If you work hard, good things will happen to you.
This makes sense, right? People who put in the effort and make the grade should be rewarded, while those who don’t should get less.
For Asian Americans, this meritocratic way of thinking is appealing and pervasive. Some of us come from Asian cultures that incorporate a civil service examination system in which doing well leads to pathways for a better future. Many of these countries continue to place huge importance on college entrance exams.
Our immigrant parents and grandparents believed that the quickest way to a more comfortable life would be higher education, and so they pushed us to study harder and participate in myriad activities that would help us gain acceptance to a prestigious university.
For those of us who struggled with school, we felt additional shame from our low scores and whenever our parents compared us to others who got into “better” colleges.
And when all of us reached adulthood, we still carried the residual elements of this belief that if we work harder, things will get better.
Now this isn’t to say we shouldn’t put effort into what we are doing. But I do want us to question why we are working so hard. Why do we take an extra shift that makes us miss Sunday worship? Why do we work late and skip community groups? Why do we go to a prestigious school that puts us into more debt while compromising regular offerings?
I believe it’s because we have bought into this idea that it’s only by working harder that our lives will get better. And this is true to an extent. We must show up to our jobs, study for our exams, and put in the effort to survive in this society. And yet we miss out on the fact that this world often does not work that way.
The Root of the Problem
The problem with meritocracy is that it does not exist in its pure form. In fact, we might say a pure meritocracy has never existed. It’s been proven that students who come from more affluent backgrounds will score higher on standardized tests, often because they had more resources. Worse, we’ve seen admission scandals that show how college acceptances can be even worse than a crapshoot: people are playing with loaded dice. In our workplaces, the job can go to a friend’s son or daughter, rather than the best candidate, leading to charges of nepotism.
There’s another dangerous side to thinking the world is a meritocracy. It can trick us into thinking that our life trajectories will always be going towards better and happier. So perhaps a person might take an extra job to pay for a nicer apartment, but he gets into a car accident and their savings are wiped out.
The world isn’t fair. There is no put in the hours and you’ll get the promotion. Just because you work hard doesn’t guarantee success and happiness.
As Christians, we shouldn’t be surprised by this. We know the world is corrupt. Sin has tainted this world so completely that when we work, it is often futile.
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.”
(Genesis 3:17-18)
In Eden, humans could work hard and also find rest in God. But after the Fall, humans could now work too hard at the expense of our rest in God.
The Solution to Meritocracy
So then why do we work so hard? The simple answer is that we don’t trust that God will provide. From there, we must look into our own hearts to see why that is. Is it because we think God does not truly love us and therefore will not give us good things? Perhaps we believe that God doesn’t truly know what we need. For others, we think that what we want is “worldly” and so God will never give it to us. Maybe we assume that we can only earn rewards and there’s no such thing as a free gift.
Whatever the specific reason, I hope and pray that we would all see that the only sure and good thing in this world is Jesus Christ. We can never be sure of where we will go to school, be employed, or live. But we can know that if we are part of Christ’s kingdom, then we have an inheritance that can never be taken away. Not only that, we realize that Christ did all the work on our behalf through his life, death, and resurrection. We simply need to accept and believe.
This is a radical idea for those of us who believe in meritocracy. We see that it was not our own hard work and efforts that saved us, but it was God’s mercy and the sacrifice of Christ. This reality can seem scary, especially for those who are afraid that God might not give us what we want. But we are comforted knowing we serve a God who is so good that he gave us His one and only son to save us. We do not have to work hard for our future — it has already been secured through the blood of the Lamb.
Why Then Should We Work?
We know the famous Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
But we often forget the next verse: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).
God has already prepared good works for us to do. The answer is neither to cease working nor work too hard. The solution is to do the work that God has called us to do. When we do this, we will find true joy, purpose, and yes, even rest.
So when we find ourselves working too hard, let us take time to pause and ask God: What are you calling me to do? When we overwork because we are afraid of our financial situation, let us first stop and pray to God about it. If we want to have nice things, let us not be afraid but with the boldness of a child who is fully assured of her position in the family, let us ask God. He may not give it to us, and yet perhaps he might.
Rather than turning to the world to provide us a nice wedding, a better workplace, a larger apartment, why not ask God? Because he may give it to us, as a generous father would or, through the prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, he may change our hearts and give us something that is different but still good — that is who our God is.
Let us not be consumed with meritocracy. Let us instead follow the example of Christ and trust in the will of God our father. He has already given us the best gift — his Son — and we are part of a family with the most generous father. Let us work, therefore, not to earn but out of the abundance of God’s lavish generosity. Let us learn how God can redeem work, not out of mistrust of him or reliance on self, but to do the work he has called us to do.