Tabriai and Terrell are touching on something very fundamental: “aligning” our behavior with our core values. When we don’t do this, we certainly do feel
uncomfortable with ourselves. Conversely, when we do this, we have a sense of satisfaction. This is true whether it’s in the
context of the workplace or anywhere else. And, as Tabriai and Terrell point out, the feelings of satisfaction that come when our values and our behavior
are in alignment “contribute significantly to how well we perform and our sense of meaning.”
So what happens when a person’s a line of work constantly
rubs against his or her deeply held values? If the “rub” is big enough, it may
require a change of location. That is, a different job. A follower of Christ who
is making a living through the propagation of pornography, should be uncomfortable.
But I suspect most of the readers of this blog are not
dealing with that degree of misalignment. For most followers of Christ who suffer
from a lack of alignment between their everyday work and their inner values,
the issues are much more subtle. I am of the opinion that many followers of
Christ who lack fulfillment and deep meaning in their everyday work are in this
condition not because their job is in
need of adjustment, but because their ideas about work
itself are in need of adjustment.
I once interviewed a high-level executive in a famous worldwide
company who told me, “We don’t find meaning
in our work, we bring meaning to our
work.” These profound words came from the lips of Bonnie Wurzbacher, then Senior Vice President of Global Accounts for The
Coca-Cola Company, who, as a follower of Christ, learned to bring meaning to her work with The Coca-Cola Company by seeing how this work “fulfilled and advanced God’s purposes for
the world.”
The Coca-Cola Company? Was she joking?
Not at all. I’ll pick up from here next week.