Colossians 3:23–24 – Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
When I was in college, I came from a blue-collar family and was one of the first in my family to attend university, so I worked my way through college.
One job I had was at a Marriott hotel and there were three main jobs I would do as part of the position – as a shuttle driver driving people to and from the airport, as a bellhop unloading people’s cars and taking their bags to their rooms, and as a concierge booking cars and dinner reservations for hotel guests.
At my interview, I was interviewed by an older man who asked me what I was studying in school and what I wanted to do. I told him I was getting a speech degree and wanted to be a Bible teacher. He asked if I was a Christian and I told him “Yes” and he said he was a Christian too. He asked me, “If I hire you, are you going to work like a Christian?” I thought maybe I should say yes, but I was a new Christian, so I wasn’t sure what that meant.
He pointed me to Colossians 3 about working for the Lord and using our work as a way to serve others. He told me that most people who worked there weren’t Christians, so we needed to act like Christians and work like Christians. He told me that meant showing up early, never late, clocking out when your shift ends because that’s the hours you’re being paid for, staying busy, and asking others how you can help if you’re bored.
He told me that meant treating all with excellence, no matter who shows up, whether they have a nice car or a beater car. It means loving and serving them both in exactly the same way. It meant not working harder for richer people, so they’d hopefully tip us better. It meant not just serving our customers, but serving anyone who pulled up, because we were ultimately working for Jesus.
A few weeks later, he hired another college student who was also a Christian and one day, the guy was at the bellhop stand and didn’t have anything to do, so he pulled out his Bible and started reading it. Our boss actually told him to put it away because the Marriott wasn’t paying him to read his Bible! He told him even though he was doing a good thing in reading his Bible, that reading it on company time was a bad witness.
On his break, this boss would read his Bible in the breakroom and, one day in particular, one of the housekeepers was having a hard time because she had just miscarried a child. She noticed him reading his Bible and he had the opportunity to pray for her and explain to her that Jesus was a baby, and that Heaven is for little children. The next day he brought her a Bible of her own. Because he worked and acted like a Christian, he was able to turn his work into his witness and his worship.
How can you turn your work into your witness and worship?
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