Faith and Work

Life on this earth is akin to having a full-time job.

A full-time job requires you to go to work; earthly life demands that you live -- living is work. You clock in and clock out every work day; you wake up in the morning and go to bed at night every day of your life. You are forced to face both pleasant and unpleasant situations in the workplace; life on this earth is equally littered with both euphoric and depressing circumstances.

A full-time job pays you a salary with benefits supposedly befitting your rank and output. On this side of the grave, life hands you a paycheck of sorts -- a clear inventory of results and/or consequences emanating from past and present choices -- that carries with it a "benefits package" holding you hostage to . . .

fear
pride
shame
despair
loneliness

and any other emotion that keeps you wallowing in self-pity and misery.

Are you afraid of what's ahead?
Are you too prideful to admit your wrongs?
Are you ashamed of past and present choices?
Are you stuck in a pit of despair and despondency?
Are you feeling unloved, unappreciated, and unnoticed?

I write today with good news for you:

Earthly life (chronos or chronological time) is not all there is.
Abundant life (kairos or quality/divine time) exists and is offered to you.

Yes, abundant life is bought for you through Christ's death on that gruesome tree which affords you a benefits package of greatest worth -- hope, peace, freedom.

How does His death do that?
Christ's death offers you a job: to believe on the One the Father has sent (John 6:29).

If you accept this job offer, you will come to work for the Employer par excellence who defines faith and work as one. This job calls you to exercise faith in and obey the One the Father has sent through mundane and serious tasks, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, through disappointments and joys, in enmity and in friendship, in trials and triumphs.

In other words, it matters not what you're wired or designed or hired to do. You get to do it while believing in the Son. If it is singing, gardening, accounting, writing, or whatever, do it well while believing in Christ.

The benefits package of this job -- believing on Christ -- is wonderful. It grants you more than chronos; it provides true kairos, the abundant life that is eternal. And that is faith, a precious faith that energizes every bit of work you are called to do on this earth. Believing on Christ positionally removes the tight grip habitual sins seek to have on you; obeying Christ practically reminds you of the hope, freedom, and peace faith offers. Believing on the One the Father has sent says you don't have to go back to making decisions that keep you imprisoned to fear, pride, shame, despair, loneliness, and the like.

Would you go to work today, tomorrow, and every remaining day of your life?
Believe on Christ then through every conversation, interaction, and transaction.