God in the Workplace

I didn't preach 1 Timothy 6:1-2 as planned this week because I couldn't reconcile talking about God in the Workplace with a text that was quite clearly talking about slavery. So I did what I always do when in a situation like this: fall back to the Master. What practices in work did Jesus have?

Matthew 14:15-21 (New International Version)
15As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." 16Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." 17"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered. 18"Bring them here to me," he said. 19And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces that were left over. 21The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

1. "Bring them here to me" / Take Responsibility For The Opportunity
It's so much easier to stand around and look for the person who is going to take charge of a difficult situation than it is to step up to the plate to swing. And how easily we get frustrated with the lack of resources. Jesus took in his own hands the resources that God made available, stepped up, and led the way.

Proverbs 22:29 says, "Do you see those who are skilled in their work, they will serve before kings, they will not serve before officials of low rank." People who take responsibility for the opportunity to serve will be given more responsibility and a greater scope of influence by God.

2. "Looking up to Heaven" / View Your Job From God's Perspective
God usually has a bigger purpose for our work than we do. Don't fall into the trap of "If just one person's life is touched, everything is worth it." I can't imagine God having this perspective about creation or Christ any more than I can for our own work and lives. God wants much more than that for the world.

What practices will help you "look up to heaven" and evaluate your work from God's perspective?

3. "He gave thanks" / Cultivate an Attitude Of Gratitude
We need people who focus on possibilities rather than problems, who are interesting in hunting down solutions. It's like the child who finds herself looking up at a big pile of manure and says, "I know there's a pony in here someplace!" If you have a clean barn, you probably don't have any horses. And if you have horses that are producing and doing work, you're going to have manure. You need manure to make things grow.

My friend Laura, single mother of three, has a great handwritten sign on her kitchen cabinet that says: "Someday my house will be clean." She has inspired me to put one of my own up: "Thank you, God, for this sinkful of dishes and my filthy floor, which is such a small price to pay for the three young ponies that I'm raising."

In all things, give thanks to God.

4. "He broke the bread" / Multiply The Good Stuff
How much of your time at your work, from parenting, to administrating, to selling pianos, do you spend working out of your strengths? How can you multiply the very best parts of the gifts, skills, natural inclinations, passions, abilities God gave you? If you are a leader, don't just lead people. Make more leaders. You have to think like a banker: How can you get maximum return on God's investment in you?

If there is something you are really good at, do it a LOT, not a little. Take what God's given you and multiply it.

5. "Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people." / Serve
Here's what it says about receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, "Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy." What if it's true that if you're not willing to serve, God will not use you?