Day Labor
Regardless of where you stand on the Bible as the inspired word of God issue, it's hard to deny that it contains some amazing wisdom. I plan to explore some of that in my next couple of posts. Just because it's stuff I've been thinking about. And just because I think the Bible's wisdom outdoes anything else I've ever studied. And if you know me, you know I like to study. A lot.
It's one reason I like church. I get to go there and think about this amazing stuff Jesus and his followers said. I also like it because it's the one day a week I have a reason to put on cute clothes and fix my hair nice. I might come home smelling like spit up, missing one earring, and wearing my necklace backwards because a certain someone got a little antsy during the service, but goodness knows I walked out of the house looking and smelling good. Usually.
Here's what struck me today: Our work matters to God. All work matters to God. Whoa.
We've been covering the book of Ephesians at church the last few weeks. And as I've been sitting here rereading some of it, I'm struck by how much it's about our day to day living. The book is full of warnings about what not to do with your life, but there are just as many suggestions on what we could be doing instead of, say, getting drunk at noon or brawling in the city square, or plotting against one another.
In between the quit sinning stuff there's lots of encouragement about unity and speaking truth and loving one another. You know, hippie stuff, but without the drugs.
Anyway, I've been loving the message that small deeds and acts matter in the world. And I've been thinking about the way we tend to function at an individualistic level in our culture. Is my work satisfying to me? Is it impacting the present and immediate moment in significant ways? How should I decide what to do? If I do x, y, or z how will that affect my day, my week, my month? How much more money do I need to make so I can have more fun when I'm not working? I've asked myself all these things before, and when I get stuck on them, I find that my day to day life grows small, insignificant, and silly even. What am I doing peeling these potatoes when I could be writing a novel?
It's easy for me to get wrapped up in the minute episodes of my day, each little crisis an invisible string that wraps itself around me and tugs downward. Girls wake up cranky. Tug. K. shrieks from his high chair while I make breakfast. Tug. A. pees through her diaper, takes it off herself, and leaves the mess somewhere. Tug. E takes forever to eat and complains about the menu. Tug. Out of coffee. Tug. Tug. By nine o'clock I can find myself wanting to crawl back between the covers for a long nap. What's the point?
But. Our work matters to God. All of it.
Underneath the minute by minute dramas of our daily lives, there is something else going on. For me, I am helping small people (God people) become. I am teaching them generosity and kindness and love and compassion. I am hard at work building lives that will someday take their turn at building a new generation of lives. I am doing important work. And that work matters to God.
The kingdom of God is built by human hands. Not because we are powerful or great, but because God uses our hands, small and large ones, young and old ones, manicured and rough ones, to accomplish good things. He gifts us with creativity and invention and strength to do good things. Call us day laborers. We wake up, go to work, make choices about what we'll do and how we'll do it, make choices about how we will treat others, how we will love or not love them, how we will serve or fail to serve them. And under all those choices, under the details, God works.
Keep calm, give more hugs, curb the exasperation in my voice and I will teach my children the value of patience, of tolerance, of love.
True. We are his image on earth. I don't care if you lay bricks for a living, haul trash, deliver papers, help grouchy customers on the phone, or wipe noses all day. What you're doing matters. How you're doing it matters even more.
And what's more, that work that feels so blah, so removed from anything real or important or significant is beautiful in the eyes of God, because he will use it and can use it to accomplish good things in the lives of others. What a relief to know that the value of our work is not measured in dollars. If this were the case, my work would be literally worthless.
My commute may not be far. I hold business conferences with a five, two point five, and ten month old. I often stay in my pajamas until mid morning. Sometimes my clothes I've changed into for the day so closely resemble the pajamas I couldn't get out of until 10, I wonder why I took the time in the first place. Don't even ask about my hair. But this is the truth, my work has value. Your work has value. Your small choices matter. You are building a Kingdom.
How cool is that?
It's one reason I like church. I get to go there and think about this amazing stuff Jesus and his followers said. I also like it because it's the one day a week I have a reason to put on cute clothes and fix my hair nice. I might come home smelling like spit up, missing one earring, and wearing my necklace backwards because a certain someone got a little antsy during the service, but goodness knows I walked out of the house looking and smelling good. Usually.
Here's what struck me today: Our work matters to God. All work matters to God. Whoa.
We've been covering the book of Ephesians at church the last few weeks. And as I've been sitting here rereading some of it, I'm struck by how much it's about our day to day living. The book is full of warnings about what not to do with your life, but there are just as many suggestions on what we could be doing instead of, say, getting drunk at noon or brawling in the city square, or plotting against one another.
In between the quit sinning stuff there's lots of encouragement about unity and speaking truth and loving one another. You know, hippie stuff, but without the drugs.
Anyway, I've been loving the message that small deeds and acts matter in the world. And I've been thinking about the way we tend to function at an individualistic level in our culture. Is my work satisfying to me? Is it impacting the present and immediate moment in significant ways? How should I decide what to do? If I do x, y, or z how will that affect my day, my week, my month? How much more money do I need to make so I can have more fun when I'm not working? I've asked myself all these things before, and when I get stuck on them, I find that my day to day life grows small, insignificant, and silly even. What am I doing peeling these potatoes when I could be writing a novel?
It's easy for me to get wrapped up in the minute episodes of my day, each little crisis an invisible string that wraps itself around me and tugs downward. Girls wake up cranky. Tug. K. shrieks from his high chair while I make breakfast. Tug. A. pees through her diaper, takes it off herself, and leaves the mess somewhere. Tug. E takes forever to eat and complains about the menu. Tug. Out of coffee. Tug. Tug. By nine o'clock I can find myself wanting to crawl back between the covers for a long nap. What's the point?
But. Our work matters to God. All of it.
Underneath the minute by minute dramas of our daily lives, there is something else going on. For me, I am helping small people (God people) become. I am teaching them generosity and kindness and love and compassion. I am hard at work building lives that will someday take their turn at building a new generation of lives. I am doing important work. And that work matters to God.
The kingdom of God is built by human hands. Not because we are powerful or great, but because God uses our hands, small and large ones, young and old ones, manicured and rough ones, to accomplish good things. He gifts us with creativity and invention and strength to do good things. Call us day laborers. We wake up, go to work, make choices about what we'll do and how we'll do it, make choices about how we will treat others, how we will love or not love them, how we will serve or fail to serve them. And under all those choices, under the details, God works.
Keep calm, give more hugs, curb the exasperation in my voice and I will teach my children the value of patience, of tolerance, of love.
True. We are his image on earth. I don't care if you lay bricks for a living, haul trash, deliver papers, help grouchy customers on the phone, or wipe noses all day. What you're doing matters. How you're doing it matters even more.
And what's more, that work that feels so blah, so removed from anything real or important or significant is beautiful in the eyes of God, because he will use it and can use it to accomplish good things in the lives of others. What a relief to know that the value of our work is not measured in dollars. If this were the case, my work would be literally worthless.
My commute may not be far. I hold business conferences with a five, two point five, and ten month old. I often stay in my pajamas until mid morning. Sometimes my clothes I've changed into for the day so closely resemble the pajamas I couldn't get out of until 10, I wonder why I took the time in the first place. Don't even ask about my hair. But this is the truth, my work has value. Your work has value. Your small choices matter. You are building a Kingdom.
How cool is that?