Are You Doing Hard Things At Work?

I cringed as I went to answer the phone at work for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Customers had been anything but easy on this particular afternoon, and I was way past ready to go home.

Masking my frustration with a smile, I greeted the customer on the phone. Ugh. This was an especially difficult customer.

No matter where you work, you’re bound to have days like this.

When I think about work, it’s easy to put it into a category of my life that’s separate from everything else. I have my family life, my friends, my ministry, and then there’s work.

Doing hard things? Well, I can think of that in regards to loving and serving my family even when I would rather not. Forgiving a friend who hurt me can be a hard thing I do in relationships. If I raise money for a cause I believe in or I publish a book to inspire young people, then I classify those as my hard things.

But work?

Well, I don’t really think of doing hard things there. I go to work, I come home, and then I can do all my hard things after, right?

Jobs vary in hours, but even if you just have a part-time job, you’re guaranteed to be spending a good amount of your week there. When I started adding up all of the hours I spend at my job in just a week, I began to challenge myself with this question:

What if I started using all of those hours in my week at work to do hard things?

For me that looked like “going the extra mile” to help a customer find exactly what they were looking for. It looked like chatting for a few extra minutes with a customer who seemed lonely. It looked like giving random compliments out to every customer to make them feel valued and noticed. And maybe especially it looked like smiling and showing extra love to the customers who made it the most difficult.

I don’t know what kind of job you have or what kind of work you do. Maybe you’re not even old enough quite yet to have a job. But I want to challenge you to remember that doing hard things doesn’t end when you clock into your work shift.

Whenever I am tempted to leave hard things out of my work, I am challenged by Colossians 3:23. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”

Serve your customers at work as you would serve Jesus. That really puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? You may not always feel like it and it’s certainly going to be a hard thing, but at the end it’ll be worth it because you clocked out of work having shown everyone you came in contact with more about the love of Jesus.

How are you doing hard things at your job today?