The Not-Often-Thought-Of Need for Work

"I need rest." - The usually silent, but screaming, unspoken words of most people I know

 

"I need work." - The usually spoken, excited, motivated words of deeply rested people

 

The deeply rested people that I know are not the people who have just returned from a vacation. The deeply rested people that I know are the ones that live life constantly "rising up above themselves" and escape the trappings of their own making. It is these people that seem to love work in a way that I desire to love work.

 

Oh, tons of people I know love work. Just not the way I want to love work.

 

The ones that love work because they find their identity in it...have an identity that is too small.

The ones that love work because they have a "spot" on the planet that they can feel some sense of control...have an illusion that bears no lasting satisfaction.

The ones that love work because it is their hiding place from family relationships, Godly relationships, or just relationships...have a lonely existence.

The ones that love work because it's giving them money to do something they want to do that is other than their work...are wasting time doing something other than what they want to do, thinking it's the only way to do it.

 

While I have a little bit in common with all of the above people in regards to my "work", I would not put any of those reasons on my list of "why I love work."

 

I love work because I need it. I was made for it. Created for it. Incomplete without it. Lost without it.

 

The work I speak of does not stop when your "regular duties" are altered for a time due to a Sabbatical, a vacation, a resignation, a firing, or a job change.

 

Work, to me, is synonymous with life.

Work is synonymous with love.

Work is synonymous with truth.

It's synonymous with family.

It's synonymous with relationships.

 

Work, for each of us, is the only thing we are alive to do, when we understand what real work is. Jesus said that "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

 

A loaded statement, to say the least. And I don't think being a preacher means that I'm just one of the "lucky ones" who gets to be paid to do the work of God. This may sound strange for many, but I don't even think of myself as a "full-time minister"...never have. Maybe I just like imagining this, but I'm just striving to be a normal, God-directed, listening human being who believes that there is always a call on my life to do something for a Caller out there, and in my listening and responsiveness, it just happens to mean I'm in a pulpit right now, preaching about Jesus to a group of people I love in Amarillo, TX.

 

You were created for the work of God. I don't care who you are, I know that whatever your doing, your full time work is to believe in Jesus. To believe what he said, and live your life based on it. And, from personal experience I'll tell you, when I'm doing that work it changes my life daily.

 

And I need it to feel alive.