Wake Up, Look Up

[Music]

hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question will our kids be

unemployed this comes from an article in

the Wall Street Journal about parents

who work in Tech Industries who are

increasingly wanting their kids to go

into anything other than technology

that's because uh they see the writing

on the wall from about 2009 to

2022 the amount of people getting a

degree and something related to

technology tripled it was a bit of a

boom you wanted to work with computers

you wanted to work with software you

wanted to work with technology because

those were the jobs that weren't just

popping up were're making good money and

after all the point of a job is to

provide for your family so people were

pursuing jobs in the tech industry

however in recent years especially with

the rise of artificial intelligence and

automation what people in work in Tech

are discovering is that increasingly it

takes one person to do what it used to

take three people to do meaning there

are a lot of people with those degrees

who are in danger now of losing their

job and then having having a hard time

finding a job now what happened during

this same time is while tech jobs were

booming and while Tech degrees were

booming uh blue collar jobs or jobs in

the Arts were declining uh you wanted to

work with computers you didn't

necessarily want to be a welder or an

art teacher but what people who work in

the tech industry are now encouraging

their kids to do is to find a job that

AI can't do so do become a plumber

because AI can't fix your toilet

probably it will never be able to do

become someone who teaches people how to

dance or how to sing or how to play the

piano because probably that will always

require a human it's a complete

inversion of where we were just 5 years

ago and it begs the question as

Christian parents how should we be

getting our kids to think about work and

about their future career in an economy

that can feel so Topsy ter should we be

raising welders or raising Engineers

well that makes me want to take you to

some biblical principles about work that

I hope you know for yourself but I also

hope you're able and willing to teach

your children here here's the first one

work is fundamentally about a calling

not just about making money uh

Colossians 3 says that everything we do

we should do as unto the Lord Our Lives

belong to God it's the same princi

principle we apply to giving what we

tell kids and we teach them about

generosity is everything we have belongs

to God so we give whatever he wants us

to give well we also belong to God our

work week our our hours spent at work

our skill our talent also belongs to God

we should be raising kids who are

discovering their god-given abilities

and even beginning to pray God what

career do you want for me what path do

you want me to go down finding our

confidence in the calling and

sovereignty of God and not in economic

Trends uh we also need to regain a

Theology of work which is that all work

is valuable because all work images God

in some way for the last 20 years I

think we've been pretty clear as a

culture that white color workers are

important and impressive and blue color

workers should have stayed in school

which blueco collar people think is

hilarious on their way to Growing their

own welding business or Plumbing

business we have to tell our kids all

work is valuable all work is done as

unto the Lord all work has meaning

because it's part of what God has

designed for humans to do so if we have

a kid who's great with her hands and she

wants to go into Plumbing we should be

celebrating that that's part of what it

means to Bear the image of God and the

software engineer isn't any more or less

like God than the the janitor of the

building where they work because order

structure cleanliness these are things

that God cares about ultimately the

point is we should root our thinking

about work and our moving towards work

in our understanding of God the Book of

Proverbs makes clear that if we look

inwardly for answers we are being

foolish but if we trust God we are being

wise we should also teach our kids that

God has modeled service and that our

careers are fundamentally about what we

do for other people not what we do for

ourselves have you had a conversation

with your kids about a Theology of work

the time is now to begin building that

help them discover who God's made them

to be help them pray about what God has

for them and then who cares if everybody

in your Social Circle is impressed by

what they're doing what matters is that

God is pleased and they are finding joy

in serving him and in serving others

will our kids be unemployed I sure hope

not but I think not if we trust God and

his plans for their lives hey thanks so

much for watching this episode of wake

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