FOR WHOM

“Employment is nature’s physician, and is essential to human happiness.” — Galen

Ephesians 6:5-8
Colossians 3:22-24
Luke 22:39-44 (*42)

We’re driven to appear employable. We seek out BAs, internships, MBAs and JDs. Some of us, however, don’t want to work for anyone else; we’d rather set our own hours, own a business, and drive the vision of our workdays. So our ostensible options are working for others or working for ourselves. Our option is not ever to not work; we will work. The question is for whom.

If you follow Jesus, you work for him. Sure, you may not see his name on your pay stub, and he doesn’t send you W-2s, but he teaches us that we’re in his service when we’re in his footsteps. And not just forty hours a week, it’s 24/7.

Our work, then, does not have managers, customers and clients. The Lord’s satisfaction comes first. Wherever we work, however we spend our days, we live in his service, on his clock, on his dime. He’s the boss who lays out agendas and the customer whose satisfaction matters most.

So what? We work to please the Lord. We live to please the Lord. My time in the office should make him proud, not the guy signing my checks. He’s not the one I’m following through life.

Furthermore, my life outside the office isn’t about appeasing any other boss, whether friend or teacher or general public. My time belongs to the Lord, and he’s the one I “work” for, whether I eat, drink, play, rest or travel. The satisfaction of the others comes as a byproduct of satisfying him.

Mother Teresa once said that Jesus was the only person in the world to her. As a result, every person she met was Jesus. Therefore, when she met the poor, the sick, the hungry or imprisoned, she loved Jesus by loving them; she saw Jesus as her aim and her impetus in all things. She belonged to him through the cross and her affection.    Matthew 25 recounts Jesus’ teaching on the sheep and the goats. To those who cared for the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, and the imprisoned, he says, “You did this to me.”

Everything is for him.

Do you see yourself as God’s employee? His servant?
How does this impact how you work for you employer?
How does this impact how you view your life’s pursuits?

Adam

© Revolworks 2006