Friday, April 19, 2013

Do You Live to Work?

"Work is not primarily a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily
satisfaction."
--Dorothy Sayers, Unpopular Opinions 

I found this quote while reading for my Christ and Culture class.  This past week we have been discussing work and what that means to our culture and what it means to the Kingdom of God. Deciphering between the two definitions has been quite interesting.

Our culture focuses on what we do to earn money.  We find work to be torturous and something we cannot wait to be done with.  However, work for the Kingdom is not always what we do to earn money and it is never a done job.

When working for the Kingdom we embody the quote above.  Not only should it be something we find satisfaction in, but it is something we do for God and for others.  It should not be about what we can do for ourselves but what we can do for others.

This is something I strive to do in my future career.  I want my work to be for God and to be for others. Will there be some personal benefits to that? Yes.  But first and foremost comes God and working for His Kingdom.

I want to live for my work.  I want to live to help people.  And I want to live for the Lord and further his Kingdom here on Earth.  If this was everyone's mindset what kind of world would we live in?  If we all work for Him and not ourselves, what kind of place would this be?

One can only hope to experience a world like that.  And until then? I will do my best to live that way in hopes to be an example to others to do the same.  
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1 comment:

gayle said...

What you learned in your class is something I have learned "the hard way" just by being in the workforce. I have not been super-purposeful about my occupation, and the affects of that kind of crept up on me! Now, I have to be careful about finding purpose outside of my job, otherwise I find myself feeling somewhat depressed. Not because I dislike my job, I enjoy my job! But because my heart for Jesus knows that life is about more than this. It definitely keeps me running back to God! :)

Thanks for sharing!!

xoxo,
Gayle | Grace for Gayle