God at Work: Live Each Day with Purpose by Ken Costa. Thomas Nelson. 208 pages. 2016 reprint edition
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In this book, Ken Costa shares what he has learned about doing his work for the Lord from his experiences gained while working more than forty years in finance. Throughout this helpful book he shares many stories – both his own and from others – that illustrate his points. He writes that he has found that the God who created and sustains the world is also the God of the workplace. He states that if the Christian faith is not relevant in the workplace, it is not relevant at all.
He asks what role Christians have to play in reasserting the values of Christ in our workplaces. He states that many work without joy in their work. One of his purposes for the book is to explore ways of recovering it.
He addresses the subject of love in the workplace, something that is not often spoken of. He states that love remains the key inheritance of faith and the missing jewel of happiness in the modern workplace. He hopes that the book will in a small way also help to recover the value and power of love at work.
The author states that all through the Bible, God is seen as a worker, and that just as God works, so each of us is made in order to work too. We are made in his image and God also commands us to work and to serve through our work.
He writes that people often portray church workers as being involved in sacred work, while he as a banker is involved in secular work. But he says that nothing could be further from the truth. He writes that we need to put away the view that there is a religious pecking order in God’s sight where bishops rank ahead of bankers and ordained clergy ahead of computer programmers. He states that Paul drew no distinction between hard spiritual work and hard work in the workplace. No, the apostle used the same words to discuss manual labor as he did apostolic service. The author states that the reality is that all jobs are equal.
He writes that perhaps the ultimate overarching purpose for work is to worship God in and through our work. We should be content from the knowledge that we are working for God in what he has called us to do. We should complete the task he has set for us and so to reflect Jesus in our God-given callings.
He writes a lot about the 2008-09 global financial crisis, and includes an appendix titled “The Moral Spirit in Light of the Financial Crisis”.