Work. Day in and day out, repeatedly doing what someone else wants so that we can earn our bread and butter. Watching the clock tick by as work proves fruitful only with much toil and labor. The words ?Seek ye first the kingdom of God? may resonate in our minds but we may see it as something you do on Sunday or before work then the rest of the week is devoted to this perceived monotony.
I think of Peter and the disciples who have been through the most intensive experience in their lives. After three and a half years they witnessed the arrest, torture and crucifixion of the one they considered Messiah. They were astounded at the fact of the open tomb, the reports of the women and finally the very appearance of their Lord?alive and well! They must have thought it was the End of Days right then and there when they saw the very dead walking about and the Son of God with power made evident by the resurrection.
The silence of these emotionally drawn disciples broken by Peter saying ?I?m going fishing.? I?m going back to work. I don?t know what else to do. I mean, I have an idea, but I gotta do what?s normal to me. What I do by rote knowing those dangers and not what all this means?not now. His co-workers agree and they go out that night to fish?catching nothing (John 21:2-3).
It?s like that sometimes, isn?t it? You have an idea that as a Christian you should be doing ?something?but you?re not quite sure what. Or if you are sure, maybe you find yourself spending time doing everything else and ignoring what you?re sure of. Even when you?re at work not seeing the point of it, like Pete, Thomas, John, James and Nathanael. Toiling all day and for what? Nothing?
No, so the Lord could draw near in the very midst of it. There in the busy-ness of everyday life, the Lord Jesus drew near to His disciples and told them where they should be looking to make the most of their work. It was only after He told them where they should be looking that they caught so many fish that their nets barely supported it (John 21:4-6).
Paul tells servants to obey their masters and to do their work as unto the Lord. I admit that I have a hard time with this?I?m not Super Christian and I feel it every time my brows furrow at the workplace. How are we supposed to do it? Paul would even tell us to have this same humble mind as Christ!
Perhaps it?s those times in our everyday work where we should consider Christ, looking over His life and all that He did in perfecting His ministry. To become the perfect High Priest he learned obedience in His suffering (Heb 5:8)?and not only the suffering on the Cross.
We could survey the life of Christ and see Him learning obedience under various situations. One being the heated temptation of Satan (Matt 4:1-11). Jesus suffered hunger, and there was nothing wrong with that, and yet He was not to go off and make stones into bread at Satan?s beck and call. He suffered as He remained true to what the Lord wanted of Him. Not learning how to obey?that He knew?but learning obedience. The fiery trial by one who never submits to temptation because He is willingly obedient to the Father.
Another being His prayer in the Gethsemane, asking the Father to have this cup pass by Him but not His will but God?s will be done (Luke 22:41-46). Such intense suffering to the point that His sweat like great drops of blood, dropped off of Him. Maybe His arrest in the Garden could be considered where He could have summoned twelve legions of angels (and the Father would gladly send them) but then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled (Matt 26:52-54)? He submitted. He learned obedience.
Such tremendous obedience and if anyone didn?t have to submit, it would be Him. But He did and His entire life became a sweet smelling aroma to God the Father. My life then?what am I to do about my work mindset? Am I to go around clapping my hand and saying ?I love being underappreciated!? in some caricature of cheer? Am I to go around preaching that people should appreciate their jobs? Do we hear John or Thomas on the boat saying ?Guys, you should be happy?? or ?Man, fishing is GREAT!? through gritted teeth?
Thank God that it is in the workplace that Peter dives in after the Lord hungrily seeking Him (John 21:7). ?Seeking first the kingdom of God? isn?t something we do before work or at breaks. It is looking to be a servant under the sovereign rule (not law, but authority) of God, in our Workdays, in our Playdays, in our Hurtdays, our Paydays, our good days and our bad days. It is a looking for the rule of Christ, learning obedience to Him, during those times where we are working and when we are not. As we consider His obedience and His perfect walk, we have an idea of how we are then to work making the most of what the Lord asks us to do.
What this means is that the time we spend in our jobs we do the work to the best of our ability as unto the Lord (Eph 6:5-8). We are submissive and humble, even the unreasonable ones (1 Pet 2:18). We serve our boss to the best of our ability as unto the Lord (Col 3:32-24). We give clear thinking and high quality effort as unto the Lord. For it is in the work place where the Lord is preparing us for a bigger responsibility.
Look at Peter how he is told to tend Jesus? sheep. To feed the flock. To do that work and do it obediently, continually, and as a service to Him (Jn 21:15-17) The warmth of His provision inside of Peter?s belly (John 21:15) and in our thoughts should make us consider this small bit that He asks us now to do is a completely reasonable service of worship. This small bit on our part, based on what the Lord asks, is put right there with what the Lord has already provided freely (Jn 21:10-11)
Thank God for Peter?s example. Not perfect by a long shot but there he went, serving the Lord and making mistakes along the way. This hardheaded and willful fisherman would eventually become a man who is carried to where he will not wish to go?following Christ (Jn 21:18-19).
So here I am, finding myself at this end of eternity looking at the supernatural non-hr benefits of the workplace. How have you looked at work? How will you look at work? It doesn?t matter to me. What matters is how I should look at work. Give me an hour?these words will come back to haunt me.
-r-