How do you work each day? Are you seeking the approval of men worrying that they will think poorly of you? Do you see behind their masks? Are you serving the One True God and working to please Him. Or are you too wearing a mask to hide from the world?
In the course of my career, I have worked in major international corporations and small businesses, and now own and run my own business. I deal with vendors, clients, and competitors on a daily basis, and I have witnessed and experienced the challenge of staying true to God when everyone around you is focused on the world. Greed will often compromise our decision-making, and envy will cause us to be pulled toward having “more things”… and then we put on a mask, unable to face ourselves in the mirror or our fellow Believers at church on Sunday.
I have always worked to do the right thing, not always thinking of it as serving God, but because doing “right” was embedded in my heart and mind by my parents and my church as well as my God. It would have been easier (and arguably more profitable) to go the way of the world, but the world doesn’t answer for me on judgment day. I will stand alone to answer for what I have done or not done, said or not said. First Thessalonians 2:4-6 (NIV) puts our perspective on situations not unlike our role in being apostles in the workplace. How we lead at work, performing our work, and as a worker in Christ matters more than anything else we do.
1 Thessalonians 2:46 (NIV)
4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.
5 You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness.
6 We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority.
We have each been entrusted with the knowledge of Christ and the responsibility to witness to the world. We spend most of our time at work. Isn’t it time for us to step up and be not merely men (or women) at work, but Apostles for Christ at God’s Work?
Author: Lea A. Strickland, MBA CMA CFM CBM GMC
Copyright ©2012 Lea A. Strickland
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