Working as Unto the Lord

One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to help mission teams prepare for their trip. Our philosophy of training is “we’d rather have you fail here and succeed there than succeed here and fail there.” This means that everything we do is intentional. It also means that we try to give opportunities for people to apply what they are learning as they learn it.   

One time I was training a group that was going to France. The group had not done very well at applying the lessons I was teaching throughout the weekend. In the final activity, the team was given 12 nails, and they were to balance them simultaneously on one nail that was driven into a small piece of 2 x 4.  

The group tried a few failing strategies and then asked, “Is this even possible?” I answered their question with a question of my own, “Why do you ask?” No response. They worked on it a little bit longer and began to ask if they could give up. I encouraged them to try a bit longer, and they did.   

After a few more failing attempts, the group began to complain and get very agitated. One woman in particular declared, “If we are going to have to stack nails on this trip, then I’m clearly not fit for the team!”  

Eventually we reached our time limit, and I brought the time to a close. In their agitation, I asked them why they thought I might have had them do an activity that seemed to have no purpose in preparing for their mission trip. Again, they had no answer. 

We finally talked about the fact that we often times are asked to do things that don’t seem to make sense. Perhaps the task seems irrelevant, or the method seems sloppy and inefficient. You know you shouldn’t complain but do everything you’re asked and serve like Jesus, and this just seems like a waste of time. Why would I come all this way and pay all this money to do (fill in the blank)?

However, just because something doesn’t appear to have a purpose, doesn’t make it so. Our lack of experience, cultural understanding, or kingdom perspective could all be factors when we question the validity of our task. In fact, it’s likely that the task does make sense, we just can’t see the reason. 

Most importantly, though, Colossians 3:23-24 teaches us that everything we do is a task from the Lord, and so we should work at it with all of our hearts. Our motivation comes not from what we are doing but for whom we are doing it! The cherry on top is that if we do this, we will receive a reward from the Lord—a far better reward than we would otherwise receive!  

Pray and Journal—Close today by praying and asking the Lord to allow you to work with purity of heart as unto Him in all situations.