We who are called to imitate Christ should live out our lives as a sign, an example pointing to the way things could be in every aspect of our lives. Because we celebrate human creativity as evidence of our being made in the Creator’s likeness, Christians must encourage one another to do work worthy of our best efforts and worthy of our high calling. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men (Col. 3:23).”

There is a website called Despair, Inc. which makes fun of the signs and motivational posters that adorn the walls of so many offices. My favorite is one that shows a picture of a sinking ship. Under the picture the caption reads, “It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.”
All kidding aside, what does the purpose of your life at work tell other people?
In his book Aspects of Christian Social Ethics, Carl Henry writes,
According to the Scriptural perspective, work becomes a way station of spiritual witness and service, a daily traveled bridge between theology and social ethics. In other words, work for the believer is a sacred stewardship, and in fulfilling his job he will either accredit or violate the Christian witness.
Believers can and should think differently from everyone else in our culture about all aspects of life, especially work.
Jesus’ Miracles as Signposts
Is your life, what you do on a daily basis (especially your life at work), a signpost pointing to the way things could be?
In Mark 1:15, Jesus declares, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” During his life on earth, Jesus’ miracles revealed his divine nature and announced his kingdom. 
In John 2:11, the apostle called Jesus’ miracles “signs,”
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
During his ministry on earth, Jesus healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and fed the five thousand. But did Jesus heal everyone that was sick, and did he feed everyone that was hungry?
No, he did not.
Could he have?
Of course. As the son of God, he could have done anything he wanted to do.
Then why didn’t he?
Theologians suggest that Jesus was demonstrating his power and authority in these signs and wonders. This is correct, but there is another reason, too.
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It is clear that scripture calls us to a higher standard in setting goals. The goals we set as Christians must be in accordance with God’s will and under his leadership. So, in James 4, James is not saying that we should not set goals. What he is saying is that we should set goals and make plans as God leads, but hold them loosely: “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that’” (Jam. 4:15). Herein lies the balance of the Christian life: although Paul set Christ-centered goals and developed specific plans to achieve them, he was also sensitive to the Lord altering his plans.

If you knew without a doubt that you could not fail in accomplishing one major goal, what goal would you set for your life?
I have heard this question for years in business circles when the subject of goal-setting comes up. It’s also one I think about between Christmas and the new year as I pray and think through what God wants me to accomplish in the coming year.
For those who have put their trust in the Lord, maybe a better question is, “Should we as Christians set goals?”
Over the years, I have heard many answers to that question. In the recent past, the answer from the church has usually been “no.” I have heard sermons expounding the dangers of fleshly zeal tied to spiritual goals. James is often quoted to support this argument:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (Jam. 4:13-15 ESV)
Yet today if you google the question, “Should we as Christians set goals?” the search yields about 159,000,000 results, many of which provide detailed instruction on how to make your goals a reality.
Two Ways to Look at Setting Goals
With goal-setting, like many issues, it’s easy to fall into two dangerous extremes.
The first extreme is to choose not to have any goals or plans. These people aim at nothing and hit it with amazing consistency. They claim to always want to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, who they suggest only leads people in a spontaneous way. Although this may seem spiritual, they are not really using their God-given intellect to set good goals, plans, and decisions.
The second extreme is when people develop such rigid goals and plans that there is no room for the daily guidance of the Holy Spirit.
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We work not to prove ourselves to God or attempt to earn our salvation. Our motivation to obey God is out of love for him and in gratitude for what he has done for us in Jesus Christ. Faithfulness is the key to living the Christian life, and nowhere is that more important than in the work we do.

The Bible gives us many rich resources to help us understand how to reweave shalom. One is found in the book of Daniel as four young Hebrew exiles, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah follow Jeremiah’s call to “work for the peace and prosperity (shalom) of the city” (Jer. 29:7, NLT)
Daniel 1 introduces us to a type of Christian activism demonstrated through cultural resistance. Daniel provides a model of how to reweave shalom as an exile. This idea is repeated throughout the book of Daniel, which is written for the people of God living in a world opposed to them. Daniel refused to succumb and take a first step toward the abandonment of his faith. At the same time, he works in the culture with a high level of competence.
Daniel was determined not to assimilate into the Babylonian culture when it was possible for him to actively resist. J. Ligon Duncan notes that Daniel’s resistance illustrates three principles that apply to all of God’s people who are struggling to be faithful in the midst of a godless culture:

Daniel “purposes in his heart” (Dan. 1:8) to be holy and not be absorbed into the idolatry of the Babylonian culture.
Daniel does not carry out his resistance in an arrogant way but exercises his opposition with genuine humility and grace.
Daniel exhibits faith, trusting in the power and promises of God and expecting God to respond to his faithful obedience.

Daniel’s story can significantly help us in our struggles as believers in our current post-Christian culture. It provides the model for faithfulness to God’s call on our lives—no matter what the environment. How do we imagine reweaving shalom through the work of our hands in a culture that is becoming more and more hostile to Christianity? Like Daniel and his friends, how do we reweave shalom and persevere with excellence and faithful obedience?
Perseverance with Excellence
Daniel’s example first calls us to perseverance. His message is: Don’t give up, continue to resist the temptations of the culture while being obedient to what you know God has called you to do, to the best of your ability. There are two critical issues for us to consider as we strive to persevere: Everything is important to God, and we are called to excellence. Let us look at these two issues in more detail.
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Restoration is a time when Christ will wipe every tear from every eye; “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” It is there that the work of redemption will be complete. Shalom will be completely restored.

Previously, we have discussed God’s original creative vision for shalom in community and how the fall distorted that vision. Today, we’ll examine how redemption, the third chapter of the four-chapter gospel, gives us a glimpse of the way things could or should be.
Redemption—Grace and a Taste of Shalom
After the fall, God did not abandon his creation and the human race. He did not leave us to die in the sin and misery that resulted from Adam’s original rebellion. Instead, out of his great love and mercy, God delivered his people from sin and brought them into salvation by grace through faith, administered by his son Jesus Christ. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, ESV). In our sin and wretchedness, we deserve death—the penalty for our sin—but instead, God graciously gave us the free gift of eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ (Rom. 6:23).
Although we walked away from God, he still wants to bring us back to himself and restore shalom. Redemption is necessary to prepare for the full restoration of shalom, which was always God’s intention for his creation. In this redemption chapter of the four-part gospel, we often refer to shalom as flourishing. But we do not experience the fullness of shalom that awaits the return of Christ at the end of this age. And although we have received the fullness of salvation, we still live in a fallen world. We are still exposed to and suffer from the pain and heartbreak of the sin around us. As believers, we long for the return of Christ to finish the work he started two thousand years ago and consummate his kingdom.
Already, But Not Yet
Theologians call this reality the “already/not yet.” In a sense, it is the overlap of two ages: the present age of sin and death established at the fall and the coming age of Christ’s comprehensive reign. It is the “age to come” breaking into the present age. During Jesus’ time here on earth, he established his kingdom through his life, death, and resurrection (Mark 1:15; Matt. 12:28; Luke 17:20–21).
This “already/not yet” distinction helps us make sense of the Bible. The “already” refers to things like my salvation that are already true, while the “not yet” points to things like my sanctification that is not yet fully realized. There are many other instances of these apparent contradictions in scripture that are explained by understanding the “already/not yet” distinction.
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