Job Description

After retirement, I started my own small business training other blind people how to use computers and phones. Prior to retirement, I worked for a State agency doing a similar job. When I began work at the Agency, I was given a job description. When I started my own company, I set out certain loose "rules" by which I ran the company. For example, I would not teach Macintosh computers--I had too little knowledge of them.

Working for oneself or for others requires clear guidelines about that work. Without these guidelines, wages, discipline, firing and a host of other related issues arise. Listed below are a few of these possible required parameters.

*When will the work take place?

*How much time is involved?

*What work will be performed?

*What is the minimum standard of performance?

* What is the consequence of not meeting the minimum standards?

*What product will be produced?

*Where will the work be done?

*How will the work be done?

*What remuneration will be given for the work?

In current US work policy law, these things are defined in a job description. Policy and Procedure manuals define, in ever-increasing detail, how the rules will be carried out in practice. Work requires a description. This is a key concept. If what I am doing requires a description, a definition, a concrete spelling out of terms, then it is work.

If, then, I find myself asking “What does God want me to do?” “Where does He want me to do it?” “When…How…How much?... ad infinitum," then I am attempting to place my salvation on a works basis. I am telling God that I will meet His demands and do them according to His standards and for His approval. I will, in essence, arrange an exchange between Him and me: For this, You will give me that.1

The Hebrew laws were given by God to demonstrate the impossibility of this arrangement. How does one know when she has lied, stolen, committed adultery? Jesus expanded Moses' laws when He said things like, "adultery is not just the physical act, it is lust;" "anger and hatred are murder;" "theft is coveting what belongs to another."

The Pharisees piled law on law for Sabbath-keeping in order to create a “job description” for this one work. They decided that carrying a handkerchief in the pocket required work to remove it, so they pinned their handkerchief to their clothing. They walked only a certain distance on the Sabbath. Dozens of laws were laid down to ensure correct Sabbath observance.

In my childhood, our family had an unwritten rule when we went to the beach on Sabbath. We could wade up to the ankles. That was the boundary of pleasure. I never asked, but probably should have, “What if a wave comes which is higher than my ankles? If I don’t avoid it, and it wets my jeans to the knees, will I be lost?” Absurdity on absurdity.

Faith, believing, trust and grace, require no such prescription. Trust is not doing but relationship. "I trust you," is the deepest commitment of one person to another. This is how He wants us to relate to Him. Trust is love in action. It encompasses and is required for all other layers of relationship.

Throw away the job descriptions and the policy manuals! Live in relationship. Live in trust. Live in grace.

2/26/15

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