Christian, Look to Your Duty

It's been said before: Work is not a punishment for the Fall, only the drudgery part is. And no job is completely immune to drudgery. The average person is bewildered when professional entertainers show annoyance at requests for impromptu performances on social occasions--how could anyone want a break from a job that's obviously such pure pleasure?

Conversely, most of us have met the occasional person who seems to find tremendous joy in a "rote" job: the tollbooth operator who beams as he waves to each passing driver during a gray rush hour, the data entry clerk who hums happily at her computer while everyone else displays the grim faces of put-upon drones. Where do such attitudes come from? One clue is found in a statement from a cleaning lady at a church, who cheerfully told an interviewer, "I do all my work for the Lord." St. Paul said as much centuries earlier: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Col. 3:23). Ecclesiastes (9:10a) expresses the same concept as "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might"--a useful reminder that good workers look for what needs doing, instead of waiting to be told what to do.

If you read the Colossians verse in context, you'll also find that Paul originally addressed it to slaves--which gives the lie to the idea that one can only be happy in a job of his own choosing. (You might reread the Genesis story of Joseph as an example of someone who epitomized the best of working well without wasting time in bitterness over unwanted circumstances.) This is not, of course, to say that "taking whatever's available" is always the best choice--just that we have no right to demand God, our real Boss, let us write our own "job descriptions." (I speak as someone who tried far too long to adapt the work market to her own leanings instead of the other way around, and is now in the position of starting the whole vocation-planning process over from square one.) What's important is that we follow His leadings in finding work and do it to serve Him--not our own desires for income, enjoyment, or status.

If we serve Him diligently in little things, He will soon enough give us bigger things to do.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
God's holy beauty
Shines through your toil:
Christian,
God gives us gifting,
Talents for lifting
Souls from earth's soil.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
There can be beauty
In lowest task:
Christian,
Work for God's glory:
Show His great story
To all who ask.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
Look to God's beauty,
Labor with prayer:
Christian,
Give Him your praises:
Joyful work raises
The Name we bear.

Christian,
Look to your duty:
Eternal beauty
Waits for its day:
Christian,
Look for your Savior:
His coming favor
Will not delay.