An Empty Box
Do you feel you are paid enough for the work you do?
If you perform a search on that question, you will find articles and blog posts going back several years, and each of them provides advice on how to ask for more pay.
What it boils down to is a matter of self-worth. We are what we do and how much we get paid for it matters.
Put no trust in extortion; in robbery take no empty pride; though wealth increase, set not your heart upon it. God has spoken once, twice have I heard it, that power belongs to God. Steadfast love is yours, O Lord, for you repay everyone according to his deeds.- Psalm 62:12-14
So, the question is this, "Is it enough to know that God will repay us for our deeds, or do we need more tangible evidence in the form of monetary rewards?
It is a struggle to work hard for the promise of future rewards, especially when every day brings new bills and unexpected necessities. But most of us see a big distinction between the work we do for pay and the work we do for God. It is how we keep things in perspective, right?
What would our lives be like, though, if it was all for God?
In our Education for Ministry class last night we had a little exercise where each person had a small, undecorated wooden box. The task was to look inside the box and describe what we saw.
The boxes were empty, but that didn't stop us from coming up with some very creative explanations for the meaning of the box and its contents.
What we discovered is each of us has the capacity to dream, to delve deeper, to imagine, to be more than we appear to be.
Our lives are empty boxes and all that we have is nothing compared to what we truly value, what we really want to put in that box.
In California and across the West Coast, fire has taken away all that people owned, including the lives of some. In the Middle East, people have been driven from their homeland.
What value is all they had?
What we work for is important to us, but what we do with our time is important to God. Are we using that time wisely?
Imagine an empty box. What does it hold that matters to you?
More to come...