Great Resignation or Great Revelation?
God on Monday
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Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6.8).
Reflection
A survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers in August 2021 found that 65% of employees were looking for a new job. It suggests that we are undergoing a seismic shift, with workers re-evaluating their choices in the light of the pandemic. With many people looking to realign their work with their personal values, some employers and commentators are even anticipating a ‘great resignation’.
For many of us, the last two years have felt like Groundhog Day. Repeated lockdowns, border restrictions, working from home, home-schooling, and self-isolation have significantly changed our relationship with work. We have transitioned into smaller, pared-back lives with less freedom and excitement, and blurred work-life boundaries – or at least it often feels that way.
Isaiah’s calling also took place at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty. It followed the death of King Uzziah, who had been in power for 52 years, and had brought peace and prosperity to his nation. Isaiah’s willingness to serve God and to step up to his calling is impressive and inspiring, all the more so given the termoil around him. But it is important to note that this flowed from an intense revelation of the holiness of God: ‘I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne’. Worship led to repentance; repentance to forgiveness; forgiveness to action.
Like Isaiah, we too can find our calling through worship and repentance. For in Jesus we experience not a great resignation but a great revelation. That revelation causes us to fall at his feet in awe and wonder. Our lives and our work become a response to his forgiveness and love. All this gives our lives (including our working lives) a new song: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’
Response
Pandemic pandemonium provides an opportunity to revisit our own purpose and calling. Why do we do what we do? What fresh seeds have been sown in our lives during the last couple of years? To what new beginnings are we being led?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we ask for a fresh vision of your greatness and who you are. Renew our passion, purpose and pride in serving you. Inspire us and reveal your calling on our lives. Show us your plans for us and help us to step out in faith.
Next steps
You may like to look up the sources referred to in this reflection. For the results of the PWC survey, see here. An interview on the ‘Great Resignation’ with the economist Lawrence Katz is published here in The Harvard Gazette. For a recording of a recent Faith in Business Monthly online seminar entitled 'Digital meets Sustainability', at which the author of this reflection was a speaker, click here.
This Week's Author
Ravi Gidoomal, Director of EDGE Digital Manufacturing
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