Taking It to Work:
Long-term, what do you think will matter most about your time in the workplace?
When I was a teenager, I worked as a helper to a few air-conditioning technicians. The job taught me much about refrigeration systems, electrical systems, ductwork, and very hot Florida attics. But looking back now, the most enjoyable, and long-lasting blessing of my job was working with a technician named Sonny. He was a Christian man about 25 years my senior, who always had a joke, a big smile, and a constant flow of encouraging words. He enjoyed life, people, and making the world laugh. I worked off-and-on with Sonny for fifteen years, and stayed friends with him for another ten or so afterward. I can’t tell you how that man impacted my life, taught me to laugh, and had a significant role in changing my eternal destiny. He’s probably up there right now making the Lord laugh.
Anyway, AC work was not that fun, but working with Sonny made that pretty hard job one of my favorite memories in life.
Our work today is not always fun, some may even dread it, but when we understand that the way we go about our work can have such an impact on the people we work with, maybe even an impact eternally, we can turn our focus to planting seeds of joy, encouragement and helpfulness in the lives of others, while we do that mundane job. The change that can make in the lives we touch – we can’t measure. Even if our work is not uplifting in the slightest, the lifting of others can make it so.
Read slowly the great wisdom given in the scripture verses today. When we sow into others, there is no greater crop or job we can have, as His Word works through you, today.
Prv 11:25 (ESV) – Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.
2Cor 9:6 (ESV) – The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Psalm 126:6 (ESV) – He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
Listening to the Holy Spirit (Rhema):
The work of God is not confined; it resides within you, but pours to all those around you. It is not contained either in wall nor city, for it follows and expands through others touched along the way. The work of your life is neither confined by your days or that of the earth, for as My works are eternal, so too your own – through Me. See your life as something greater, your work as something of greater value. I forget not one seed, not the smallest trigger of blessing to others, for you do not see what those seeds begin. You realize not the wonder of blessing even one smile or act of service begins. Work with diligence to bless, for what is begun in the effort, I will complete. As you plant, I will grow. You are sent today not only to work for wage, but to work the ground and plant the seeds of kindness and blessing that bear fruit tomorrow, and for eternity. It is the work of the saint, in all ages, to leave behind for the elevation of others. Lift them around you, and My right hand will uphold. Plant, that your harvest will be of plenty.
