Serving in the Workplace

This past week I have been working for the company my brother works for. While my brother sits at a nice desk doing design work, I stand in a warehouse doing quality control. All that means is I make sure the workers are doing their job correctly. It is not difficult work but it does get old and tiring after clocking fifty hours in a week doing the same exact thing day in and day out.

As I was standing there holding the labels I stick on boxes and watching the guys work, Colossians 3:23-24 popped into my head. It says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." This got me thinking, what if work can be serving? What if work is serving and I can make it a form of ministry like I served this summer? Then all of a sudden I found myself helping the guys with their work. It's not my job and I don't have to but as a way to serve God and the guys I work with I pitch in with some of the work that needs to be done.

What I find interesting about the verse in Colossians is that is say "Whatever you do". It does not say whenever you do ministry. In whatever we do, weather its ministry, working a blue collar job, or working a corporate one, we are called to work for the Lord, not man. We are to seek God's approval, not man's. They only need me for one more week in the warehouse and then I will go back to working for my mom. In whatever job I do however, I will work as if I am working for the Lord, not man. I know it is only God that I am working for and it is Him I am to please. E.