What Is Work to You?

by Dr Leong Tien Fock

I have been asked to address the issue of "Christian career-mothers". But it will take a book to address it adequately. What I can do here is to analyze the concept of a "career-mother" (or "working-mother") from the Christian perspective.

God’s idea is for both the husband and wife to have economically productive work. And it is also His idea that both parents raise their children together. This was possible before industrialization, when people generally worked from home. The idea of a mother (or, for that matter, a father) working away from home is relatively recent. And the idea that the father goes out to make a living while the mother stays at home to raise their children is unbiblical. Neither is it biblical that both parents are so busy working that they have to leave their children with baby-sitters.

But in an industrial society, for most people, there seems to be no other option. Industrialization has created an economic environment that is most hostile to marriages and families. And the consequences are seen everywhere. Every married Christian needs to learn how best to minimize the harmful effects of this hostile environment on his or her marriage and family.

The first step is to understand the concept of a "career". There are a few ways to view our work or occupation. When work is viewed as a "job", it is seen as a means to make a living. This is mainly the view of those in the low-income group. It is also the view of middle-class wives who just want to be "financially independent". But for most professionals, their work is way beyond making a living. They view their occupation as their career. According to psychologist Roy Baumeister, a career "is a means of creating, defining, expressing, proving and glorifying self". This self-fulfillment often involves self-advancement in terms of money, power or prestige. So we pursue our career and do our job but we do not do our career and pursue our job. We say, "His career has taken off" but not "His job has taken off". We say, "She left her job for her children" but "She sacrificed her career for her children". You have a successful career, not a successful job. And so on.

Even Christians have taken it for granted that their occupation is their career. But one of the assumptions underlying the concept of a career is the view (mostly unconscious) that society, family and marriage exist solely for the benefit of the individual. Every individual has, therefore, the right to pursue his career as he sees fit. If his marriage or family suffers as a consequence, that is just too bad. This view is called individualism. Individualism assumes there is no God. It affirms that every individual has the sacred right to decide what is good for him. No God or Scripture is allowed to do that. No Christian will consciously accept this view.

Often career-mothers are blamed when families fall apart. But career-fathers also assume they have their individualistic right to pursue self-fulfillment even to the detriment of their marriage and family. No Christian — man or woman, married or single, with or without children — should view his occupation as a career.

The third way to view our work is to see it as a calling or vocation. This is the Christian view. Jesus has called every Christian to seek first God’s kingdom (Mt 6:33a). To seek God’s kingdom is to seek God’s will to be done on earth in and through every aspect of our lives (Mt 6:10). Since He has promised that all our material needs will then be taken care of (Mt 6:33b), our work in the marketplace is much more than a job to make a living. Neither should it be allowed to become a career. Rather, it is to fulfill our calling to seek God’s will to be done in and through our occupation. This includes not just meeting the "spiritual" but also the "secular" needs of society.

With this view of work, a parent who works in the marketplace will not seek self-fulfillment to the detriment of his or her marriage or family. God’s will is to be done in the occupation as well as in the marriage and the family. There can be no true fulfillment unless one’s occupation, marriage and family are all consistent with God’s will. This also means the homemaker’s work is not useless or meaningless. It is useless if work is viewed as a job to make a living — homemaking is usually unpaid work. It is meaningless if work is viewed as a career for self-fulfillment — homemaking usually means self-sacrifice rather than self-fulfillment.

But homemaking is both useful and meaningful if work is viewed as a calling. And motherhood is an important calling. It is still true that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. After our present Prime Minister was officially installed, the first thing he did was to visit his mother and seek her blessing.

So the term "career-mother" is loaded with assumptions. Even the term "working-mother" is not neutral. For it assumes that homemakers are not working. Unlike a lot of work in the marketplace, homemaking is indispensable. Without it, we cannot survive. If no one in the family is doing it, a maid has to be hired.

Thus, the term "Christian career-mothers" is self-contradictory. The Christian view of work — paid or unpaid — is that of a calling. To fulfill a calling is to serve a worthwhile cause. Career-people seek self-fulfillment. But there is no greater fulfillment than doing God’s will and serving God’s cause. It is very important to realize this. Otherwise, Christians and their marriages and families will suffer, to different degrees, the consequences of the hostile economic environment.

But the view that an occupation is a career is so prevalent among Christians that even those in "full-time Christian ministry" may treat their work as a means to power and prestige, if not to money as well.

Dr Leong Tien Fock is Research coordinator of Malaysia Campus Crusade for Christ.