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| Share Agape for the week of June 30, 2003 |
| As If Working For The Lord Colossians 3: 17�25 �And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him� Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.� How many of you have ever had a job you simply and utterly loathed? If you�re anything like me, you�ve had way too many! But this passage of the Bible commands us to tackle even those jobs we loathe as if we were doing them specifically for the Lord. What an amazing message. Work isn�t merely something you do for yourself or your family, as the world would have us believe. Work is something you do to please and serve God! That means years ago when I was calling people�s homes and asking them to do polls�at dinner time, of course�I should have been doing it with a light heart, instead of a heavy one. That means years ago when I was the manager of a fabric store and I had belligerent customers who clearly didn�t appreciate my efforts for them, I should have been putting out that much more effort. That means today when I just can�t stand the thought of going to work, I should thank the Lord that I have work, lighten my heart, and do the very best I can. The slogan for this passage isn�t merely �Just Do It,� it�s �Just Do It RIGHT.� Put your all into it. Don�t try to impress people with what you do. Don�t work your behind off to show what a great person you are. Don�t do whatever you do in order to be popular or have friends. Keep your work in perspective, don�t let it take over your life�but go at it knowing that you�re working for God. Yet I don�t think this passage only applies to the way you earn your living. It also applies to all your relationships, to all your creativity, to all your chores�even to all your leisure time. Whatever you do. Some folks stand around and wait for God to bellow out: �Child, go and do this!� Yet God tells us not to stand around and wait, but to tackle every day life �for Him.� The opportunity to serve God isn�t something you need to wait for. The opportunity to serve the Lord is here, each and every day, even in the mundane things of our life. I think there�s another way to look at this passage, too. While it�s good that you�re working with the Boy Scouts, or teaching a Bible Study class, or serving food in a shelter, or being an attentive nurse, or whatever�unless you�re doing it with a willing heart, cheerfully serving the Lord, you aren�t fully following God�s commands. It�s less about the thing we�re doing than it is about our attitude. �Whatever we do� is a way of worshipping God, as well as a way of allowing Him to use us to accomplish things on earth. A famous example of this is a fellow who became known in the 16th century as Brother Laurence. He didn�t have very exciting work to do when he became a monk. He didn�t copy Bibles, or nurse the ill, or any of the other, more romantic things a 16th century monk might do. No, he worked in the kitchen. It was grunt work: hot, time consuming, difficult, and not something he wanted to do at all. But Laurence came to appreciate this �grunt work� as something he was doing not just for his fellow monks�but for God. He later called it �practicing the presence of God.� And that, I think, is what this week�s passage is all about. Our work�whether it�s as fun as spending time at our favorite hobby or as difficult as our �nightmare job��is a golden opportunity to serve God and revel in His presence. Which brings me to this week�s recommendation�a brief article titled �What Does My Creator Think of Me?� It�s an excellent reminder for us all; you can read it at: http://www.creationevidence.org/what_does_creator/salvation_eng.html MORE ~~~> |
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