Whatever You Do...

Colossians 3:23-24 (GNT) says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people. Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people. For Christ is the real Master you serve." 

How can we apply this verse in our lives today?

It hasn't been an easy week with my work.  It hasn't been an easy few weeks with the volunteer work I love.  There have been challenges and then some, one right after another.  I was feeling very grouchy about working for the man when there were other things I'd really rather be doing.

I don't mean things were that bad with everything, but it seemed to spiral into arguments, tears, stress, frustration and discord.  The more I stressed about earthly things the less I was looking at my heavenly blessings, the loving abundance that is in my life from moment to moment.

I started thinking like this sign,  NO THROUGH ROAD and I forgot that with God it can be transformed into merely a NO THROUGH ROAD.  

The rough road  I can, with God navigate.  After all it isn't closed, it isn't impassible, it is just rough.  

How wondrous is our God that He can take a road marked NO THROUGH ROAD and transform it into a merely rough road.  Certainly it will have pot holes, soft shoulders, ditches that are steep and debris filled.  Most likely it will have breakdowns and meltdowns, storms and flash floods.  It will be steep and curved, it will be bumpy and flat.  It will be rough but not impassible!

Rough roads are custom made to bring us closer to God. They are the path to understanding that we serve something greater and that when the signs say, NO THROUGH ROAD, God has the spray can to change four letters.  

While I was seriously hating doing the work that was in front of me, I was spending a lot of my energy forging ahead with not thought as to how I could be using this for the Glory of God.  My job, (pending contract renewal), is not one you would think of as Kingdom Building but it is one where I can speak for the other members of His Creation and make sure they are not forgotten.  

The little tasks of spreadsheets, sweeping floors, calling and emailing can all serve God if I am willing to let go of my determination to be facing a NO THROUGH ROAD sign.  The big jobs, the tasks I cannot imagine getting done are also for His Glory.  

How else could I do even a single thing?  I know I could not.  I would sit down before my closed, dead end road and quit.  I would stop.  Without my faith, without His Grace I would have nothing. I would lose it all because I am not serving the Source when I serve my own self.  When I feed my fears, when I feed my superiority, when I feed my pride, I would fight those I love, I would destroy what is entrusted to me.  Through Him alone am I able to seek to serve Him in all I do.

I have to go hang out the laundry, let the September breezes and the sun dry the bedding...and I'll be doing it with a lighter heart and a serving spirit because I am not doing it for me or because I have to but because caring for my family is one way I can serve my Lord.