This post was originally posted at my short-lived website, Faith Working. I am not sure I currently agree with everything herein, but thought I’d repost here anyways — I’ll post new stuff as it comes up.
Throughout the New Testament, we see a common approach when it comes to missionary work: Jesus does not send people out alone. This is not usually what we find when it comes to our workplaces. We may work in an enormous organization, but Christian brothers and sisters available for and needing encouragement could be few or far between.
It can get pretty lonely attempting to be a light for Christ at work. This gets compounded by the fact that we often have no outlet to talk about our particular workplace mission experiences with fellow Christians. Even at church, the default topic of conversation is what happens after 5 o’clock.
Why would Jesus send out his disciples in twos? Why would he say that he is with us when we are gathered in two or three? I wonder if it has something to do with God’s initial observation about Adam: It is not good for us to be alone. We were created for community, to borrow the title of the late Stanley Grenz’s book. Even with all the good of God’s created world, it was not good for Adam to be without a companion.
Fellow Labourers
Practically speaking, a companion on mission is someone we can share the challenges and opportunities of our situation with. They are someone who is “in it” in the same way as we are and so will be praying alongside us with an understanding of the unique encounters experienced where we both are. They go further too, though, by helping us to see what we cannot see, the areas of growth and interest that we might overlook, and the areas in our own lives that need work. Moreover, they are someone we can do all these things for as well. Iron sharpening iron. They provide accountability in the thick of things and a constant reminder of the nature of our calling to make disciples and share the good news.
But we often don’t choose our work environments, and, unless we are on the hiring committee, we rarely choose our coworkers. The result is that, if you are hoping to live out your faith in an active way, it can sometimes be a solitary endeavour. Personally, I have been in some work situations where I was working alongside many Christians and in other situations where I was the only one. Usually, it seems like it’s somewhere in the middle. Nevertheless, in any of these cases, the work can still feel lonely if there is not a sense that others understand their role at work in a similarly missionary sense.
Dealing with Loneliness
So what is to be done? Here are a few thoughts on dealing with loneliness at work:
#1 – Remember that others are lonely too. This includes both your non-Christian and Christian coworkers.
“All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” It’s a universal feature of the human condition: we all have a deep desire to love and be loved. And, almost always, that desire is nowhere near fulfilled — indeed, it cannot be fulfilled within the limits of this world. Our loneliness as Christians “on mission” at work extends all the way to the general loneliness that we share with every other person. When we reach out to our coworkers in friendship, we shine light into the darkness of the loneliness we both feel. More specifically, with regards to other Christians, we cannot know whether they do not also feel a loneliness “on the mission.” Indwelled with the spirit, they have a desire within them to be a light for God. Although it may not look like ours, these fellow Christians likely share a desire to live out their faith in some way and may just be waiting for someone to join them in leaning into their faith at work.
#2 – If you have an accountability group or close group of Christian family and friends, make a point of talking with them about their work and yours and asking for (and offering) prayer.
We often leave work out of our conversations with fellow Christians, assuming that people won’t understand or be interested in what we are doing. That may be the case broadly, but part of “building one another up” in the context of our church family could include having our lives intersect with the lives of others in such a way that we not only know where others are at, but we also take on the cares and concerns of our brothers and sisters in Christ, bearing these through prayer, listening, and helping.
#3 – Ask God for a fellow labourer.
I’ll admit that this is something I’ve done, but that God has never answered it in the way I was expecting. Karl Barth reminds us that God wants us to ask him for things (Church Dogmatic 3.4, p. 91) — we don’t have to try to figure out what God wants us to ask him for and then ask for that. Instead, he invites us to petition him. So, with this in mind, I think we are free to ask God to help us be a light in the world of our workplace by giving us the support and encouragement of a fellow labourer. God’s answer may be something else — “my grace is sufficient,” for example — and the loneliness may not abate; however, I do not believe that God’s answer to our request will ever be nothing.
I remember asking God at one of my workplaces for just this thing: to send a fellow Christian to my company to undertake the job with a similar missional perspective. His response was mixed: on the one hand, he revealed that three of the people I had already been working with were in fact Christians. Yet, for various reasons, our relationship did not deepen in a way that would have made the sense of co-labouring more palpable. Nevertheless, it was a huge encouragement exactly when I needed it that God was at work through these people in his own way and that I was accompanied by others who loved God and wanted to serve him.
#4 – Christ is with you.
A new worship song recently adapted the words of St. Patrick’s Breastplate:
Above and below me
Before and behind me
In every eye that sees me
Christ be all around me
There is a difference between the companionship of other Christians and the companionship of Christ. Nevertheless, having the fellowship of Christ through the Holy Spirit reminds us whose mission this is. As I’ve said before, borrowing from writers like Christopher J.H. Wright, God invites us to join him on his mission. The result is that, while we may feel lonely in it, we are never truly alone. This may be small comfort when things get particularly dark. Yet we can trust that comfort will come.
Loneliness is a part of life, and there is a richness in it, as the feeling of it reminds us of our need for God. As Psalm 88 puts it (easily the bleakest of the psalms, and therefore greatly appealing to some of us):
“O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!” (Psalm 88:1-2)
As we work to live out our faith each day — with or without immediate companions on the journey — we can remember where our help comes from and the one who has promised never to forsake or abandon us.