What You Do Is More Important Than You Realize
“What You Do is More Important Than You Realize.”
August 2024
In May, Jon and I, along with our two beloved “Neffas,” (German, for nephews),
had the privilege of traveling to Austria to attend our son/their cousin’s wedding.
It was an amazing trip in so many ways, for so many reasons. If you get the opportunity, I cannot encourage you enough to visit this beautiful country, and the cities of Vienna and Salzburg. We are also so happy for our “Sohn.” (Son, in German). His beautiful-inside-and-out wife, Judy, is truly an answer to decades of prayer. We look very forward to visiting them, and her parents, again in Austria in the future.
Meanwhile, I want to share with you an observation I made which I believe carries deep theological truth: what you do is more important than you realize.
Jon and I thoroughly enjoyed traveling with our Neffas.
Truly, one of the great joys of this trip was getting to know them better,
and drawing closer to them than we ever had before in our lives.
In one of the train stations, at one point, one of them was with me when we traveled up an escalator to the level where the trains arrived and departed. (The other was with Jon - we had a mission team mentality throughout our travels, and no one was ever left alone.) As we slowly rode up the escalator, (yes, that scene from “Elf” always enters my mind!), I couldn’t help but notice an adjoining escalator was turned off, for maintenance. Their maintenance job was the vacuuming of this important machinery.
In passing, I doubt many people noticed the workers and what they were doing.
In the busyness of an international train station, they were practically invisible.
And yet, their work is so important, it is essential to the continued movement forward of all the people. As with many things, it isn’t noticed until it isn’t working.
Their work was keeping it working.
This is why Paul tells us, in Colossians 3:23, “And whatever you do, do it heartily,
as to the Lord…” This broadens and enhances our approach to work, and strengthens our work ethic. It doesn’t matter what anyone else does or doesn’t think of what we do. When we are living out our lives working hard, whether it’s for a living, or answering what we believe God has called us to do, or simply providing for our basic needs, when we work as if only for God, we can be assured He is pleased, and cheering us on. Matthew tells us in 16:27 that one day Jesus is going to return and “He will repay each person according to what they have done.”
If we want to succeed at what we do, Solomon tells us in Proverbs 16:3 to “Commit to the Lord your works, and your thoughts will be established.” (Parallel Hebrew)
Whether it’s vacuuming, overseeing garbage removal (“sanitation engineering”), or caring for and teaching little ones, your work matters! And I, for one, say… Danke! (Thank you!) What you do is more important than you realize. Onward & Upward!
August 2024
In May, Jon and I, along with our two beloved “Neffas,” (German, for nephews),
had the privilege of traveling to Austria to attend our son/their cousin’s wedding.
It was an amazing trip in so many ways, for so many reasons. If you get the opportunity, I cannot encourage you enough to visit this beautiful country, and the cities of Vienna and Salzburg. We are also so happy for our “Sohn.” (Son, in German). His beautiful-inside-and-out wife, Judy, is truly an answer to decades of prayer. We look very forward to visiting them, and her parents, again in Austria in the future.
Meanwhile, I want to share with you an observation I made which I believe carries deep theological truth: what you do is more important than you realize.
Jon and I thoroughly enjoyed traveling with our Neffas.
Truly, one of the great joys of this trip was getting to know them better,
and drawing closer to them than we ever had before in our lives.
In one of the train stations, at one point, one of them was with me when we traveled up an escalator to the level where the trains arrived and departed. (The other was with Jon - we had a mission team mentality throughout our travels, and no one was ever left alone.) As we slowly rode up the escalator, (yes, that scene from “Elf” always enters my mind!), I couldn’t help but notice an adjoining escalator was turned off, for maintenance. Their maintenance job was the vacuuming of this important machinery.
In passing, I doubt many people noticed the workers and what they were doing.
In the busyness of an international train station, they were practically invisible.
And yet, their work is so important, it is essential to the continued movement forward of all the people. As with many things, it isn’t noticed until it isn’t working.
Their work was keeping it working.
This is why Paul tells us, in Colossians 3:23, “And whatever you do, do it heartily,
as to the Lord…” This broadens and enhances our approach to work, and strengthens our work ethic. It doesn’t matter what anyone else does or doesn’t think of what we do. When we are living out our lives working hard, whether it’s for a living, or answering what we believe God has called us to do, or simply providing for our basic needs, when we work as if only for God, we can be assured He is pleased, and cheering us on. Matthew tells us in 16:27 that one day Jesus is going to return and “He will repay each person according to what they have done.”
If we want to succeed at what we do, Solomon tells us in Proverbs 16:3 to “Commit to the Lord your works, and your thoughts will be established.” (Parallel Hebrew)
Whether it’s vacuuming, overseeing garbage removal (“sanitation engineering”), or caring for and teaching little ones, your work matters! And I, for one, say… Danke! (Thank you!) What you do is more important than you realize. Onward & Upward!
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