Faith at Work

At the time I became a Christian I was working as a Speech Therapist. The main impact my faith had on my work was that I tried to be reliable and kind to my workmates, and caring and compassionate to my clients. I tried to share my faith with others, but was frustrated by the lack of opportunities to do this, or to talk about anything serious at all.

I was actually finding my job very difficult at this time. My fiance and I had broken up a few months earlier and I was a bit depressed at work. I found it hard to rouse myself to do anything other than see clients. I found it hard to do paperwork or make phonecalls. But I just kept going, neglecting these parts of my job.

This reached the point where I was afraid I had contributed to someone's death. Thankfully this turned out not to be the case. It was at this point that I finally decided to act in accordance with my beliefs that Christians are sinful, yet forgiven and that we should take responsibility for our actions. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. I didn't want my Christian family to think I was a good and kind person when I was secretly ugly inside. So I went to my boss and admitted and apologised for what I had done.

Since that time I've continued to mature in my faith. I would like to think that if a similar situation arose, I would care so much for my clients and for doing a good job and so little for approval from others, that I would seek help early on.

I think that work can be dangerous and disheartening because we either do not see or we forget God in it. This is harder to do in my current work as a church apprentice – but it is still possible for me to get caught up in organising things and passing on biblical knowledge. I run the risk of regarding God as an idea, rather than having an ongoing relationship with him.

Forgetting God is particularly easy to do when work is busy or stressful or difficult. At these times, it is very easy for Christianity to become something extra, something you engage in when you have time or energy. This is probably why I didn't act in a loving or responsible way when I was having trouble at work – although my faith was important, it was an extra, not the starting point for how I look at everything, each day.

When things are busy or stressful or difficult, God does not disappear. He is still the true God who asks for our praise and obedience. Rather than forgetting about him, we need to pray and ask for his help in doing our job well and loving the people we work with, whatever the situation.