The Great Resignation

When offices shuttered across the country in March 2020 and millions ofworkers submitted to mandatory stay-at-home orders, many employees were forced to work remotely. Overnight, organizations had to pivot to a virtual-first or virtual-only mode of operation.

In a matter of weeks, our kitchens and bedrooms became our offices. For some, the sudden shift meant more than bringing work into their home; it meant they wore the hats of professionals, schoolteachers, and caregivers all at once. For others, the time previously spent serving at church, dining out, attending concerts with friends, or sweating it out at the gym was suddenly freed up. Our lives became basically unrecognizable, triggering a widespread reevaluation ofthe role of work in our lives…and many have concluded that it really shouldn’t have one. People are simply leaving work behind in staggering numbers.

This extraordinary and unprecedented trend, chronicled by The New York Times over the past year in a series of articles entitled “The Great Resignation”, seems to be built on the implicit belief that work itself is wrong or a mistake…that humans can’t both flourish and work.

But this is entirely antithetical to the Biblical story, which insists that work is integral to a flourishing (and worship-filled) life.