by Mason Rutledge, President
As Loverboy sang in 1981, “Everybody’s working for the weekend” (All the best Christian business devotionals quote Mike Reno).
TGIF! Eight of ten people only go to work for the paycheck. They are only working to get to the weekend. “Just get to Friday.”
Many people view their job as a transaction. The worker does X or produces Y or sells Z in exchange receives compensation. A transitionary relationship with work provides pay but little to no other personal or phycological benefits. This is not terrible or “sin.” There are seasons when we are only working for the “doe, Rae, mee.” The times when you aren’t serving some higher purpose, you are simply getting the job done…and that is just fine.
To move from “Working for the Weekend” to working for more than a paycheck, your job must be transformational verse transactional.
A transformational job enables us to do what we are good at consistently. It puts us in an environment from which we can benefit and grow. As we grow, what we are good at is enhanced and therefore our ideal environment expands. It’s a loop that is discovered in healthy, transformational work roles.
Transactional work may be necessary at times, but it can also be dangerous. It is so easy to fall into a pattern with your transaction job, a pattern that is difficult to leave. Sometimes it is not the job, we just fall into a routine of working “transactionally” rather than “transformationally.” It leaves you “punching the clock” for years, rather than “Making a joyful work.” After a while, that goal of joy at work can fade into a distant, un-recognizable ideal.
The foundation of transformational work is built in principled bricks. Colossians 3:18-21 spells it out for us, based in our closest relationships. Serve our partners with sincerity. Submit to those in authority over us. Do not sour those we lead. These are the Transformation Blocks:
- Service with Sincerity
- Submit and
- Do not sour.
Proverbs says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friends, profuse are the kisses of an enemy” (Prov. 27:6). Transformed relationships, marked by acts of these “Transformation Blocks,” are they are evidence that one fully intends to love and lead as Jesus loved and led with sincerity.
A business that is transformational is not conformed to this world, but has been transformed by the renewal of minds and testing. As we lead, we discern what is the will of God, that good and acceptable and perfect plan (Rms. 12:2)
The first step to experiencing joy in your work is to see your work as more than just working for the weekend, working for a paycheck. It cannot be just a transaction.
Make your work transformational by building the “Transformation Blocks.” Look to serve people. Have a sincere spirit. Submit to your supervisors, customers, and clients. Do not sour those around you, but bring love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
This will move your TGIF to TGIM, “Thank God it’s Monday…I can’t wait to get to work.”
“Everybody’s Working for the Weekend,” but not you.
Questions for Refection
- Make two columns: “Transactional Work” and “Transformational Work.”
- Write down words in each that explain, enhance, expand your definition of the title. What does it look like for you to work Transactionally? What does Transformational work look like for you?
- Are there times that you must work Transactionally and why? And what are the times that you must think and work “Transformationally?
- Now consider, how do you work best? Where do you thrive?
- Serve with Sincerity, Submit and Do Not Sour. Where do you thrive? Which of these do you love to do? In which of these four do you struggle?
- What does God want to do in your work, life, heart, or mind to be more transformational in your business leadership?