Where I work is not as important as how…

The first time I joined a social networking site, I accepted almost all “friend” requests and tried to read everything that was posted. It didn’t take long to be tired of the trivia about “what I ate for breakfast” and the bold self-promotion of some who had home businesses. I also began getting requests from total strangers and invitations to business networks. Then the ads… asking they be hidden gets rid of them, but all of this took too much time. 

However, I did appreciate the connections to family and a few close friends. So I deleted my old account and created one under a different email address and using a variation of my name. Today, this network is changing their format to a timeline. I’m not sure why, but since I’ve no choice in the matter, I’m considering all the options. 

One option is putting in personal information, such as where I went to school and where I have worked. As I look at these options about work, my flippant thoughts included that I am a “kept woman” that has never needed to work outside the home, and variations of “domestic engineer” and “chief cook and bottle washer.” However, what I really want to put in that line is not my work places, but my working goal. It is expressed by today’s devotional verses…

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23–24)

The “whatever” part makes this more about attitude and motivation than actual workplaces. I could scrub bathrooms and cook meals at home, or file reports and balance ledgers at an office and still be “working heartily as for the Lord.” While this isn’t what that network has in mind, it is on my mind. 

One day, while out for a walk and praying through my list of requests and burdens, I complained about the time it takes to pray and how much work I had to do. The Lord spoke to my heart as clearly as if He had shouted. He said, “Prayer is your work.”

I still struggle with that task, but His rebuke changes the way I think about prayer. Instead of an important spiritual discipline, this is God-given work that goes beyond everything else. He is my employer, my Master. I serve Him in prayer. 

Today, I also found the following verse. It will go on my social network page in that place asking for information about my work.

I thank God whom I serve… with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. (2 Timothy 1:3)

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Lord, I am thankful, first of all to be able to serve You. No one could be a better boss. I’m also thankful that as long as I do what You ask, my conscience is clear. Guilt hinders, even destroys lives. Having forgiveness and cleansing from sin and guilt is freedom and puts a spring in my step. New life in Christ motivates me to think about others and pray for them. This is work, but it is work that blesses lives and brings eternal rewards. You also bless the workplace environment with others who pray for the same things, and bless me with joy as I do my job!

Free indeed

An old song has a line that laments that freedom is when you “have nothing left to lose.” I can’t recall much of the rest of it, but that idea of freedom seems to be about having no responsibilities.

Christian freedom isn’t like that. Oh, some think it is. Because Christ died for my sin and everything I’ve ever done or ever will do is forgiven, I can do what I want. Not. The way I live affects the way I live. It affects others too, but if I go totally self-indulgent and do whatever I want, there is no greater emptiness. I’m in bondage to me.

Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The Jews responded that they had never been in bondage to anyone, thinking He meant servitude, but Jesus explained, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”

He is right. We are slaves of whatever we serve and sin is an awful taskmaster. Isaiah wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way . . . .” In turning to our own way, we move away from God and wind up slaves, unable to make any other choices but selfish ones.

But Isaiah was not finished. He was writing about a future Messiah and adds, “ . . . And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

When Jesus bore my penalty for sin, He set me free from that awful tyranny of self. He also set me free from the tyranny of the idea that I could earn my salvation. Whether by keeping the impossible Old Testament law, or by “being good” I was beating my head against a rock. Being saved from sin means being free from the bondage of trying to do it myself. He is the Savior; I am not.

Jesus also works to deliver me from the power of sin. Now that I am forgiven, He wants me delivered from that self-centered, do-my-own-thing way of life. His Word has this to say about it: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

Some might think that sounds like another ‘law’ or rule for living, another bondage. In fact, some Christians I know speak of love as a ‘must’ and a duty. For them, it is as if God demands all personal desires sacrificed and replaced by an obligation to care for everyone else.

I’m thinking this goes deeper. When God saved me, He gave me new life, the life of Christ who, by His Spirit, lives in me. That new life manifests itself by producing attitudes and characteristics that are not from me, but from Him. The New Testament calls them “the fruit of the Spirit” and the first one listed is love.

In other words, yes, I am free to do what I want to do, but because of Jesus, my wants are changed. His Spirit produces in me a desire to stop sinful self-indulgence and serve others. This is not a ‘duty’ imposed by a rule, but a freedom that flows out of my heart, out of that new life, His life.

Yesterday I spent the entire day serving others. I made brunch for a work crew, painted doors and door frames, up and down ladders, and so on. My body aches and my feet are impossibly sore. A couple times during the day I thought, I really don’t like the physical part of doing this, but I did enjoy the giving part. Freedom is abandoning the desire of the flesh (sit down and put my feet up), and yielding to the Lord—this time, by serving others.

I guess Christ’s freedom is a bit like that old song. He wants me to have nothing left to lose: nothing left of selfishness, nothing left of personal rights, nothing left of ‘poor-me’ thinking, nothing left of insisting on my own way. Instead, He wants me to experience the freedom of being totally abandoned to thinking His thoughts, doing His will, and serving Him. I’ve already figured out one key reason why that is true freedom—serving Him makes me a slave to the only Taskmaster who is not a tyrant!

At His feet

I’ve one of those big birthdays coming up, those that make a person think about what they want to do with the rest of their lives. I’ve been organizing and tossing, eliminating and concentrating my ‘stuff’ but still not sure of the answer to that question. I like to do so many things, but realize that life is far to short to do them all.

Today’s reading is from Luke 10 and familiar. Jesus came to the home of Martha and Mary. Mary seems to have done her part in the kitchen and then sat at the feet of Jesus, the attitude of a disciple and one who intended to listen.

“But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me?’ And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’”

Blanking out on the reading, I decided to check some commentaries. The Holy Spirit used them to target my heart.

• Getting over-worked up about many things in this world is a common fault and very displeasing to Christ. If I do it without just cause, I’m apt to wind up with an added load and something really worth fretting about. (Matthew Henry)
• Godliness unites the heart; the world divides it. The many things Martha was troubled about were needless, while the one thing she neglected was vital for her own spiritual health. (Matthew Henry)
• Martha received Jesus into her home and then neglected Him as she prepared an elaborate meal that He did not need! What we do with Christ is far more important than what we do for Christ, not an either/or question but a matter of balance. (W. W. Wiersbe)
• Whenever we criticize others and pity ourselves because we feel overworked, we had better take time to examine our lives. Perhaps in all of our busyness, we have been ignoring the Lord. (W. W. Wiersbe)
• Martha’s problem was not that she had too much work to do, but that she allowed her work to distract her and pull her apart. She was trying to serve two masters! If serving Christ makes us difficult to live with, then something is terribly wrong with our service! (W. W. Wiersbe)
• Martha’s choice would be taken from her because the oh-so-important meal she made in the kitchen would soon be gone. Mary’s choice was eternal. (Jamieson, Fausset, & Brown)

The last one gives the best direction; those before it are totally convicting. Even though I spend daily time at Jesus’ feet, certainly the tasks of the past few weeks are a distraction. Does Jesus need all the stuff I’ve collected and am trying to organize and make use of? Am I neglecting Him while I toss or file? Am I even considering that I am doing all that I do for Him? Or is it just for me? If for Him, I should not feel so ‘overworked and underpaid.’

I have pitied myself about having far too much to do, and occasionally griped that others are not pulling their share. Wiersbe’s words about that are pointed, but I must listen. If what I do is making me complain or grumpy, then I need to reexamine why I do those things.

The last observation is helpful. What is going to make a difference for eternity? Some I can only guess (for God uses the oddest things for His purposes), but others are obvious. It is time for some far deeper sorting and tossing, this time at His feet.