[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are reflections on Sunday's message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/messages-media]
The summer after I graduated from college, I had a part-time
job that filled 20 hours of my week. Most of the rest of my time was spent
sleeping, reading, or watching TV. It was not my finest time of life.
Up until that point, my identity had been that of “Student,”
and I was comfortable with it. The Christian schools I attended did a good job
of reminding us that being a student was work,
and as such, we should approach it as a way to bring honor to God in the
way that we learned and studied. Once that goal was gone, my 20 hours of work a
week didn’t feel like much, and I was at a loss as to what to do with all my
time (besides applying for jobs I was grossly underqualified for). I had lost
sight of the fact that God cares about all
of our work, whether physical, spiritual, or emotional work, whether it
takes place in a classroom, an office, a living room, a backyard, or anywhere
else.
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| Photo Credit: Flickr User Brick Wares, Creative Commons |
We often get caught up in thinking God cares very much about
what kind of work we’re doing. Sure,
he likes it when students study hard, he likes people who work at churches and
nonprofits, and he likes when parents read their kids Bible stories. But
accounting or scooping ice cream? Filling out job applications and not getting
call backs? Sometimes it feels like God probably doesn’t care much about those
things.
I love the way The Message translation words Galatians 6:4-5
(emphasis added): “Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you
have been given, and then sink yourself
into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with
others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.”
We don’t all have the same work to do, but God cares about all the kinds—from the unglamorous tasks
like cleaning bathrooms and taking the trash out, to moments that have glimpses
of weightier purpose, like reading a bedtime story or bringing a meal to a sick
friend. It might be the emotional work of having a difficult conversation, or
spiritual work of making sure we’re regularly connecting with God and a
Christian community. In God’s eyes, all of this work matters. Each kind is different, but significant in its
own way. He cares much less about the kind
of work we do than how we do it.
The book of Proverbs warns us to not be like the sluggard
who sits around all day, but to be like the ant who works diligently and
prepares for what’s to come. Neglecting or refusing to work comes with very
real consequences, whether it’s physically in the form of lack or resources, or
spiritually or emotionally in the form of broken relationships or bad
decisions. Full-time jobs are great for some people, but they’re not the only way
of glorifying God through work.
Whether we recognize it or not, everyday moments of work are
ripe with possibility to be holy moments. God’s grace is woven through all that
we do. If I could redo the summer after I graduated from college, I would find
much better, more productive things to do with my time—whether through
volunteering, writing, or the messy work of thinking through how God made me
and what that means for his calling on my life. Instead of allowing ourselves
to become sluggards, any of those options and so many more can become powerful
ways of glorifying God through our good work.
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