21 May Monthly Practice: Finding God at Work

Growing up, when I had lost something, I would often ask my mum, “Have you seen my…?” She would then suggest some obvious place that I hadn’t looked; I would then trundle off to that location to duly find my missing item!

We oftentimes miss the work of God in our lives—sometimes in obvious places—because we don’t look. God is at work in our lives—that is the sure promise of Scripture; however, we need to cultivate the discipline of looking for him. I know that we don’t have 20-20 vision to see the ways in which God is working; and some of you with a theological bent will want to remind me of the fact that God’s paths are beyond tracing out (see Romans 11:33). Nonetheless, we are encouraged to look for God and his work in our lives.  As the Psalmist reminds us: “The LORD looks down from heaven on the human race to see if there are any who understand, any who seek after God” (Ps 14:2). 

As we continue to explore the theme of vocation and work in this edition of Common Ground, the following exercise encourages you to look for God in your places of work. In particular, this exercise encourages you to look for God in those moments in which you find satisfaction and joy in your work, alongside those moments in which your work is difficult and ambiguous.

This exercise is comprised of three movements: meditation on Scripture; reflection on some questions; and, finally, prayer. It will take 15-20 minutes to complete. We have also produced a worksheet to help you with this monthly practice, which you can print off by clicking on the image below.

(Image: Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash, CC Zero; Finding God at Work, Venn Foundation 2021)