Most Christians face pressures in the workplace, and there is no doubt that the threat of unemployment is one of the greatest stresses.
Job security is not what it was. Though recent unemployment figures are falling, in the present economic climate, many firms find that their futures are far from secure.
Margins are squeezed and however responsive the workforce, the need for ever-increasing productivity cannot always be met. Often the only solution appears to be rationalisation and cutback (if not closure), with many losing their jobs. In such situations, not even the longest-serving, most diligent and trustworthy workers are secure. When you add to that the fact that the stresses of ever-increasing demands in the workplace will force many into a situation in which they have no choice but to pack in their job or take early retirement, the concept of a 'job for life' seems to have become largely an illusion.
Fears and frustrations
What makes the threat of unemployment such a burden is that being without a job is a very difficult situation. Most people would like a couple of months free from work if only they could be sure that at the end of the break they would get just the right job. However, it is not easy to find another job. We all know people who have written hundreds of letters and have filled in dozens of application forms, but have nothing to show for all that toil except the occasional 'I regret to inform you . . .' letter and a sense of increasing hopelessness. We fear managing on very little money and always having to say 'no' to the children. We fear having too much time on our hands. We fear the social stigma of being unemployed. We fear the gnawing feeling of being rejected, being useless. We have seen the problems that unemployed friends and family members have experienced: guilt, anger, frustration, bitterness and apathy. Hence the very possibility of being made redundant fills many people with alarm.
Yet at present, many believers have to face that possibility and the uncertainty it brings. What help does the Scripture give us in coping with those fears, or the bereavement-like experience of being made redundant? In Romans 8, Paul reminds the Christian of five great truths to remember when unemployment threatens or becomes a reality.
You are a child of God vv.15-18
One of most significant reasons why God gives his Spirit to each believer is that he might assure us that we are his children (v.16). He delights to produce that childlike sense of dependence that runs to our Heavenly Father in every moment of need (v.15). That means that even when it seems that no-one values you - no-one will trust you with responsibility or give you any assurance that you have a future with the company - God does. He loves you as his precious child. And however bleak and apparently useless your present is, your future as his heir is glorious.
I have sometimes wondered how Prince Charles must feel. He is 50 years old, and has arguably never done a 'proper job' in his life. Few people seem to have valued him and you wonder whether he has any sense of personal fulfilment. Yet he does have this to hold on to: one day he will be king and will have a very significant part in the life of the country, unless death or republicanism rob him of it. As a Christian, you are not merely the child of a monarch, but of the Living God, and your inheritance - sharing in all that belongs to Christ - is as sure as it is glorious. Suffering with Christ the indignity of being treated as a nobody (or worse) is a small price to pay for so great a future.
You are not being singled out for problems vv. 19-25
Sometimes it seems like that. You look around your church and see people whose jobs seem very se-cure and ask: 'Why am I being singled out to face uncertainty - especially now that our Jo has just gone to university, or we've just got a bigger mortgage, or the little woman is expecting again.' And the force of the question is greatly increased by certainty that God rules in every detail of your life.
Yet Paul reminds us forcibly that problems and suffering are inevitable for all human beings in this 'groaning' world. Problems, disappointments, frustrations and pain are endemic here, and will be until the glorious day that Christ comes to remove the curse, restore the world and re-deem our bodies. You are not being 'singled out' for trouble; you are reaping the fruits of the Fall and being invited to thirst for the new earth. All your peers have burdens and troubles, and there are more just around the corner for us all! But when Christ returns - wow!
You have resources to cope! vv. 26-27
Not in yourself, you understand. Peter made that mistake and fell flat on his face. Christians are not innately strong. We often buckle in the face of being laid off or writing a hundred non-productive letters to local businesses. Indeed, sometimes we are bewildered by our own weakness and sense of panic. We thought we would cope better than this. We did at least expect to be able to pray with some sense of hope in the job crisis. But just at the moment prayer seems useless - and anyway where do we start?
Yet Christians do have the resources to cope. God's Spirit lives within each believer (Romans 8.9). And he is there to help us in our weakness (v.26). Mark that: the mighty God committing himself to aid weak and ungodly people! Mark too that his aid is very mysterious. For example, the sign of his help in prayer is in our unutterable groanings - in that sense of desperation and inadequacy where we often feel bereft. That very sense of desperation is Spirit-induced and is wonderfully articulate to the Almighty (v.27). Isn't Paul's teaching wonderfully reassuring: the very moment you feel convicted of your (often sinful) weakness is the moment of God's mighty assistance.
This trouble will work for good v. 28-30
In times of worry and uncertainty we often feel convicted about the paucity of our love for God. Yet we also know that we love him because he has called us into a relationship with himself through the extravagance of the cross. And we know, too, that the relationship will one day blossom into perfect fellowship and likeness (verses 29-30). But Paul reassures us that his love is operative in the present just as much as the past or the future. He assures us that whatever happens to us, even unemployment or uncertainty about the security of our jobs, God will work in every detail of the situation to secure our real good.
That is not to say that we will find such uncertainty easy, nor God's outcomes palatable. Faith will be tested. We may struggle to pay the mortgage. We may be tempted to feel we are on the scrap-heap. We may become very frustrated in our inability to find work. Yet God has bound himself to work in everything for our eternal wellbeing. That means that nothing that happens to you is ever a disaster, however intimidating it may seem. Nothing will destroy faith - indeed, ultimately all will deepen and strengthen the grace that binds us to Christ and to glory.
God is still for you vv.31-39
One of the greatest frustrations in the face of uncertainty about a job is how readily rampant worry overtakes us. That means that we are not only ill at ease about the future, we feel that we are letting the Lord down now by our weakness. Yet whatever we do or don't do, we remain God's children and he is for us. He loved us enough to choose us (v.33), send his Son for us (v.32), appoint him as our representative and intercessor (v.34) and justify us (v.33). He is for us (v.31) and will demonstrate that by giving us all we need for life and salvation.
If God is for us - and he is - then he will allow no one to condemn us, however great our sin, and nothing to cut us off from his love (verses 35-39). Among other things, that means that he will not allow us to go through any trial that would destroy our faith. When we think about what may face us, including years of being unable to find work, unable to be generous or provide hospitality, or unable to give the kind of answer we would like to give to the threatening question: 'What do you do for a living?'
God is for us. What a staggering thing for a sinner to be able to say! Yet it is true. God has proved it in his Son. He has proved it in his grace to us. Whatever happens, whatever we do or don't do, achieve or mess up, it will always be true. What a weapon this is with which to fight the spectre of unemployment!
Graham Heaps,
Dewsbury Evangelical Church
