start a conversation with those around us is usually the starting point for friendships. It is hard not to work through the lunch break, especially on a busy day, but this is a good opportunity to initiate conversations with our peers. Initiating conversations might be hard for some of us – I would refer you to Sam Chan’s book on “How to Talk about Jesus (without being THAT guy)”.

Being effective in sharing the Gospel involves a team which may include your co-workers, your Christian friends, your church, Christian talks, etc. Most important of all, our greatest strength comes in the form of prayer. We must remember to wear the armour of God’s wisdom by praying before these conversations. 

5. Monitoring our hearts and behaviour

Working in medicine comes with various sets of challenges. There is a constant pressure to prove our worth to our peers to get into training programs or land a decent job. Gradually, we move from wanting to do our job well to wanting to be extraordinary and stand out from others. During this journey, not only do we enslave ourselves to our work, leading to burnout, but it also robs us of true joy and peace in our lives. We must guard against pursuing excellence at work for our own glory and remember to serve those around us for His glory.

“We must guard against pursuing excellence at work for our own glory and remember to serve those around us for His glory.”

In a survey conducted by Timothy Keller, people in serving professions tend to feel superior as their work is noble and draining.¹ God has called us each to a unique purpose, regardless of the jobs we do. We do not need to prove ourselves, as Christ has already taken care of it for us. We must strive to live excellently for God; with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control⁴. Christ is our real location marker of our ultimate identity (Gal 3:28). Place Christ on the table at work by being blameless (Phil 2:15) and work diligently and submit to authority. It is important to have ambition, but not for selfish reasons (Phil 2:3). The purpose of work is not to exalt ourselves. We have done nothing to earn God’s grace and love. It is freely given to us. Therefore, it is vital for us to respond to this free gift by dying to ourselves, and loving and serving our closest neighbour.

“Therefore, it is vital for us to respond to this free gift by dying to ourselves, and loving and serving our closest neighbour.”

6. Importance of Church and Fellowship

God has made us for relationships, and this is displayed in the body of Christ – our church. Listening to God’s message preached weekly might help shorten the disconnect between the world and God. Furthermore, the church brings together a larger Christian community to pray for and care for those seeking. Seeing the Gospel’s fruit in action at church is a great witness. We should not undervalue the importance of fellowship in reminding each other of the goodness of God and to help through the thorns and thistles of life with grace.

7. Praying

If you are a Christian, you know how powerful prayer is. When we pray, we are depending on God to open the minds and hearts of people. By praying, God also equips us by enabling and emboldening us to be his ambassadors. Our vision might be short-sighted, but by praying, we are relying on God to see through the salvation of others if it is in His will.

Evangelism is God’s work. He recruits and commissions us for the task every step of the way through His spirit.³ There is nothing more loving than praying for our colleagues and work friends, for opportunities for them to come to know Christ, and to build those friendships.

Make it a regular habit of praying for your work colleagues. There are many ways to help remind us, including the ‘Echo’ app, reminders on your fridge door, etc.

Finally, my prayer is that we stand firm and be courageous in our faith. As Paul says in Colossians 1:28-29, “He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ”.

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