11. The diseases of my soul can cause me to work in ways that are unhealthy.

(Before looking at the questions below, take a few minutes to think about this statement. Invite Jesus to speak to you about what He would like you to notice.) 

WHICH DISEASE OF THE SOUL ARE YOU MOST VULNERABLE TO?

THINK ABOUT PERSONAL HABITS YOU WOULD LIKE TO ELIMINATE. IS THERE ONE OF THE DISEASES OF THE SOUL THAT MIGHT BE CAUSING OR AT LEAST ENCOURAGING THIS HABIT?

WHEN YOU THINK OF YOUR WORK, ARE THERE WAYS YOU USE YOUR WORK THAT REVEAL AN UNDERLYING DISEASE?

We are born defective, fallen from our ultimate potential, and diseased. Although our value is not reduced by this, our ability to live well has been compromised. One way to work towards reclaiming our original potential is to seek healing for the diseases that create our limitations. We tend to notice the symptoms of our brokenness, but it is really the diseases causing this brokenness that are more important to be aware of and be healed from.

Four core diseases that tend to be found in every person, with varying intensity, are an unhealthy need for control, an unhealthy need for approval, an unhealthy need for security and an unhealthy need for pleasure. These four diseases often manifest their symptoms in our vocations. We might wrongly use our vocation to gain approval, control, security, or pleasure.

Those in vocational ministry sometimes use their ministry to try to gain God’s approval. Leaders in the secular vocations may be tempted to control those who work for them, to manipulate them and use them for their own good.

Workers may use their job to try to gain security, to make as much money as possible, to take advantage of the “system,” their employers. And the temptation to work to get the most out of life, to live for the weekends, to seek pleasure and self-indulgences is disease most people experience.

These misuses of our vocation are damaging to ourselves and to those we work with. They are hurtful to us in that they remove from us the freedom to live and work without expectations, without the outcomes that serve our disease, rather than our vocation. Working to satisfy our diseases creates stress, fatigue and eventually burnout.

Working to satisfy our diseases also brings damage to those we work with. They become objects or projects that serve our needs or promote our own interests, or disease. In the end, we will fail to experience meaningful relationships with others and find ourselves alone and tired.

These symptoms—stress, manipulation, worry, jealously, envy, pretending, hedonism, addictions, and pride—are all damaging to us and others. But working to suppress the symptom is not as helpful as identifying the disease that creates the symptom. Our work is a place where we can notice our diseases and invite Spirit’s healing of them.