Seeing Your Work as the Will of God – Part 2
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17
Research shows that the best moments of our lives don’t come from leisure or pleasure. They come when you’re immersed in a significant task that’s challenging, yet matches up well to your highest abilities. In those moments, you’re so caught up in an activity that time somehow seems to be altered; your attention is fully focused without your having to work at it. You’re deeply aware, without being self-conscious; you’re being stretched and challenged, but without a sense of stress or worry. You have a sense of engagement or oneness with what you are doing. This condition is called ‘flow’, because people experiencing it often use the metaphor of feeling swept up by something outside themselves. Studies have been done over the past thirty years with hundreds of thousands of subjects to explore this phenomenon of flow. Ironically, you experience it more in your work than you do in your leisure time. In fact, your flow is at its lowest ebb when you’ve nothing to do. Sitting around doesn’t produce flow. This picture of flow is actually a description of what the exercise of dominion was intended to look like. God says in Genesis that we’re to ‘rule’ over the earth, or exercise ‘dominion’ (See Genesis 1:26, 28). We often think of these words in terms of ‘dominating’ or ‘bossing around’. But the true idea behind them is that you’re to invest your abilities to create value on the earth, to plant and build and write and organize and heal and invent ways that bless people and cause God’s kingdom on earth to flourish.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me work thinking about what I do as something that helps others, no matter what it is I do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
This article about work rings so true. Perhaps this is the reason so many people are unhappy at work. I was given a gift for in emergency health care, which I discovered at a very young age, I was never so happy as being an EMT-A time always flew by doing this work, perhaps if all of us used our God Given gifts the entire world and the economy would thrive. When you do a “job” that you love and are inspired by it doesn’t even feel like work. Too many people are stuck in unsatisfying jobs only because they need to pay bills and survive. I wonder if we will ever see an age where people have passion for what they do. Although unemployed now I have been fortunate in my life to have been able with the guidance of loving parents, God, and mentors who have inspired me- how I wish that especially for the youth of today.