I’m reading a book about sales, and it is really, really boring. Full of flow charts, acronyms, and points beginning with the same alphabetical letter, it is the stereotypical business book. But what really tops off the business book stereotype is how impersonal it makes business– it’s a bunch of meaningless words that dehumanizes the marketplace—the real world marketplace is very human.
I’m reading the book as part of larger reflections “how to” make more sales and to do my job better. Of course, I want to make more money, but there’s more to it. We spend the majority of our waking lives at work. We largely identify ourselves by our occupation, and many of our hopes, dreams, and ambitions are wrapped up in what we do. We are Christ’s ambassadors at all times, especially in the marketplace, and we either represent him in restoring the Garden or make the Jungle even more wild.
It’s definitely a jungle out there. It’s dog eat dog– what have you done for me lately– liars, lawyers, cheats. It’s often a godless place. As such, it’s often difficult to follow the Golden Rule, it’s easy to slip into business jargon mode, revert to soulless acronym and charts, and only focus on making a couple bucks. It’s easy to stop viewing clients as people whom God has placed in our lives to serve. One of the few business jargon phrases that’s refreshingly human is “providing customer service,” and Christ says that true success only comes through being servants. “The greatest among you will be your servant” (Matthew 23:11).
This Jungle is exactly why God states that our work is a higher calling. “Whatever you do, do it with all your might, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23). Therefore, our work is service, and because we serve God the quality of our work and ethics employed in it are unconditional. It doesn’t matter how good or bad our job is, it doesn’t matter what our boss is like, it doesn’t matter how rude a customer is. We are always performing our best for the Lord, and insofar as those in the workplace might only know God by what they see in us, we must impress in the workplace to be worthy ambassadors of the Kingdom. The better our work, the more the Lord is glorified. The kinder we are, the more the Lord is glorified. The higher our ethics, the more the Lord is glorified. Our motive ultimately becomes love for God, not fear of our boss.
This is liberating. Remember, Paul was writing during the Roman Empire. There was no American dream, social ladders were mostly nonexistent, most were oppressed, and many were slaves. God’s grace liberates soul and mind, and we exercise our freedom to serve God no matter what our circumstances. Paul also says, “I will be mastered by nothing” (I Corinthians 6:12). We are not bound to the “what have you done for me lately” world. We choose to serve God at all times at our work, as sinners saved by grace, who choose to serve him with all our hearts. As my high school teacher used to say, “We are set free to serve.”
A few months ago, I was on vacation, and because things were really rough at work I was praying about looking for a new career. Basically, I was so discouraged about the low level of ethics and professionalism surrounding me I couldn’t summon the motivation to get up and go work any longer. Frankly, I was feeling sorry for myself. Paul’s words came alive to me in the Ministry of Reconciliation.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (II Corinthians 5:16-20).
If my job is just about me– not about God, not about serving others, not about being an ambassador– then no wonder it degenerates into feeling sorry about myself. My whole life’s spiritual objective is to be reconciled unto Christ and reconcile others unto him.
My day job is to make sales, to bring two parties together in a deal. As a real estate broker who leases office parks, a business moves out, the landlord hires me to find a new business to make his park full again. I implore prospective tenants on the landlord’s behalf to join the office park. I facilitate the deal, a need is met, and in a sense the parties are reconciled– the park is made hole again when the new business opens.
This perspective makes me excited to serve my clients to the best of my ability. It motivates me. It makes me the type of broker people want to hire and who people want to buy from. Ultimately, this is what most of the acronyms, big words, flow charts, and boring cliches in the sales book are trying to show me. I’m not just trying to generate a commission, filling offices becomes part of my life’s mission. I’m driven to be the best real estate broker in the business because I’m not just a salesman, I’m a minister of reconciliation. I’m not just leasing an office park, I’m building the Kingdom.