Rest with Integrity : Work with Integrity

Mmm...I do remember this happening to me once.

There is a correlation between resting well and working well. It's a topic I've covered a few times during my time as the primary preaching pastor of SCC. However, over the past couple weeks preaching about work from Proverbs, I didn't bring it up (except to say: "I'm skipping over this topic."). Rest got the proverbial (pun!) axe primarily because the importance of rest doesn't really show up in Proverbs - other than the foolishness of indulging in too much of it (ie. the Sluggard - Prov. 6:9-11). So I'm reviving it here over the interwebs because last Sunday our case study in Proverbs was about Working with Integrity. Furthermore, rest has a direct correlation upon our ability to work with integrity. Let's look at this correlation and consider its effect on us. 

Created to Rest. God designed us to rest - 1 full day per 7. He Himself "blazed the trail" for this practice prior even to the sin and frustration of work that drives us to need rest. He had just spent 6 full days creating and it wasn't mindless data-entry at a Dell laptop: Day #1: Light & Darkness; Day #2: Sky; Day #3: Land, vegetation, bodies of water; Day #4: Planets & Stars; Day #5: Animals; Day #6: Mankind - all of which, when done, He called "very good" (Gen. 1:31). 

Let's read what happens next in Genesis 2: 

I want to point out two things. First the pattern: Finished-work-done; Rested-work-done; (SABBATH); Rested-work-done. Notice: There is satisfaction at the end of work ("done": "very good") and there is rest preceding the next round of work ("rest"). Both suggest that the time set aside after/before work has a two-fold function:

Rest allows us to both celebrate backward and recharge forward.

This leads to the second thing I wish to point out: There is a full day set apart ("God blessed the seventh day and made it holy" - lit. set it apart) to hammer home the importance of celebrating work done and recharging for work ahead. The author even uses the ordinary word for human work (as opposed for the Hebrew word typically used for divine activity) - suggesting this full day isn't only for God but for all mankind. 

Such a day also helps us celebrate/recharge with respect to the greatest work ever done. The greatest work we can celebrate is the work Jesus Christ did on our behalf - living the perfect life we couldn't and dying the death we deserve. And Christ's work helps us recharge - we can keep going and work freely because His work on the cross has already freed us from trying to justify ourselves through our work. 

When integrity is lacking in our Rest. Integrity isn't about perfection but consistency. We lack integrity then when some part of our life is inconsistent (or consistently different) than the rest of it (eg., how one treats a boss vs. a helper; giving charitably yet finding loopholes to avoid paying government; valuing some people's time but not others who will either 'understand' or are 'aren't quite as important'.). 

Our rest can also lack integrity in two ways: Either not resting at all or overindulging in certain kinds of rest. We easily relate to the former so let me talk more about the latter. Here are some "rests" or "escapes" in which we tend to overindulge during a much needed day off. Staying up too late to Sleep in, Overeating, Over-surfing the internet, Over-watching tv, Overdrinking of alcohol. God hasn't designed us to get the rest we need by overindulgence. And it's more than just a little interesting that scientific research confirms just this - namely, that sleeping in on weekends leads to persistent "jet-lag" like symptoms during the week. The National Sleep Foundation points to overeating at night and the indigestion that results as a major inhibitor to good rest - as does watching tv or scrolling through a mobile device. Arguably the greatest disrupter of getting good rest is overindulgence in alcohol (check out here, here, or here). Alcohol at night consistently prevents a person from getting the REM or deep sleep their body needs. 

A former professor at my seminary, Dr. Walter Kaiser, Jr., once called REST one of God's most ignored goals for His people, (see also, for example, Hebrews 4). Because we are designed to get rest, we will find ways to get it if we don't get it in the evening or during our day of rest. That's when a failure to rest well begins to effect integrity in our work place. We begin to use work to locate rest.  

Some responses to a failure to rest well: I'll go in late to work. I'll let my work suffer. I'll cut out lunch and all efforts to be social (cutting out opportunities to love neighbor). I'll just copy and paste someone else's work (plagiarism). Since I don't have the time to make all necessary connections and do all the work, I'll find loopholes that will help me maximize my profit for minimal time (steal). I'll overwork with longer hours (others in your life suffer). I'll seek ultimate rest/satisfaction in my work (idolatry - disappointment - frustration). There are probably dozens more examples you can imagine or have even experienced. 

When we don't rest with integrity, we cannot work with integrity.

That means we must rest consistently well. We can't just skip the rest for which we were designed and expect to function as God designed. God anticipates this temptation to skip rest during even our "busy season":  

Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest (Exodus 34:21 - emphasis mine).

Restoring Integrity to our Rest. Here are some suggestions that can help you restore integrity to your rest:

1. Structure your rest. Rev. Tim Keller calls this "avocational rest." An avocation is "something that brings you joy but requires some intentionality and structure to your rest." He suggests planning a day off with these three types of rest.

• Contemplative Rest. Grab your Bible and journal, write and reflect. Look back on past entries. What is God doing? What is a theme or pattern He is working through your life?
• Recreational Rest. This means refreshing recreational activities not necessary tough mudder training.  
• Aesthetic Rest - exposing yourself to works of God's creation you find beautiful. This will likely include outdoor fresh air and beauty (especially in Cayman), but also might include artistic expressions like music, drama, or a visit to our National Gallery.

2. Prepare for your Day of Rest with Mini-Sabbaths.

• Walk to lunch as much as possible to grab a moment for thanksgiving.
• Refuse the "working lunch" unless absolutely necessary.
• I know a friend who incorporates into their workday 2-3 rooftop trips to review something inspirational they read that morning.
• Turn on a 22 minute episode of Aquanauts (or whatever) not only to finish your checklist but so you can grab a glass of water and sit outside with your Bible. 
• Have dinner with your family and use it to reflect on back on your day with satisfaction (our family has kept an answered prayer jar at our dinner table).

3. Treat vacations, holidays, and trips as longer Sabbaths - not vacations from Jesus.

• Take extra time to celebrate victories and reflect on promises He's kept.
• Start some devotional material like this beauty or the Come and See material on our Sunday Am book table. 
• Read a biography about a great Christian(s). Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History by Diane Severance is available also on our book table. 50 People Every Christian Should Know by Warren Wiersbe. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. These are all excellent and enjoyable reads on a holiday.

4. Take time to do nothing productive but be with Jesus.

• Jesus did the greatest work to give us maximum rest. 
• When confronted about what rest should look like, Jesus famously calls himself "the Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28).  Do you remember how that story began, what gave rise to the controversy? The disciples of Jesus walking with their Savior through the grain fields to nowhere in particular and casually picking grains and fruits along the way. 

Your work & what God says about the contribution you are making

We are all panting through the dog-days of August and so it seems appropriate to throw some encouragement your way re: your job (a.k.a- what you do from 8am - 6 pm). I'll start with Psalm 104...

Psalm 104 is often called "The Creation Psalm" because it highlights each of the seven days of Creation in a way that says - "Hey earthlings, I'm still creating!!" God is still working the earth to make it inhabitable and enjoyable for such as us. 

And so should we! In fact, what struck me about the psalm is its insistence that God's creation is to lower-case "work" just as he upper-case "Works" to make everything on this earth work how it should. Three examples: 

1. Birds. God creates the trees so that birds can create the nests and so make their home work as it should (Psalm 104:16-17). 2. Lions. God provides their food but Lions must roar for it, shaking their prey out of their hiding spots (Psalm 104:21). 3. All of creation. God gives, we gather. "These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up." (Psalm 104:27-28).

What a great reminder that grace isn't opposed to hard work, rather: Grace is opposed to merit (ie. that hard work earns God's approval and increased blessing). 

But I'm about to stray off-topic. My purpose is to encourage you who work hard that you are not only mimicking God as His image-bearers but fulfilling God's first two commands and, thus, contributing to the culture in which you live. I've been reading an intriguing and, at times, humorous book called Becoming Worldly Saints: Can you still serve Jesus and Enjoy your life? by Michael Witmer. I'll quote him at length here because I think you'll benefit from a longer draught of his writing:

If Jesus is the Creator, then he is the one who first commanded the human race to "be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Gen. 1:28).

This verse has five commands. The first three - "be fruitful," "increase in number," and "fill the earth" are shared with birds and fish (Gen. 1:22), but the final two - "subdue" and "rule" - are reserved for humans alone. These verbs are crucial, and perhaps the most important, part of what it means to be made in the image of God. Genesis was written in the Ancient Near East, where kinds were said to bear the image of God because they governed their realms on behalf of a distant deity. Genesis democratizes the image by declaring that every human bears the image of God, not just kings. God made us as the climax of creation to rule the world on his behalf, and we each are responsible to mediate the blessing of God to that slice of creation that lies within our influence. We represent God to each other, the animals, and the earth, and we will give an account for the God they see in us.

God elaborated on this priestly responsibility when he "took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it" (Genesis 2:15). There is a tension with this double command. On the one hand, we must "take care of" or guard (shamar) the garden, preserving its resources for future generations. But we must not turn the earth into a museum, for God also commands us to "work" the garden. The Hebrew term is abad, which shares the same root as the word for slave. We are to serve creation, cultivating its raw materials into an escalating advance of culture. If I were God, I would have been content to command Adam and Eve, "Here is a beautiful, pristine world. Please don't break anything!" God expects more from his image-bearers, and he invited Adam and Eve to improve on his creation by taking it to a higher place.

We cal the commands of Genesis 1:28 and 2:15 the "creation mandate" or "cultural mandate." These commands occur in Scripture's opening scene, before the fall, and they direct us to develop human culture. Culture is what you get whenever humans intersect with nature. This is obviously true for metals that we twist into trumpets and cotton that we weave into shirts, but it's also true about more advanced technology. Your gleaming smartphone might seem several steps removed from nature, but the CPU that runs it is made of sand. Even language, the highest achievement of human culture, uses nature's instruments, such as vocal chords, pencil lead, and trees for paper, to describe a culture's place in the world...

Your job is the one place where you are paid for your cultural contribution. Someone things your efforts enhance the human endeavor, and they reward you with whatever they deem your work is worth (or perhaps can get away with). This is why the Paul told slaves they were serving the Lord Jesus (Ephesians 6:5-8). Their cultural contributions enabled them and others to develop creation, and so they were obeying the first command that Jesus, who is the Creator of all, gave to the human race. They were not merely serving their masters, but the Lord himself.

In conclusion, your job not only exists to make money for your family/so you can do other things you enjoy much more nor does it merely exist so you can share about new birth with your co-workers, pray for your boss, and tithe to your church. You can do your job knowing that you are fulfilling God's command of contributing to the culture in which you live and will one day leave behind. In other words, the work itself is intrinsically valuable not just as a vehicle to a mission field or to put food on the table. Your little corner plot to subdue, work, and take care of might be modest but God says you are doing exactly what you were put on earth to do.

Can you do this job to the glory of God?

Last week, a helpful website The High Calling published a thoughtful article that I think might be of service to many who are in-between jobs or who have settled-in and gathered their breath sufficiently to re-evaluate what they are doing - and more importantly: For what purpose? 

CLICK HERE to read: Can you do this job for the glory of God?

God's larger perspective on work is that it is good (Genesis 2:1-3). Because He is good and He did work filling full the heavens and the earth, it is good. In fact, Genesis goes against Ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman labor principles which stated that working with one's hands in the dirt is among the most demeaning kinds of work. God Himself did just this in creating man! The Ancient Babylonian creation account asserts that the gods created man so that they didn't have to do any work. Our God finds great satisfaction in working on our behalf and to His glory!

May we find satisfaction in our work done on other's behalf and to His glory! 

Sun Follow-up - Ben Edwards: A Financial World Example of Work that Lasts & Lasting at Work

Yesterday we explored how Christ's final three words "It is finished" can help us both do work that lasts & last at our work. 

At Sunrise we are blessed with a number of amazingly hard workers in the financial sector. One man's story that might encourage you is Ben Edwards, former CEO of the former securities brokerage company, A.G. Edwards, which was based out of St. Louis and bought out by Wachovia in 2009. 

He did so well, he bought a sword.

I've read up a bit on this bloke. He felt free to take calculated risks in the securities realm because of His security in Christ. Including: (1) Being among the first brokerage firms to go public - in Nov 1971, offering 445,000 shares at $12 per share. But, despite being among the first, he didn't cave in the slightest to shareholder pressures and demands but rather (2) Kept to his established, golden rule of "do unto others" in the financial sector - putting clients first, employees second, and shareholders would glean any benefits left over. 

He lasted at his work staying - happily staying involved with the firm till he died in 2009.

Here's one of the better articles on him, including some lessons we can learn to do better & more lasting work to the glory of God.

Mailing it in

Urbandictionary.com defines Mailing it in as: slang for doing the least amount of work possible to produce a adequately finished product. 

I want to be honest with those whom I am privileged to serve as their pastor - I mailed it in this past Sunday. 

I continually get to experience the grace of God (His love for me made active through a undeserved gifts) - and last week was no different. I had some wonderful times of fellowship with folks in the church and Katie and I were led one sweet night last week to stop our busy-ness and spend an evening giving thanks and praise to Jesus. But basking in the glow and a spirit of contentment, I mentally/spiritually felt myself begin to mail it in as it pertains to Sunday worship. Joshua 9 contains such a straightforward and practical message about seeking the Lord in prayer when making important commitments - I felt I had a pretty good handle on the passage (pride!) and decided I'd focus on enjoying my kids and the beautiful back half of the week/weekend (the best time of year weather-wise in Cayman has begun - breezy & cool). So while I worked on the sermon, put together an order of worship, and coordinated with other key Sunday Worship co-laborers, I sort of just trusted the Scripture passage and my heart to get in the right place in the nick of time. But upon arrival Sunday morning, I felt distanced from others and everything going on -- this distance continued during and after the service as well. So, first of all, I'm sorry dear brothers and sisters of the Sunrise Family. I did not serve you well. I also don't mind saying: If Sunday's message encouraged, convicted, or produced fruit through you, then it is entirely by the grace of God!! Praise be to Him!

I don't know if you've experienced a similar phenomenon - your heart begins to distance itself ("prone to wander, Lord I feel it" as the great hymn says) from what God has called you to do and how he has called you to work - as an employee, as a husband/wife, as a mom/dad, as a member of a community, as a volunteer. I have too. And I've had better moments, where God helped me to stop mailing it in before it started. 

Here are three strategies I've found helpful for putting a stop to a mail-it-in moment:

(1) Pray for those whom you serve and those with whom you work.

I don't know the nature of your particular line of work or vocational calling. Some of you serve others fairly directly in your work- nurse, teacher, HR, sales, pastor, etc. But for those of you whose work affects other companies with a very slow trickle down effect to real people, even still you recognize your work affects more directly those with whom you work - your example of working hard and working hard so they never feel they have to pick up your slack. 

One of the ways to stop a mail-it-in moment in your work is to care so deeply about persons involved to the point that you would desire and believe your work would provide significant benefit and/or growth in their lives. 

How do you care more about persons you serve or with whom you work? It's not a matter of thinking of other people more. According to a report published by the U.S. National Scientific Foundation, our brains produce somewhere between 12,000-50,000 thoughts per day. Of these thoughts, 10-25% are directly fixed upon other persons. This means that at least 1200 thoughts you have per day are about other people. And yet you don't necessarily walk away from a thought caring about that person more. The thought just passes by. 

The apostle Paul gave us a great example of how to care about such persons more - taking an otherwise passing thought and praying it. For Paul, prayer would lead to love and love would lead to prayer - a cycle of praying passing thoughts about others whose GDP is love. Listen to how Paul's prayer for the people of the church in Philippi lead to love and then love leads to prayer:

[Notice a thought...a 'remembrance' leads to prayer] I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from this day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. [Here comes love!!] It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. [love that now leads to prayer] And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more...(Philippians 1:3-9).

It's easier to persevere in the work your doing when your love increases for those who stand to potentially benefit from the work. 

(2) Make sure you enlist others to be prayerfully invested in your work.

When I pray for something for someone, I am invested. I wish to know what happened. What did God do? How did something I got to be a part of turn out?

You might not believe it, but a simple weekly request of your Community Group or a group of close friends to pray for you will help them become more invested in your work - even if you have, in your opinion, the most boring job in the world (#3: Construction Flag-Traffic Person; #2: Exit Sign Designer; #1: Pillow filler). 

And when you know others are praying, it gives you more confidence that God is at work in your work. He is helping you, using you, and doing things in and around you which you previously never even thought or conceived of.  

In the above passage from Philippians 1, notice Paul had enlisted the Philippians who were "all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel." Paul's life work was a defense and confirmation of the gospel. The Philippians were prayerfully invested. As were the Ephesians, whom Paul also enlisted: "Pray also for me, that words may be given me so that I might fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might declare it fearlessly as I should" (Ephesians 6:18-19). 

I have enlisted a few key individuals, who showed interest in praying that God's Spirit would powerfully use my preaching, the worship, greeter teams, audio-visual volunteers, children's ministry workers to greatly glorify Himself on Sunday Morning. They have now begun to gather about 30 minutes before the service to labor in prayer. I have a higher level of confidence knowing that my persevering in my work will be worth it - it is going to be used by God as it prayed for by friends!!

(3) Work hard and expect second-hand results

Christ's hard, literally excruciating work on the cross for us produces in us a surety about our spiritual status before Him (we are in the Family!!), which in turn produces great contentment and deep joy. Yet He asks us to respond to His work with work of our own. This response, thus, does not include: "Let go and let God." This was my mistake last week - I understood God's work for me but misunderstood what was the proper response. I let go and let God -- and so let my work go. 

The Bible says I ought to work hard on my growth as a Christian (Philippians 2:12), to work hard at the mission God has assigned me (Colossians 1:28-29a), and work hard at my job (1 Corinthians 15:10c). So I should expect to work.

But as I work, something funny sometimes happens: I trust that my hard work ought to produce results. Such that, if those I serve or with whom I work don't immediately respond to my work, I am prone to become insecure some times, depressed at other times, and embittered at still other times. Such that I am tempted to mail-it-in next time around. 

Our Father knows the human heart, however. So He reminds us of something else - there is Someone else working with and through us. So the Apostle Paul completes all the above thoughts about hard work: 

• It's "God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13)
• I struggle to live out the mission God has assigned me "with all his energy that he powerfully works within me" (Colossians 1:29b).
• When working hard at my job, I'm reminded with Paul: "It was not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10d). 

In each case, the Lord is faithful to show up in my hard work - to give me strength to do the work and the grace to produce results that possess a certain authority and finality. I'm reminded of Joshua, who in between inconvenient, mundane obedience (circumcision and observing Passover - Joshua 5) and daunting but thrilling obedience (marching around a city while singing with friends while they waited for the miracle of crumbling walls - Joshua 6), has the pre-incarnate Christ visit him in the form of a Warrior, sword in hand. Help with the very task with which he needed help and results. Jesus present to initiate, then join, then win the fight! Jesus produces second-hand results as Joshua works hard. Jesus is the second (and most important) hand.

A slightly more modern person who exemplifies this tension of hard work and second-hand results is George Mueller. Mueller preached in a local church every week for over six decades in 18th century Bristol, England. But he most is famous for his tireless work with orphans. Through Mueller's work and influence, the care of orphans in England skyrocketed from 3000 to over 100,000 by the end of his life. Mueller famously said about work: "Work with all your might, but trust not the least to your work." 

In other words, don't expect your work will secure for you anything or yield results in-and-of-itself. Unless the grace of God goes with you, does the work, and produces the results, it will be in vain. And Mueller lived out this saying. He never (never!) solicited charitable funds for his orphans. He simply prayed and relied totally on the grace of God - monies would show up, often anonymously, at his doorstep and often just as the last shilling had been spent. He didn't trust His own efforts but for God to work.

You do your part, trust Jesus do His. We are freed to persevere well in our work when we can trust God to take care of giving us the strength to do it and producing the results to win the day! If people don't respond to your work, well, that's His problem. 

A Sunday Follow-up: More Work found in God's Word

This Sunday under the big top we had a chance to examine a brilliant passage on living Christ where we work from Colossians 3:22-4:1 (sure, we had get through the whole 'slave' part of the passage & determine if one can legitimately apply a 1st century passage about slavery to 21st century work - which I argued one can!! - geez, thanks for slowing us down, SLAVERY!!).


For those interested or who'd like to do a little Bible Study/Devotion, here are some critical biblical passages on work:


Genesis 2:2 - God works...and then rests...but mostly, He works. [And considering Genesis 1:27 says we are made in God's image and, thus, purposed to imitate God...we also work].

Genesis 2:2   ² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

Genesis 2: 7-9, 15 - Even before sin and evil enter the world, man works.

Genesis 2:7-9, 15   ⁷ The LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.  ⁸ And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.  ⁹ And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ...¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 3:17-19 - Man decides not to trust God. God, being perfectly just, must punish. He punishes (or curses) man through his work.

Genesis 3:17-19  ¹⁷ And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;  ¹⁸ thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.  ¹⁹ By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." 

Exodus 20: 8-11 - Even still, work goes on in the pattern of it's genesis (ha...ha...get it? Homonym!)

Exodus 20:8-11   ⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  ⁹ Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,  ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  ¹¹ For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 

Psalm 8:3-8 - God works which is evidenced in creation, and he has given us dominion to work his creation (notice: vv.7-8 contains most common Ancient Israelite jobs - shepherd, farmer & his oxen to plow, fisherman).

Psalm 8:3-8   ³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,  ⁴ what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?  ⁵ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  ⁶ You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,  ⁷ all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,  ⁸ the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 

Psalm 90:16-17 - A prayer of praise for God's Work and a prayer of petition to establish the work we do (ie. make it 'matter').

Psalm 90:16-17  ¹⁶ Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.  ¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! 

Colossians 3:22-4:1 - Do what your boss says, but work for the Boss of bosses.

Colossians 3:22 - 4:1   ²² Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.  ²³ Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,  ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.  ²⁵ For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.   4:1 Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. 

Proverbs 6: 6-11 - The foolishness of a sluggard, whose usually rationalizing a little laziness/me-time here and a little there.

Proverbs 6:6-11   ⁶ Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.  ⁷ Without having any chief, officer, or ruler,  ⁸ she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest.  ⁹ How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?  ¹⁰ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,  ¹¹ and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. 

I Timothy 5:8 - Working at any job is better than remaining unemployed while holding out for your dream job (or that upper management position).

1 Timothy 5:8  ⁸ But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

II Thessalonians 3:10-12 - Working is essential to eating. 

II Thessalonians 3:10-12  ¹⁰ For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.  ¹¹ For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.  ¹² Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. 

I Corinthians 3:9-15 - The quality of some work is better than others - work done, by faith, for and with God.  

1 Corinthians 3:9-15   ⁹ For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.  ¹⁰ According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.  ¹¹ For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  ¹² Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw-  ¹³ each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.  ¹⁴ If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.  ¹⁵ If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 

Ephesians 4:11-12 - In God's economy, we don't clock out of work when we clock out at our job (cf. II Timothy 3:16-17, II Corinthians 9:8, I Thessalonians 1:2-3). 

Ephesians 4:11-12   ¹¹ And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  ¹² to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Isaiah 65:21-22 - Work continues in eternal life, but this time we'll enjoy perfect rest while doing it through the full enjoyment of the fruit of our labors. 

Isaiah 65:21-22  ²¹ They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.  ²² They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 

Revelation 14:12 - One day the toil will be taken out of work. 

^NLT Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from all their toils and trials; for their good deeds follow them!"

A 4th century encouragement for a 21st century job

This past Sunday under the Big Top, I taught from 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 on God's Calling. The  sermon in a nutshell was basically: When it comes to questions of "God, where do you want me?", "What do you want me to do?", "With whom do you want me to do it?", the biblical, God-speaking to you default is to remain. Though walking with God daily, prayer/discernment, & good counsel may lead you elsewhere, remaining where you are, what you're doing (vocationally/job-wise), with whom you're already doing it is God's starting line. 


Of course, the place, the people or the job (especially) isn't necessarily what we would choose in the Game of Life (or in the elementary/primary school Game involving those do-dads constructed out of notebook paper where you start by choosing a number, open up a leaf, and eventually find out who you marry, what your job is, and how much money you make - what were those things called?? Please don't say 'do-dads').


Jobs we wouldn't pick. I was reading some older church history and came across this. A prominent fourth century church father, Basil, informed his young brother, Gregory of Nyssa, that he was to become the bishop of Cappadocia (in the middle of nowhere...a.k.a. middle of modern day Turkey).  To which Gregory objected! He didn't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere away from friends and family ministering with and to a strange people where there is little prospect for distinction & advancement. His older brother replied:

I don't want you to obtain distinction from your church but to confer distinction on it.

Cappodocia is now best known in history for being the center from which the so-called Cappadocian Fathers (Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, & Gregory of Nazianzus) fought the heresy known as Arianism (the rising belief growing in popularity that Jesus was inferior to God the Father and was, in fact, created by the Father...a similar belief to modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses). Indeed, through his service there, Gregory conferred distinction upon the place and the the people.


Jesus conferring distinction like it's going out of style. When the incarnate Christ walked this earth, all he did was confer distinction upon places, people, jobs that otherwise had none. Consider the places. Jesus was raised in the runt among places, Nazareth. One of Jesus' future disciples even confessed when first being told about Jesus: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46). He conferred distinction upon the hated territory of Samaria (see Luke 10:33 and 17:16) - where, from the Jewish perspective, a bunch of 'half-breeds' lived whose worship of God was considered a joke (cf. John 8:48). Among the many examples of people upon whom Jesus conferred distinction, perhaps the one who stands out is the woman of ill-repute who interrupts dinner to wash Jesus' hair with oil: "And truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her" (Mark 14:3). Consider the jobs. Jesus chose for his cabinet: Fishermen (a poorly-regarded, blue-collar job), a zealot (someone who was organizing radical, militant religious rallies), and a tax collector (symbolically stood for all things evil & traitorous in the eyes of God's people). But all legitimate positions from which to begin following Jesus. 


You and your job. For those who have trusted their lives to Jesus, Paul states the following: "To [us] God chose to make know how great are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Christ still exists to confer distinction upon jobs, including the locations and the people who work there. All the riches of glory which are contained in His person is in you, who have believed.


The temptation of course is to think: Which next place, which next people, which next job will bring me distinction, will finally set me apart. You already are set apart, friend, because of Christ in you. Such is the hope of glory! And he wishes, through YOU, to now bring distinction upon whatever you do, wherever you are & whomever you are with.  

Bothering Prayer - 4 minutes of encouragement for Prayer

If you're like me and struggle to pray, it's good to be reminded that even the writers of the Bible conceived of it as a struggle - but are nevertheless steadfast on carrying on with it.


Below is 4 minutes from Matt Chandler on prayer - including how it's a labor & a bother (but not a bother for you and I). Best 4 minutes on prayer I ever heard...

Work, Play, Worship...all outta sorts

After feeling a bit out sorts the last couple days, I came across this Newsletter from a few years back on my bookshelf that helped frame my predicament fairly well. In an article on Rest, author & Wheaton College professor Leland Ryken writes:

Earlier in [the 20th century] someone claimed that we work at our play and play at our work. Today the confusion has deepened: we worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.

I'm wondering: How & to what degree have you seen this play out in your own world ?