Well, this week they have chosen to place in front of me a book that has jarred me awake. The class is "Christian Foundations in Business" and the book is "Your Work Matters to God" by Doug Sherman and William Hendricks.
I've just finished the first chapter and it posited a question that made me sit up an take immediate notice:
If we spend most of our time (40%-75% by some studies) at work, why doesn't the church ever spend any time talking about it?
Sherman and Hendricks polled over 2000 church members and found that over 90% polled had never, repeat NEVER, heard a sermon or been a part of other church related learning involving biblical principles and everyday work issues.
It seems, to some extent, like we've turned "Christianity" into some grand mission, to be completed "out there". Sermons are geared towards how we need to get out, do more, about how we can use our time to spread God's Love. Granted, these are important aspects of what God calls us to do, but if we only focus on the big stuff, we miss the enormity of the everyday.
Most of our lives will be spent doing our jobs and most of us will have jobs that have little or nothing to do with the church. Does this mean that what we do means nothing to God? Of course not, but this area where a large chunk of our lives unfold is looked at almost as an afterthought.
The more I read the more I felt a light being shined on my struggles in my relationship with God. I'll admit I have not been very committed to my walk lately. I've felt just flat out complacent and unmotivated. Now I think I have an idea why: I've compartmentalized my faith into something to be practiced outside of the things I do everyday. God wants us to focus on Him in EVERYTHING we do. I reflect Him in all that I do; the difficult calls to deny a customer's claim, the accuracy with which I write my estimates, even the way I handle other commuters on the way to work.
So here's hoping I can focus God's work through me while inside that little cubicle this week. I don't need to find some grand calling to follow Him. He puts opportunities in front of me every day.
It was only one chapter, about 15 pages but they jumped out at me like a spiritual pop up book. I've got a few hundred more pages to get through over the next few weeks but these first few pages really got inside me and I wanted to get my thoughts out. Thanks for listening.
2 comments:
I may just have to read that. It is truly something to think about.
I'm reading this book called 'The Jesus of Suburbia' and the author talks about how there is no word in Hebrew for 'spiritual life' because everything to them was spiritual - the way they talked to each other, the way they interacted with the culture, even the way they worked.
I said all that to say how we work is a better determining factor on how well our relationship with God is more than if we prayed this morning.
Starting a new blog soon..I'll add ya, my padawan.
Post a Comment