Work – an expression of worship?

“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.” (Colossians 3:23-24)

Some people love the job that they do. Some people don’t, and dream of the day when they can pack it all in and do something else altogether.

I happen to really like what I do, but I don’t think that I would be going out on a limb if I said that, for all of us, there are days when our work feels overwhelming. There are days when the multitude of things that we busy ourselves doing feels meaningless. There are days when we face a mountain of tasks we have to do that we dread.

I was reading Dean Nelson’s book God Hides in Plain Sight: How to See the Sacred in a Chaotic World just a couple of days ago, and was reminded that perspective makes all the difference. If we view the work that we do as just some necessary evil that we need to get done and get out of the way so that we can then get on with other more important or more enjoyable stuff, then it’s going to be hard to view our daily tasks with much enthusiasm or with a grateful heart.

Nelson, in his book, writes about Eugene Peterson’s view of the link between ‘work’ and ‘worship’:

Worship and work are inseparable, Eugene Peterson said. “What we’re after is a seamless world of work and worship, worship and work … Work is the primary context for our spirituality.” …[B]eing anointed by God, Peterson said, means given a job by God. There’s a job to be done, we’re told to do it, and we’re equipped to do it. … Our present day task is to “recover work as vocation – as holy work. … The key to living vocationally – that is, being ‘God-called,’ Spirit-anointed – isn’t getting the right job or career but doing kingwork in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.”  [1] 

Elsewhere, Nelson also says:

Martin Luther said that “the works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks.” For Luther and for us, the peasant and the merchant, “the business person, the teacher, the factory worker, and the television anchor – can do God’s work (or fail to do it) just as much as the minister and the missionary.”  [2]

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Perspective. Whether we’re teachers, students, engineers, stay-at-home parents, shop assistants, or factory workers, we all have aspects of our work that we don’t particularly relish doing or find terribly fulfilling. I am reminded that whatever I do, I am to work at it with all my heart, as working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23). We need to remember that                          (whatever it is) is part of what God has called us to do for the moment, and thus we shouldn’t view it as a chore or some meaningless thing that we have to do to get it out of the way so that we can move on to better and more important stuff. What we (have to) do as part of our daily routines IS the “important stuff”, because everything that we do is important in the eyes of God, if we view our work as an expression of worship to God.

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[1] From pp. 43-44 of Dean Nelson’s God Hides in Plain Sight (Michigan, Brazos Press, 2009). Nelson was quoting from pp. 27-33 of Eugene Peterson’s Leap Over a Wall (San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997).

[2] From pp. 51-52 of Dean Nelson’s God Hides in Plain Sight (Michigan, Brazos Press, 2009). Nelson was quoting Martin Luther from p. 34 of Os Guiness’s The Call (Nashville, W Publishing, 1998).

Photograph (by R Tang): Bicycle outside post office, Bunratty Folk Park, Ireland, 2011

   

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