The Proper Perspective: Put God First When Life Intervenes – Be The Godly Example!
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.’ (Colossians 3:2)
Colossians 3:2 is the conclusion of an instructional statement, as is often mentioned we must keep things in the proper perspective no matter what we do, the proper perspective of course being Jesus and His Gospel comes first. Although ‘work’ pays the bills, and there is a responsibility to the companies we work for and with, the ‘job’ Jesus has for us must be in the forefront of our plans. There are times when work activities do interrupt plans for church activities, such as sometimes working to complete a project that precludes attending Wednesday night (and for some, Sunday morning) church activities, but we need to try to always include Jesus in what we do in the interaction with others no matter what the ‘interruption’ is.
Before they wore out, I would always wear the ‘Tap Me If You Need Prayer’ shirts when I went out in public. I wore one on my initial day of Jury Duty a while back. Jury duty (for any length of time) is an interruption; no one jumps for joy when summoned for Jury Duty, but it is a duty as a citizen, so off I go – and I get picked to serve on a week-long jury. I had no time to do either my ‘Word-of-the-Day’ e-mails to my class or do my work items, but by wearing a ‘Tap Me!’ shirt on that initial day, my fellow jurors kept asking me questions throughout the week during breaks which I was then able to answer (‘do you get tapped often?’, ‘what church do you go to?’, ‘what do you think about these events <from a Christian perspective>?’), and then that allowed me to open in prayer among them before deliberation. The interruption of jury duty opened opportunities to share Jesus with the others.
The same is when work brings such interruptions; I try to set the example of the ethics and morality of Jesus (in line with ‘WWJD?’) in what I present in how I accomplish work of intervening life tasks. I do ‘earthly things’ by trying to keeping Godly things in mind when accomplishing them. It is a type of worship within the workmanship or the secular relationships that arises, no matter what type of work you do.
The ‘instructional’ statement of Colossians 3:2 is Colossians 3:1: ‘Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.’ Keep God at the forefront of all that you do, even if it is not something particularly Spiritual in nature – especially if it interferes with what you hold onto as being Spiritual. Even in the mundane, be an example of what Jesus would do.
If you go shopping, for example, what would Jesus want you to do with the shopping cart after you’ve put your stuff in your car? (I believe Jesus would put the cart in the cart corral, so I make sure to put it in the cart corral and not leave it in the middle of a parking space as a heretic would do.) If you have to miss church on a particular Sunday due to an overriding need (a family member flying in and needs picked up at the airport as an example), put Jesus into accomplishing the task; drive safe and be courteous to those who are coming and going from the airport. Life can overcome our ‘Spiritual’ routines, but let the Spirit overcome Life’s events to His Glory.
