The LORD of the work must be more important than the work of the LORD. Carolyn Tennant
I had this quote up on my "guinea pig" work white board. It caused a lot of conversation and mulling - right there in front of me. Sometimes I was part of the convo, other times not.
As a believer, if God is not the one motivating your work - no matter what it is (Pastor, toilet scrubbing, CEO, shelf stocker, Front Desk Receptionist, Sunday School teacher, just to offer up a few examples) - then it isn't worth doing. We've forgotten about God. "What? No Beth you are crazy, I'm a Pastor - Sunday School teacher - Missionary and I am doing important work in the name of God. I haven't forgotten about him." Huh. Really? Doing work in his name is the easy thing, actually anyone can do work in his name (and they don't even have to be a follower of him - there are some good actors out there!), but allowing him to be the motivator for the work...well, that's a whole different way to work. If the work you are doing and have done has been done in his name but he was left out of it then you've got some reevaluating to do. So do I by the way. I'm not exempt. I read this quote about 5 years ago and ask people - I quote it a lot...mostly as a reminder to myself. :) I read it when I was working on a church staff and collectively God had been forgotten about. (Oh man anyone from that staff who just read that has their feathers ruffled - their panties in a twist - right about now! HA! Sometimes the truth does sting.) I read it, I was pierced, and I started reevaluating. It wasn't well-received because when God becomes the motivator, the way the work is approached and done changes and suddenly becomes based on God and not "fear of man" (another term for that would be people pleasing). Yes, I hate to break it to you but *even* on a church staff people pleasing rules the work not God. Oh calm down. I've worked on TWO church staffs, worked for FOUR Christian organizations so I've had some personal experience - I know what I'm talking about. Doing work in God's name isn't the goal, it isn't what he really asked of us. He wants to be the motivator of the work, the driving force, the reason.
Don't throw God's name on to some work like he's a tagline, make him the main event.
I had this quote up on my "guinea pig" work white board. It caused a lot of conversation and mulling - right there in front of me. Sometimes I was part of the convo, other times not.
As a believer, if God is not the one motivating your work - no matter what it is (Pastor, toilet scrubbing, CEO, shelf stocker, Front Desk Receptionist, Sunday School teacher, just to offer up a few examples) - then it isn't worth doing. We've forgotten about God. "What? No Beth you are crazy, I'm a Pastor - Sunday School teacher - Missionary and I am doing important work in the name of God. I haven't forgotten about him." Huh. Really? Doing work in his name is the easy thing, actually anyone can do work in his name (and they don't even have to be a follower of him - there are some good actors out there!), but allowing him to be the motivator for the work...well, that's a whole different way to work. If the work you are doing and have done has been done in his name but he was left out of it then you've got some reevaluating to do. So do I by the way. I'm not exempt. I read this quote about 5 years ago and ask people - I quote it a lot...mostly as a reminder to myself. :) I read it when I was working on a church staff and collectively God had been forgotten about. (Oh man anyone from that staff who just read that has their feathers ruffled - their panties in a twist - right about now! HA! Sometimes the truth does sting.) I read it, I was pierced, and I started reevaluating. It wasn't well-received because when God becomes the motivator, the way the work is approached and done changes and suddenly becomes based on God and not "fear of man" (another term for that would be people pleasing). Yes, I hate to break it to you but *even* on a church staff people pleasing rules the work not God. Oh calm down. I've worked on TWO church staffs, worked for FOUR Christian organizations so I've had some personal experience - I know what I'm talking about. Doing work in God's name isn't the goal, it isn't what he really asked of us. He wants to be the motivator of the work, the driving force, the reason.
Don't throw God's name on to some work like he's a tagline, make him the main event.
Comments
Post a Comment