Following Jesus isn’t just something we do on Sunday mornings by going to church. Our Risen Lord lays claim to every moment of every day, including the time we spend at work. We hope these testimonies of how the gospel impacts the workplace strengthens your anticipation for experiencing God in your own vocation. Check out Elmer Monroy’s story below.

How do you react when you’re in a position of authority and there’s opportunity for unjust gain? Up until 2 years ago I took the opportunity to gain in an unjust way. One of the responsibilities of being a foreman on a construction job site is managing timesheets. Something that I learned from a previous foreman was that it is okay to write eight hours of work down even if you left early on the weekend. So I took that and never questioned it.

I accepted Christ about four years ago and over time I knew that what I was doing was wrong. God worked in my heart little by little to stop lying on my timesheet. So here comes the hard part. Do I just turn the page, or do I confess what I’ve been doing for the last 4 to 5 years? It continued to bug me. I would listen to a sermon and it’s all that stood out. I would read scripture and it would poke at my heart. I spoke to a brother in Christ and he told me to be careful because this is something that I could lose my job over.

As my conviction grew I knew what God expected of me, so I told him, “Okay, God, my boss is a busy man, if you want me to speak to him make the time.” One hour later my boss called me and told me to come into the office. I was nervous, and as I sat down he said, “Elmer, I need to speak to you.” I said, “That’s funny, I need to speak to you too.” He told me to go first and I proceeded to tell him about the unjust gain, and probably the thousands of dollars that I had stolen due to rounding up time. There was a pause, then he looked me square in the eye and said, “You know I could fire you for this right?” I said, “I know, that was an outcome in my head.” My boss continued on to say that many people wouldn’t do what I did, then thanked me for my honesty. Then I asked him, “Well, what did you want to speak to me about?” He told me, “Elmer, I wanted to give you a two dollar raise, and that still stands.”

Integrity is something that God constantly wants to work in my heart. My prayer is that he breaks me until I do the right thing for His glory. What will you do when nobody else is looking?

The Gospel and Work: Elmer Monroy