Come to Me, All Ye Who Are Weary and Burdened, and I Will Give Ye...a 401K Match

Some thoughts regarding the "salvation" of corporate entities, what the Psalms have to say about idols, and who we ultimately find our rest in.

**painting above is “Rest from Work” by Vincent van Gogh.

If you walk into a Salesforce office in any major metro throughout the world (no seriously - they’re EVERYWHERE), you’ll quickly become inundated with the idea of the Salesforce Ohana. Perhaps you watched Disney’s Lilo & Stitch growing up - and so you know that Ohana, of course, means family.

Ohana as a kind of employment sales pitch is not unique to the Big Blue Cloud. As the Harvard Business Review noted a few years back, many companies fancy pitching themselves as “families” to prospective and current employees. But what happens when the family fires 1,000 of its kids?

Interestingly enough, the Church is another institution (albeit, a more ancient one) laying claim to the idea of Ohana. As Saint John wrote: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And so we are! (1 John 3:1). To participate in the body of Christ is to live as a sister or brother, a daughter or son; the Church has always operated with this understanding.

Yet - and we cannot kid ourselves in this regard - many non-Christians (and I suppose many Christians, too) are gravitating toward the idea of a corporation being the entity that is best-positioned to fill their familial longings. And why shouldn’t they? In many instances, companies provide employees three square meals a day; companies may offer comprehensive mental health services and a generous total rewards package; heck, some companies may even offer a religious prayer room in their office! Not to mention the allure (lifelong treadmill) of an employee stock-purchase plan, or the oft-dangled carrot of RSUs that will secure long-term financial stability for your family. Corporations are speaking to the fears and the restless longings of the modern heart, as if to say, “come to me, all ye who are weary and burdened, and I will give ye a 401K match.”

This isn’t so much meant to be a criticism of Marc Benioff, nor a self-righteous finger wag toward those who rightfully enjoy the common grace of God’s provision. This is meant to be an exhortation for the follower of Jesus to examine their own heart with this question:

"What do you ultimately find your rest in?”

Put bluntly: can a corporation really provide the kind of rest that you long for? Does your business (and its benefits) become your functional salvation? Should a company represent the kind of family that your soul truly needs?

We are tempted - greatly so - to believe the things that a corporate entity can offer supersede the “boundless riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8). We are tempted to believe that our jobs can secure salvific realities for our lives. This plays itself out in many ways, some obvious and some more covert. I won’t prescribe the specific scenarios, but you probably can brainstorm a handful of ways within the last week in which your company, your bonus, your boss, or your offer letter have become a functional savior.

Our hearts want what our companies often say they are offering: an opportunity to “be your whole self”, the elusive dream of “better balance”, a vision of life that sounds shinier/truer/more beautiful than our current state of affairs. And thus, we set our hearts on these things. As Saint Augustine suggests, we “disorder our desires.” In short, we make an idol out of our workplace.

But as John Stott summarized, “Idols are dead; God is living. Idols are false; God is true. Idols are many; God is one. Idols are visible and tangible; God is visible and intangible… Idols are creatures, the work of human hands; God is the Creator of the universe and of all humankind.” In other words, a company promising “to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11) is ultimately a false notion. Idols are dead. They cannot speak to our most significant longings, hopes, and pains. A company is inadequate to provide us the kind of rest that we long for, as much as it might like for you to believe otherwise.

And so we return to the question: what do you ultimately find your rest in?

I write this pastorally but also personally, knowing that I am quite susceptible to the same enticing proposition: that soul rest can be secured via a 401K match or a year-end bonus.

It’s precisely at this point that I have to counterpunch my wish-dreams and illusions with what the Scriptures withhold to be true regarding the fickle nature of an idol, and remind myself of where true rest can be located. Psalm 115 offers a corrective measure:

“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.”

You’re thinking, “OK - fair enough, and point taken.” My company can’t love me or provide me the kind of rest that I long for. There is some deeper kind of “soul rest” that I lack.

This is true and necessary to understand. Our souls need a more profound exhale beyond the dopamine hit that a commission check can offer. As Christians who work, we must be able to discern when we are getting caught up in “an idol of rest”, versus the true rest that we see in Psalm 116 (the very next poem in the Psalter!):

“Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (116:5-7).

“For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you”; true rest comes from knowledge of this glorious reality. God preserves you, God saves you, God has dealt bountifully with you. If we try to misplace the location of our rest in the list of benefits that a company bullet points on a LinkedIn job posting, we end up chasing a dead idol, inadequate to save us from our proverbial and actual Sheols.

So I suppose I’ll spell this out clearly, as Stott did:

A 401K match cannot give your soul the rest that it longs for. God can.

A signing bonus cannot give your soul the rest that it longs for. God can.

A positive affirmation from your boss cannot give your soul the rest that it longs for. God can.

No shard of notoriety, no extra “0” in your W2, no vision of becoming the semi-perfected and truest version of your self (yes - companies pitch this) can give you the rest you long for. These are inadequate to take what is dead (your soul) and bring it back to life, as much as hope they can.

But God can bring what is dead to life; what’s more, he already has brought what is dead back to life. And thus, the biblical witness states emphatically - “salvation belongs to our God” (Rev. 7:10), “the Lord alone makes us dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:8), “…for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Heb. 4:9-10), and “for God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation” (Ps. 62:1).

The location of your rest is Jesus, “the Lord of the Sabbath.” He exhaled his last breath on the cross so that you could inhale the fullness of life, and in doing so, experience a rest previously unimaginable. He has an easy yoke, and his burden is light - meaning, “the rest of Jesus” actually has the ability to shoulder the weight of your pain and fear in a way that the temporal nature of your career and the resources that it may provide cannot.

Today - a cold, drab, fretful Friday morning in February - I need “rest unimaginable.” I need an easy yoke and a light burden. I need to exhale knowing that “my life is hid with Christ on high.” Perhaps you do too.

And so, my friends, remember today: your company cannot bring about the salvation of God. It is wholly inadequate to bring you this kind of rest. May we be the kind of “family” that reminds one another of what is true in life.

But may we also be the kind of family that points one another to Jesus - the Lord of rest - who has already brought salvation to us. His offer stands freely on this Friday. Indeed, the burden is light.

Keep going.