Blue Collar Christians

Most of us work for a living. Some put in eight, ten, or twelve hours a day. Some scrape the snow and ice off their cars and drive an hour to work.  Others commute to their job by bus, train, or plane. The lucky ones hop out of bed and pad across the hallway in their pajamas and slippers to their job. Some get paid by the hour; some by the job; others are salaried. Dirty jobs, tough jobs, pressure jobs, dangerous jobs—jobs of every kind.

The question is: Why? Why do we work? Money is the obvious answer, but why this job? Why these hours? Why this field? Why this company? Is it just for a livelihood or is there a transcendent, overarching reason guiding it all? Has a divine purpose placed you where you are and doing what you do? A long time ago someone told me that we are full-time Christians and part-time everything else. In light of eternity and considering the enormity of the stakes, it’s still a fundamental truth. For most of us, it just takes a while to sort it all out.

So, if the true significance of your life is not your vocation but your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ, then your perspective on your job undergoes a dramatic shift. Your work now becomes much more than a way to make money. Gone are your reasons for complaints, gripes, and resentments. Out the window goes the feeling that you are hopelessly stuck in a dead-end job. Once you understand that you are there on divine assignment, your purpose crystalizes, and you have incentives that you never recognized before.

It could be that your job is pivotal to a bigger plan in God’s universe. It could be that you are there to reach people. It could be that you are there to serve as an example of true Christianity to your co-workers or customers. It could be that you are there so God can mold you into a better person. It could be that you are there to assist someone else in their quest to do the will of God. It could be that God wants you to see His glory and grace in a way you could not otherwise see—all because He loves you.

Are you a Noah building a boat to save a family? Are you a Joseph providing food for God’s chosen people? Are you an Esther who has come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Are you a Dorcas making life better and blessed for fellow believers? You may not know it yet, but something good is happening to you, to others around you, and to the Kingdom of God—all because you are working your job.

Blue Collar Christians zeroes in on those in blue collar jobs who often feel inferior to “white collar” workers. Society’s emphasis on a college education has created a negative attitude for workers in manual labor. “Blue-collar is a stereotype that refers to occupations involving physical labor or a skilled trade. While white-collar employees typically work in an office setting, blue-collar employees work in construction, manufacturing, mining, maintenance or other physically demanding roles.” www.indeed.com. This stereotype further implies that blue collar workers are less important, less worthy, or less powerful than their counterparts in the professional ranks.

Is the term “blue collar” obsolete? Adrienne M. Selko, of www.industryweek.com writes, “You are doing a great disservice to our industry,” he said, “by using the outdated term of blue collar. We are trying hard to attract the labor we need and using an outdated word that unfortunately conjures up images of undereducated, dirty, low paid, sweatshop jobs, is just not correct. These are high-tech jobs in clean environments, and we have to get that message out.”  Wrong. Free societies must reject a virtual caste system based upon job titles. Workers in undereducated, dirty, low paid, sweatshop jobs deserve as much respect and appreciation as do those who luxuriate in their cushy ivory towers. A community without people willing to do these jobs would be a miserable place to live.

As you read through these chapters, you will find multiple instances of situations that speak to you.  You will see yourself in other people who have the same job as yours, and in people who do different jobs but experience things to which you can relate. Not only will you be encouraged, but you will also find surprise meanings in the mundane events of life. Somewhere in your boring work-a-day world, you have an unexpected place in God’s economy.