“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3 NASB)
There was a crew of sewer repairmen working a couple houses down the street from where I live. I heard the noise of a truck and went to look out the living room window to see what was going on. I saw three men in bright, florescent green vests and a couple of co-workers wearing warm, work attire jackets. After this team of men stood outside the truck for a few minutes talking, they did about five-minutes’ worth of work, as they looked down a drain in a neighbor’s driveway. I went to get some water and when I came back to the window, I could not see anyone. Every one of the crew members was in the truck. I wondered, “Surely, they are not done. They must be taking their afternoon break”. It was either that or their workday was coming to an end.
I sat in a living room chair, looking out the window while the truck just sat there. Orange cones were on the street, but no one was working. The bright lights on the top of the truck were flashing, but no one was working. While I conjured up various reasons behind the fact that I was not seeing any work being done, I took a trip back in time. Yes, I thought back to some of my personal experiences in work situations. I started looking back in somewhat of a chronological order. First, I pictured the time when I worked as a late teen. At the end of the day was approaching, I would pick up some printed papers and carry them around to give the impression I was working. Actually, I was just giving the appearance that I was working. I really was stalling until the top of the hour, and the workday was over. Further down my visiting times gone by, I recalled that as an adult, working in Human Resources at a distribution center, there was the case where the same employee had to go to the restroom every single day fifteen minutes before the bell rang ending the shift. He wasn’t the only person who did not get that you were being paid to work the whole day you were scheduled to work. There was the guy who would carry an empty box from the west side of the warehouse to the east side where the dumpster was located to get a head start towards the time clock. His daily trip took place around five minutes before the bell would sound to indicate you could clock out. Then there was the woman who had to go to the restroom right around the corner from the time clock frequently, allowing her to be close to the clock when the bell went off. Yes, there was more than one person who did not remember what they were told in new employee orientation, “You are paid to come to work the whole day you are scheduled to work.” Was the sewer crew forgetting that universal principal? I wondered!
Now that I have your attention, let me make a point, appropriate for this blessed Sunday morning. After you leave church today, your responsibility to do what Christians are to do never ends. You are expected to live like a Christian ought to live after you leave the sanctuary. We are saved by grace through faith and not of works. But as long as we live on this earth, it is to fulfill God’s purposes, the reason we are still here. As long as we are here, we must work the whole day of every week, referring to living as believers; work every day that we are scheduled to work. What’s our schedule? Let be more specific at the risk of being redundant. Our schedule: Every day, every hour, every week, we are to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, His witnesses, His ambassadors, sons and daughters of God.
Meditate on your own and make the principle applied to the workplace applicable to the places and spaces you pass occupy or pass through on your Christian journey. Need help! Here you go! Just adopt the attitude of Jesus, as seen in the closing verse! Well, I got to get to work. And you have to get to church! Love you! Remember this, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can never fool God.” Be blessed!
“We must carry out the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 9:4 NASB)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King