Could it be that the real question underneath “What do you do?” is “What value have you?”
Two-thirds of the Malaysian workforce reported experiencing burnout in 2024 (Source: 2024 Wellness at Work Report by Employment Hero). And what a love-hate relationship we have with work! People burn out from their work, but feel aimless without it.
We can’t live without it, but can’t stand it. But I believe God wants us to know the joy of what it means to ‘work from rest’, and not only to ‘rest from work’.
Your work matters to God
Work existed before the fall. Work is not a consequence of sin, or a punishment for sin, or what you do because you got kicked out of paradise. In Genesis 2, we see that work is what you were given in paradise. It’s part of what it means to be fully human, to be made in the image of a God who Himself works.
I love the story of Brother Lawrence, a 17th century monk, who was assigned to the monastery kitchen. And there, for over thirty years, his daily life consisted of peeling endless mountains of potatoes, scrubbing pots and pans, and washing floors. But one day, he decided that he would do every single task, no matter how small, purely out of love for God. For Brother Lawrence, it’s not what we do that makes our work sacred. It’s for we do it for, that makes our work sacred.
What if I told you that your Excel spreadsheets can be a way of giving worship to God like your raised hands in church? To the Christian, there is no work and faith separation, no sacred secular divide. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23, NIV).
Your God matters to work
You may be wondering, “If my work has value, why do I hate it so much?” Tim Keller explains the toil that comes with our work as the “work underneath the work”. On the surface, you may be doing the physical and mental tasks of your work. But there’s a work underneath that: the emotional toil and effort you’re making to prove something, to find your place in the world, to be someone, to feel significant. And the thing that burns us out is not really the surface work, but always the work underneath.
But there is a better way: rest underneath the work. This is not a rest from work, but a rest in work.
Your rest comes from God
Rest, in the biblical understanding, is not escape from work but avoidance of idolatry. It is an act of trust and surrender. To rest is to say “I am not God, the world does not depend on me, and I can stop to enjoy the fruit of my labour.” Rest, in other words, is less about “me time” and more about “God’s time”. He gives you rest, because He is good, because the world won’t fall apart without you.
So I wonder, what is God speaking to you today? Is He calling you to good work, to take God with you to your work? To shine the light of God in the dark corners of your work? Or to receive His rest, in an endless churn of work, underneath the work: to prove yourself, to feel special, to find love – when He already has given you His love?
At the beginning of the Bible, God is revealed as the creator of the garden, the divine gardener. At His resurrection, the creator of the garden was mistaken as a gardener at the tomb. Jesus was the carpenter by trade who died on a wooden cross for us. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the One who does His Father’s work. And He can redeem our work and rest.
Reverend Abel Cheah is the vicar of Holy Trinity Bukit Bintang (HTBB), an Anglican church in Kuala Lumpur.