(Based on Colossians 1:1-14)
So, it's Monday morning. Another week. Another weekend has blinked by. There's this moment right now, staring at the coffee pot, thinking, damn. I start daydreaming about better times, these times when work isn't a part of life, where work is actually play and there's no such thing as clocking in and clocking out. The drudgery. The endless routine. The futility. Geez!
My first year of working at the restaurant I'm currently at was like this . . . every . . . morning . . . every . . . week . . . day . . . after . . . day . . . after . . . day.
Who came up with the idea that work was supposed to even be a part of existence? Who came up with the idea that we were supposed to work for someone, doing something in return for something else?
But then there's those days, those crazy, euphoric, uber-spiritual days of work where it seems like things are exactly how they're supposed to be. Everything just seems to connect, and the boss affirms me and my coworkers and I get along, and we find ourselves finding a mission and a purpose and the stars align and we're finally figuring it out and then . . . another day.
Is there any point in work besides doing something to receive something in return?
As a fellow struggler in the reality of nine to five, or eight to four in my case, I'm always on the lookout for that thing I like to call "something more." What is it? Does it even exist? Is it attainable?
My friend Paul writes a letter to a church in Colosse (hence, the book is called Colossians). In this letter, he tells the people of Colosse that he's thankful for the reports he's received about how they've "kept their lines of purpose tightly tied." They're lines of purpose aren't growing slack, which means that the Message they received at some point previously had carried enough weight in their lives that it brought purpose into their daily activities. They saw a purpose in their work, and their work included everything outside of rest.
According to the letter, Paul doesn't define what work is, but rather defines what it isn't. For Paul and the people of Colosse, there is this strength they have tapped into that gives them the ability to work thankfully and not through gritted teeth. It's a strength that "endures the unendurable and spills over into joy." This strength enables the people to take part in "everything bright and beautiful that God has" for them.
When I read about people like this in the Bible, it's easy see all these folks in a vacuum. They're all crazy disciples who don't have to work, but rather live off the land and spend all their time in these communes where no one has to work but everything just sort of happens for them and they don't have to do anything like . . . work.
What I don't naturally do when reading passages like this is think about jobs and livelihoods and passions and families and movies.
When Paul writes a letter to a church in Colosse, the people he's writing to are doing the same things that we do today. They have jobs. They are inter-generational. Some are rich, some are poor, some work at MacDonald's and some work as executives at large companies. They're all mixed together, and are carrying out their daily duties with "tightly tied lines of purpose." Why?
These are a people who have been freed from the dead-end life. They have been freed to work with purpose. No longer are they working tirelessly with a Roman boot on their neck, just to get through the day. The boot is still there, but there is a new found purpose. They have a Message to carry to their coworkers, friends, family members, and even their enemies. They've been "set up in the kingdom of the Son God loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were so doomed to keep repeating."
Now, I doubt that these people were experiencing Utopia. However, I bet they at least carried into each day a profound sense of purpose. Work for them didn't just happen at work, because they were on mission. The mission started upon waking up, and retired at sleep time. Work was mission. Work was spiritual. Work was love.
In a way, there is the work behind the work. We clock in and clock out, but just underneath there is this profound sense that there really is something more. There are relationships, there is this message, there is this undertone of the shared reality of life and finding joy in what could be mundane. There is this familial strength to continue on.
Don't get me wrong. I have bad days just like everyone else. In fact, I probably have more bad days than the average Joe. But, on those days that I can wake up to the reality that there is a Message to carry, a love to be shared, and a line of purpose to keep taut, joy spills over. I remember what it was like to have a dead-end life with no purpose and no work. For us, just like it was for the people of Colosse, we have been rescued from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. We've been set up in the kingdom of the Son who's got us out of the pits we were in, gotten rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.
For the people of Colosse, work was the mission field. Whether it was clocking in and clocking out, or owning a business, or traveling on foot as preachers from town to town, it was all considered work and it was all considered mission. They weren't seen as separate entities.
When we find our purpose, we find that everything is connected through that purpose, and it doesn't discriminate by geography or substance. Everywhere we are and whoever we are with, our purpose remains the same and we find that it isn't compartmentalized. Everything is connected with our purpose. At work or play, church or home, Denny's or the library, we have a Message to share, a line of purpose to keep tight.
Because we've been set free from dead-end lives, we have the strength to endure the unendurable, have wise minds and spirits attuned to our purposes, stick it out over the long haul, and take part in everything bright and beautiful. Because we've been rescued from the pits we were in, we can find brightness and beauty in our work.
We have the ability to go into work today with attitudes of joy and gratitude. We have a Message to share with our coworkers. And when we get out of work and go on to our next work, we have a Message to share. And when we leave that work and go to our next work, we have joy and love and a Message to share. Everything is spiritual, and we spend more time at our jobs than anywhere else. Our coworkers are like family to us. We have the profound ability to push each other to tap into the strength that enables us to endure the unendurable, and to shift from gritted teeth to unending joy.
Today's Action: On the way to work, ask God for one mission at work. Pay attention and take part in whatever mission that is. Try to be as grateful as possible throughout the day, realizing that work is spiritual and is just as much part of our purposes as anything else.
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