At Work For Him

The majority of my time awake in a week is not spent with my family.

The majority of my time awake in a week is not spent in church.

The majority of my time awake in a week is spent at work.

I make a profession of faith to follow Jesus and follow His lead in my life.  That affects family life, it certainly affects church life.  The area that it should impact the greatest of all, however, should be the area in which I invest the greatest amount of time and energy.

That does not mean taking up work time thinking it’s a good time to send prayer emails, when I should be delivering training as I am paid to do.

It certainly means I have to live with integrity in what I do at work.  It means my engagement with my colleagues should be full of the character of Christ in terms of truthful, supportive, just and loving and considerate.  It means the way in which I operate at work reflects the fact that I’m doing it to God. I’m doing it with the spirit of excellence, diligence and perseverance.

This kind of attitude and a joy at work is not always the norm.  Making the work place exactly the best place to engage in Kingdom business and being a proper agent for that Kingdom primarily through character.

This approach has not come naturally for me.  Despite being brought up in the church and all that, I was very much used to the double life, where what I did at school and work did not have to affect how I behaved at church.

Later on there was a kind of thinking that there should be prayer meetings and handing out leaflets on church to work colleagues in the hope that they will come to church.  That only went so far with me. (I’m not disputing it works for others, and if you can pray with colleagues at work that’s great.)

Now it’s an interesting impasse.

I know I’m just as much a child of God when dealing with awkward learners who could not care less, as I am when I’m singing How Great Thou Art at church.  I know those that I work for, work with and serve are just as much in need of the Saviour, as anyone.  I also know that the best approach to share that good news for some won’t work with others.

Now is where the rubber hits the road in terms of being wise as a serpent and harmless as dove.  I appreciate now more than ever that the Holy Spirit isn’t reserved to convenient church times when I can do the Holy Ghost three-step and turnaround because that’s what it’s all about.  The Holy Spirit that lives within me is just as much to guide my decisions at work as anywhere else.  As He leads in this area, He will bring fruit … if I am faithful.

Now is the fun of seeing how all that works.

You can see why I need to operate in the strength of the Lord.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden