There was a time when I did not want to live. I was determined to keep myself locked up and waste the rest of my life. That’s when I heard a sermon preached by my uncle that cut right through to my heart.
The gist of the sermon was this: if God loves us enough to give his only son to die for us, shouldn’t we do something with our lives that will make his glory known to the world?
After all, he made us for his glory. (I don’t however understand what this glory means).
And there is the Day of Judgement to think of, when we shall be asked to give an account of our time on earth.
The sermon got me thinking about what I was doing with my life.
I was afraid of the consequences of reckless living. And since then, I started to align my life in order to render a good account of myself on Judgement Day. However, I had no intention of existing to glorify God.
I have never understood what God’s glory is and how we exist to bring him this glory. Why and for what purpose does God need to be glorified? If you know, do not hesitate to comment below or message me. I’ll be grateful for the response.
However, I decided from then on that I would live my life as a steward in God’s kingdom. I would use my time, money, intelligence, and talents to further the kingdom of God in order that I might turn in a good account of myself on Judgement Day.
That’s how I realised that I had the worst possible attitude to work.
I always believed myself to be the person with the ten talents in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. I was good at so many things as a kid, it was hard to believe otherwise.
To add to my God-given talents I also had diligence and persistence. These qualities saw me through high-school and college when I took up subjects I was not in the least bit interested in. I still managed to score pretty decent marks.
But after working so hard in my childhood, I experienced a general lethargy and apathy in my professional life. I still feel tired in my spirit, as if the work I do doesn’t really matter and it doesn’t matter if I do something properly or not.
I know what it takes to do good work, and I believe that I am capable of doing much more, but I just don’t want to.
I feel this permanent heaviness in spirit. I don’t want to work or learn or engage with the world, or even relate to people. I cannot explain how that is, but my whole attitude is negative. It’s like I’m too lazy to live.
So, that got me thinking about the Christian’s attitude to work.
What should our work attitude be?
If we really took our role as ambassadors of Jesus, we would be the most trusted and r
eliable community there ever existed in the world. Our bosses wouldn’t be able to function without us. We would be the navratna’s of the king’s court. However, that isn’t what I see in real life.
What I see is a bunch of people expecting God to do everything on their behalf, while they believe themselves too weak to make any difference. (And this is theologically accurate though, Christ’s strength is manifested in weakness).
Somehow it’s considered “ok” in the Christian world to be mediocre. Even though God is ready to bless us and open doors for us, I don’t see Christians really dominating any field of life. Why?
I’m guilty of this, more than anyone.
Now, however, I make sure I’m more productive than before. I work from nine in the morning to nine at night. But I still lack the joy and the love for work that so many people seem to find.
God wants his children to work for his kingdom. And who wouldn’t be proud to work for him? But has anyone experienced this joy? Can they give me an account of it? Jesus must have been very happy to be about his father’s business. He started his work as young as the age of 12. But he is an exception. What about us? Is doing God’s work a burden or a joy?
I wish there was more taught from the pulpits about professionalism and careers. After all, it’s a big part of the human experience and needs to be talked about.
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