Common Duties

I read this yesterday morning, before a day of company and dishes and busyness. Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott on faithfulness:

"Great thoughts go best with common duties. Whatever therefore may be your office regard it as a fragment in an immeasurable ministry of love" (Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart, p. 84).

When I have time pressure and long to-do lists, it can be hard to regard general household duties or other menial tasks as anything particularly significant--and not just a burden of mandatory labor.

But I want a heart that regards common duties as a small stewardship, an expression of love for the One who gave them to me, and an opportunity to cultivate faithfulness.

"His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master'" (Matthew 25:21).

I Never Made a Sacrifice

“For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. . . Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege.

"Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us.

"I never made a sacrifice."

David Livingstone 1813-1873

Laboring Well

I've been thinking lately about what it is to labor well and be faithful in work. It troubles me to see how pervasive a "slacker" mentality is reaching, even in Christian circles and even in my own heart.

I've been reading through Ephesians lately, and Eph 6:5-8 stands out to me:

Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ, not by way of eyeservice as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free.

Elisabeth Elliot has a meditation called "The Gift of Work" in her Keep a Quiet Heart. Here is a helpful portion:

Wouldn't it make an astounding difference, not only in the quality of the work we do (in office, schoolroom, factory, kitchen, or backyard), but also in our satisfaction, even our joy, if we recognized God's gracious gift in every single task, from making a bed or bathing a baby to drawing a blueprint or selling a computer? If our children saw us doing "heartily as unto the Lord" all the work we do, they would learn true happiness. Instead of feeling that they must be allowed to do what they like, they would learn to like what they do. (101)

God of Justice

A friend sent me this stirring song today, reminding me to be faithful with what I've received.

God of Justice
Tim Hughes

Listen to it here.

God of Justice, Saviour to all
Came to rescue the weak and the poor
Chose to serve and not be served

Jesus, You have called us
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us, what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out