Different people will have different needs but here are our top tips for supporting those looking for work.
1. Pray for them and with them.
God answers prayer. He loves to. So encourage job-seekers to express their trust in God by turning to him for their job needs and all their other needs.
2. Read the Bible with them
God’s truth is transformational. Helping people understand what the Bible says about work - and God’s sovereignty and love – can help get a right perspective on a desperately difficult time.... continue reading
No situation in life is without its opportunities. Not all circumstances are good but they can be used for good in the hands of our loving creator. So what good can come out of unemployment? You may well be able to add your own ideas but here are a few of mine:
Unemployment helps us understand Christ’s suffering better
All suffering gives us a glimpse into what Jesus endured. He was tempted in every way, he knew rejection, poverty, sacrifice, lack of physical security. And while our sacrifice can never come close to the ultimate sacrifice he made, it can give us a glimpse - it can help us understand just a little bit more of what our Saviour endured, and endured so sinlessly and silently, for us.... continue reading
Humans were designed to work. It’s part of the creation mandate. The call to tend the earth, rule over the created order is at the very core of what it means to be a person in God’s image (Genesis 1:26). And most of us know that. It feels ‘right’ deep within us to be active and productive in meaningful labour. When work is absent part of our raison d’etre disappears.
Unemployment hurts because it takes away part of our purpose.
But it’s more than that. Unemployment hurts because everything to do with work hurts – to a greater or lesser extent. The world of work is not easy. Not at the moment anyway. It may have been a joy for Adam to be set free in the Garden of Eden but we live post-fall. We have to live with the effects of God’s curse on his rebellious creation. And that means living in a world where work hurts. Just as Adam’s work moved from joy to thorns, pain and sweat (Genesis 3:17-19) so all aspects of work – its presence or absence – are inevitably difficult, broken and tainted.... continue reading
8%. Or thereabouts. That’s the percentage of people who are unemployed in the UK and US. In other countries it’s significantly worse – closer to 15% in Ireland and 25% in Greece and Spain. And so it’s likely, if not inevitable, that we all know someone who is struggling to find a job.
Being unemployed can be a dismal experience. There’s the waste of talents, the stigma of being ‘let go’, the social isolation of being away from colleagues, the worry that in some way you’re ‘not good enough’, the relentless application form filling, the repeated rejection letters and, of course, the ever present question of how to pay the bills, make ends meet. And it’s not just a personal experience, the whole family is affected – marriages feel the strain as couples get under each other’s feet, struggle to understand the pressures of looking for work, become snappy over money and live in fear of having to move somewhere smaller, somewhere cheaper, somewhere away from the people they get on with best.
But it is not an experience that is unusual in this fallen world. It is not a problem about which God is unaware. It is not something about which he does not care. And it is something in which our brothers and sisters can support us. So, over the next few days we are going to take a look at why being unemployed hurts. And encourage each other by reflecting on the opportunities it provides for growth – both within the individuals who are job-hunting and within the wider church.