Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

R. Paul Stevens is professor emeritus of marketplace theology and leadership at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Taking Your Soul to Work

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Foreword by Eugene H. Peterson.....................................................................................viiiIntroduction.......................................................................................................1PART ONE Nine Soul-Sapping Struggles in the Workplace: Introducing the Deadly Work Sins...........................111 Pride: Grasping Equality with God................................................................................152 Greed: The Desire for More.......................................................................................213 Lust: The Erotic Workplace.......................................................................................264 Gluttony: Excessive Consumption of Food..........................................................................325 Anger: The Burning Desire to Control.............................................................................386 Sloth: Pathological Busyness.....................................................................................447 Envy: The Pain of Another's Advancement..........................................................................508 Restlessness: The Desire to Run Away.............................................................................569 Boredom: Slow Death in the Workplace.............................................................................62PART TWO Nine Life-Giving Resources for Workplace Spirituality Introducing the Spirit's Fruit.....................6710 Joy: More Than Happiness at Work................................................................................7011 Goodness: Unselfconscious Giving................................................................................7512 Love: The Greatest Thing to Give and Receive....................................................................8113 Self-Control: Resolving the Work-Life Dilemma...................................................................8714 Gentleness: The Strength of Meekness............................................................................9315 Faithfulness: Workplace Integrity...............................................................................9916 Kindness: Putting Others at Ease................................................................................10517 Patience: Remaining Where You Are with Hope.....................................................................11118 Peace: Bringing Wholeness and Harmony...........................................................................116PART THREE Nine Fruits of Workplace Spirituality: Outcomes of a Spirit-Led Life...................................12119 Continuous Prayer...............................................................................................12320 Persistent Gratitude............................................................................................12821 Beautiful Purity................................................................................................13422 Joyful Relinquishment...........................................................................................13923 Surrendered Contentment.........................................................................................14424 Life-Giving Rhythms.............................................................................................15025 Neighbor-Love...................................................................................................15626 Vocational Confidence...........................................................................................16027 Practical Heavenly-Mindedness...................................................................................164Epilog.............................................................................................................169Notes..............................................................................................................174Bibliography.......................................................................................................183Index of Authors...................................................................................................191Index of Subjects..................................................................................................193Index of Scripture References......................................................................................198

Chapter One

Pride Joy Continuous Prayer Being imprisoned within Feeling the exhilaration Experiencing continuous your self as No. 1 of having God as No. 1 communion with God

AU It's good to take pride in a job well done. Or to take pride in the accomplishments of someone else. And yet we know that there's a dark side to pride. Paul, how do you see pride negatively affecting people when they work?

PS Pride makes you boast about being a self-made person. When things go well, you think you're the only one who did it. When things go bad, it's someone else's fault. You make extravagant promises. You set high expectations. But when things spiral out of control, you shift the blame elsewhere. You sincerely can't believe that all these people failed you. This happens at work all the time, Alvin.

AU I don't think people set out to be arrogant or blame-shifters. They don't make it a goal in life. And yet they turn out like that. What gives? PS Pride blinds us from seeing the reality of who we are. It inflates our ego, distorts our vision, and walls us off from God. So we lack God's perspective. We do not seek divine help. We try to stand at the center of the universe. We trust only ourselves.

AU So if we cannot trust God, then we think we have to control everything ourselves.

PS It's easy to recognize pride in other people, but much harder to recognize these symptoms in ourselves.

AU Sounds like if we don't admit we're tempted by pride, we may already have fallen into it.

Rethinking Pride

We meet two kinds of proud people in the workplace. The first type, Mr. Solo Flyer, takes all the credit for his accomplishments. His conceit makes him chronically incapable of recognizing how he has received help along the way, especially from the people he thinks of as below him. The second type is Ms. Insufferable, who projects arrogance, treats people with disdain, and makes you feel as if the five minutes she has given you are worth more than the latest stock tip from Warren Buffett. Mr. Solo Flyer and Ms. Insufferable consider themselves "superb" above all, which befits the Latin word for pride, superbia.

Biblical pride has a wide range of meanings. In its positive sense, pride is used to emphasize God's glory, excellence, and beauty. In contrast, when used of humanity, pride becomes distorted. It means attempting to appear above others, feeling conspicuous about one's self, being haughty and puffed up by self-conceit. Pride devises schemes to toy with the weak (Ps. 10:2). Pride makes us deceive ourselves (Obad. 3). The book of Proverbs, a manual for attaining wisdom, associates pride with arrogance, evil...