Dear Faith Family,
"He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing."
(Ephesians 2:10)
What if we believed that all the adversaries of our souls have been destroyed by the finished work of Jesus on the cross? What if we believed that we are not left alone, not meant to figure life out, not left to wander through our days, but shown, taught, and guided into God's profound design and destiny with Jesus, alive again and forever? What would such a life look like?
In many ways, "such a life" is what we are encouraged to envision after Easter. A life that is as much a return to something (a resurrection of something) as it is experienced as new in our now. A life whole and holy in the rhythmic movement of Sabbathing into Work and Working into Sabbath. At least that has been our contention for the last half-decade as a faith family.
Still, the question remains, what if we believed, really believed, lived like we believed that what the apostle Paul said was actually true, actually the reality that we wake into every new day? What if we lived as if we were indeed created and reborn in Christ Jesus, to join him in the work he has begun for us to do, the good work we had better be doing?
Perhaps if we believed the exhortation of our faith, we'd think about "work" differently. We'd not only think of work as everything we do to make life, good; we might even consider that:
"…work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which one finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which one offers themself to God." (Dorothy Sayers)
Let that sink in for a moment. Sayers is not saying that we do not need resources to survive. Nor is she arguing that such resources may not be a product of our labor. What she is saying is that if we see work as a means to living, rather than as living itself, something we do for something else rather than something we do because of who we are, we will be in constant struggle, a constant bartering for the good rather than a servant of it.
Perhaps one reason we try to get out of work is that we are trying to get the wrong thing out of work. So, how do we begin to change what we are getting out of work? Here is how I encourage you to join me in getting to work this week.
1. (Re)Listen to Sunday's Sermon.
2. Consider: Do I believe that work is what I live to do? Why not?
3. Attend: Where have I seen the God-glorifying goodness of someone working as a "full expression" of who and whose they are?
May we find ourselves not working to get something, but doing the work gifted to us.
Love you, faith family. God bless.