Well, there’s a real shocker for you! Likely you wondered, what’s up? You might’ve read the headline and drew your own conclusions but before I go any further let me explain to you in as clear of language as I can. Please don’t send comments and messages that spreads rumors. I am still employed!
What I am discovering is that I cannot our off living until I am ready or have enough to retire. Strange isn’t it that we work all our lives for just the last few years we have to live?
I’m still employed at my current role serving as Director of Church Engagement at White’s Residential and Family Services. I am still performing the function of my role and even expanding opportunities. Yet, something is going to be different in 2020. I can see with a renewed vision; that the why of work has little to do with my job!
Now that I’ve got your attention however, let me take you a bit further to explain what this is all about.
For many people their job is a chore. Many people take the attitude that they have to go to work so that they can make a living. They look at their job as a routine and often forget that it is more than that! I have heard it said that if you love what you’re doing than you are not just doing your “job” but rather you find meaning and purpose in life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson left us a quote worthy of one of those inspirational wall posters: “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Read more.
I resolve that I go to “work” not to make a living but the make a life! There is a difference between just living to work and being alive at work.
Life is about purpose, meaning, and mission. It has little to do with a pay check. It has little to do with logging hours. It has even less to do with titles and tasks.
Colossians 3:23-24 (New International Version) reminds us:
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
I am reminded as 2020 is underway that just doing is not living but rather it is about being truly alive. If our job is as sacred as our purpose and mission, we will find satisfaction as well as life.
You see, I am quitting my job of endless chores and tasks; it is not just about doing. I choose to make it about something eternal. I find joy in work because in that I discover ministry.
What I do is with all my heart; as I am serving Christ by my daily activity.
