Dearest Members of Bethlehem,
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…” -Colossians 3:23
Soulless work can wreak havoc on our spirits.
There’s an old song that Tennessee Ernie Ford sang, with this interesting lyric, “You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.” Wow, that’s rough.
Listen on and you will soon hear that it gets rougher, “Saint Peter don’t call me, cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company store.”
Now, we should not make light of the fact, that there may have been some very hard-working folk, who had to contend with outrageous working conditions, but I also want to offer a word of hope.
Whether you are working a 16-hour day or are retired, you will have tasks to complete today. Some of those tasks might seem menial or mindless, things that we do, “just to get done,” but wait! Should we let our days slip by as we dwell in a perpetual state of monotony and drudgery? Heavens, no! There’s much more to life, and much more to the mundane and every day.
Much of what we see around us is a gift from the Divine. The song actually starts this way, “Some people say a man is made out of mud…” And quite frankly, that’s a wonderful place to begin. All of us are children of God, created in the very image of God. And what God created was good. If that good goes a little awry, the grace of God is there to mold us back into shape.
In fact, Saint Peter can go ahead and call us any time that he might like, because we have a champion and Savior that can pay any debt that we might accumulate, the most important debts anyway.
We trust that we are in Christ, and that kind of awareness can fill us with the passion to see every task and effort as an opportunity to live faithfully and witness to the power of God’s goodness in the world. We all have work to do, let’s do it well with as much heart as we can muster.
Question for reflection: What work are you most passionate about? Can you work more of what your passionate about into the next 40 hours?
This week at Bethlehem:
On Wednesday our Bible study on the book of Exodus gets underway. We will offer a 10:30 morning session and a 7:00 evening session. Please consider joining us, as we get back to exploring the Word.
On Saturday evening we will have worship at 6:00.
On Sunday morning we will offer worship at 8:00 and 10:30. Sunday School begins at 9:15. It’s Rally Day, so please note our worship schedule has changed. Our Rally Day picnic will begin immediately following the late service.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Dan
God of love, when our fears and worries overwhelm us, please be our strength. When we can hardly contain ourselves in our moments of enthusiasm and celebration, remind us to be grateful to you for every blessing. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.