By Barbra Mirembe

Never in my wildest thoughts did I ever imagine that work would be a place for me to learn to be more like Christ.

My job has given context to probably one of the most dangerous prayers I have ever prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”—Psalm 139:23. 

Photo: Barbra Mirembe

In my work as a financial analyst, I have seen God indeed search my heart and know my thoughts.

Included in this revelation has been the realization that God knows the intentions and motivations behind what I do even before I do it. One of those areas is my love for convenience and comfort, even at work.

In my job, this has looked like a desire to often have it my way or take the simpler road, two idols God has continually confronted.

Convenience and comfort have also often influenced how I interact with my workmates outside work. During coffee breaks in the cafeteria, for example. I like to think I am an introvert, often waiting to be approached, rather than proactively engaging, another bubble God has been eager to burst.

Eventually, I have been “forced” to interact with workmates across all life situations, many non-Christians. 

Yet every time I’ve been tempted to “chicken out” from engaging them, I’ve been reminded of Jesus’ challenge to his disciples in Matthew 5 when he compared them to ‘pagans’ for treating non-believers differently.

The easy thing for an introvert like me is to always and only mind my business. A habit I now find contrary to scripture, an attitude that wouldn’t differentiate me from the world.

Yet through my work, God has sown a seed of discomfort by placing me in situations that require a lot of interaction, which has inevitably compelled me to demonstrate Christ through my conversations, caring more than I am comfortable, “turning the other cheek,” and putting the needs of others above mine.

In 1 Peter 2:18, Peter calls out believing laborers to obey their ungodly masters. This has been a hard one for me to swallow, given the often forgotten, unreasonable, and unfair instructions. Instead, I have cultivated a new attitude: do whatever tasks I am given before the audience of God first, and in the event my work is criticized, accept correction and improve my stewardship.

On other days, refinement through work has looked like God working through my weaknesses so that I can realize who deserves the credit. Many times, I have been assigned tasks that require more than I can offer. Such moments have put me in a place of humility before my bosses most times, desperately approaching God for strength to accomplish.

Other times, my weaknesses have been revealed in how I behave when things do not go my way, training me in long suffering, resilience, and, most importantly, yielding in me the fruit of the spirit.

While I am still a work in progress, the encouragement from God’s word is that I can approach him in my weakness because it is in my weakness that his strength is made perfect (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

And my work, therefore, is often the main context for that kind of exposure and affirmation. Praise be to God. 

The writer is a financial analyst with American Tower Uganda and is part of the Bugolobi Faith and Work Cohort.