The perfect job – it exists!

May 10, 2015

Maria Colossians, Contentment, Doctrine, Dreams , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Perfect job

I don’t know what you fantasize about, but sometimes I imagine the feeling of just having landed THE ultimate job.  In my daydream, I can FEEL the excitement, the open-ended sense of possibility, the overwhelming gratitude and joy of actually being able both to be challenged in a healthy way AND to get to do every day what makes me happiest.  (Speaking French is the number one component)  Included in my daydream is the notion of having been PICKED or selected with all sorts of concomitant and guaranteed learning opportunities and training that will enrich my life.  I’ll be among happy fellow enthusiasts and what we do will make a difference.

Maybe pipe dreams of the ideal job aren’t the ingredients that fuel your fantasy.  Maybe it’s that longing for the ultimate family or skill experience/achievement (winning an Olympic gold in your event) or a different pinnacle of your own choosing.  But for me, it’s always been a longing for THAT job.

And as I approach 60, I’m beginning to realize, not with too many regrets, that there are milestones and goals that I probably won’t realize while I’m alive in this body.

Far be THAT, however, to lead to depression.  For as a Christian, the Bible teaches that the BEST is yet to come!

In fact, if you think about it, since we are immortal and will be given new bodies at Jesus’ 2nd coming, bodies with more and better capacities, the idea of longing for the perfect job while here on earth is both short-sided and bound to disappoint.

But if we view our time on earth as training for the future, (the internship I wrote about earlier – Last week’s blog on a Theology of Work), then we can wait patiently, knowing that God doesn’t waste ANY of our experiences.

So in my imagining the work we will do in Heaven, I bet that:

  • It will be something we each feel perfectly suited for, given our ‘bents’ and our ‘experiences’ here on earth
  • It will be among happy colleagues who lovingly support and encourage one another
  • Our leader, Christ, will be the perfect ‘boss’
  • We will do work that is meaningful and satisfying.

So until then, I pray and trust God for patience and gratitude for both my future destination and the preparation He gives me each day in the meantime.

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.”

PS:  I think the inheritance will be the invitation to come take an active productive role with the Triune God in the Kingdom!

Keep Calm - Job

Interning for the Lord

May 4, 2015

Maria Discipleship, Revelation, Sanctification , , , , , , , 2 Comments

What will we be doing forever?

God tells us in His last chapter of the book of Revelation.

Rev 22:3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

A guest pastor shared with our church the other night that this now is his favorite verse.  Some Bibles translate the Greek term  latreuo as worship. However it is equally rendered : “to serve or minister to”

If our job in the new heavens & earth is to serve God, then what is our purpose here on this present earth, in this present time?

Training for the future!

Intern

God wakens us to hear His call, to turn from a life set on self-fulfillment, to come to Him to fulfill HIS purposes for us while on earth as well as later –  as forgiven and beloved sons and daughters. living forever with Him.

But citizenship in this Kingdom has no room for idle adopted children. Rather we are brought into the Royal Family as heirs needing to be trained, needing a complete re-orientation.  Our holy work-study program is an intentional discipling and training regime.  God envisions and equips us to be happy ambassadors of His Good News. As heralds who go about their normal lives proclaiming Truth in the darkness, we invite others to ‘taste and see’ that our King is a good Father.

Recently, awareness of this ‘other’ function/purpose of my life dropped deeper into my heart. I’ve acknowledged for several years my so-called ‘diplomatic’ role as one of Christ’s representatives, whether in my work-a-day life or running errands or hanging out with friends and family.  But not until we moved here to Western North Carolina, to a new school for me where I experienced pain, disappointment and some spiritual attack did my framework shift and settle into a new position.

What I’m realizing is this:

  • that it actually doesn’t matter WHAT I do, WHERE I work, or how painful/pleasant the circumstances.
  • that my call, my mandate from God is to love Him and love my neighbor where I am.

And how do we love God?  By believing Him, by relying 100% on Him, by treasuring Him above any of the good gifts He gives. How do we love our neighbor?  By serving him well.

The sermon linked below reinforced and completed my shift in thinking.  The pastor, Ray Cortese, stressed that being competent in our work is a way to love and serve our neighbor.  We all want a competent and cheerful mechanic, computer repair guy, surgeon, hairdresser, waiter, sales clerk.  And we owe Martin Luther a round of applause for dignifying ALL work done IN God’s strength and FOR His glory.

As Malcolm Muggeridge stated so exuberantly: ‘the happiest person in the world is the woman who sweeps out her house to the glory of God.’ 

I see a two-fold divine standard to how we should work, whether on-the-job, or in the kitchen:

  • Develop competence and strive for excellence in all we do – not to justify ourselves, but to please our neighbor AND God
  • Work with joy, in dependence on God – not for our Glory, but for His

Listen to Ray Cortese, PCA pastor in Georgia, teach the biblical view of work. The link below is to all the sermons in 2015 so far.  Scroll down to the one 1 Feb 2015 – Love Thy Neighbor – work

Excellent sermon on a theology of work

Thanking God for this Present Futility

November 9, 2014

Maria Freedom, God's Sovereignty, Hope, Matthew, Romans, suffering, Time , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Futility

 

 

 

I was set free – again – the other day when I heard someone reading from Romans 8.  Verses 20 & 21 caught my attention.  The Amplified Bible with its extra explanatory words in black translates the Greek like this:

  • 20 For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it—[yet] with the hope (expectation) 
  • 21 That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

Since the Fall and man’s first rebellion, frustration and futility and struggle (all known as ‘suffering’) have been built into our universe. Reality is that we live in a broken world that won’t be ‘fixed’ until Jesus comes back.   Furthermore, God informs us that we humans and nature will get worse, not better. When Jesus is plied for the details about the ‘end of the age‘, He responds in Matthew 24:12 with…

  •  because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold

Why don’t I live as though I believe the fact of brokenness and imperfection?   Why do I still wake up each morning thinking that the ideal is possible if I work and pray ‘hard enough’?  When it comes to agreeing with God about my sin problem or nature, I don’t balk at His assessment.  Nevertheless,  I display blindness to God’s description of the world as long as I cling to false expectations and unrealistic hopes in

  • my job
  • my body
  • my marriage
  • my relationships with friends and other family members
  • my government
  • my church

God helped me this week think through a series of propositions leading to a new perspective about work:

1. If God has woven frustration and futility into the very fabric of our world until Jesus comes back, then I can let go of my expectation of finding THE ideal job.  And IT won’t exist until He creates the new heavens and the new earth.

2. Released from the false expectation that I can find and land the ideal job,  I am liberated to seek my ultimate joy in God, not in all-satisfying work.

3. If work doesn’t have to satisfy those deep needs meant only for God to meet, then I can view my job as a place to sprinkle grace by listening to others and encouraging them.  I can meet frustrations with calm since I don’t have to see them as blocking my ultimate joy or satisfaction.  These realities help me to relax and accept that no job will provide what I’m seeking to the degree that I’m seeking it.

4. Most liberating, if frustration and futility are ordained, then I can stop hiding, and instead SHOW my cracks and inconsistencies without fear.

  • Phil 1:29 – For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.

5. Being willing to reveal my broken self and how much I need Jesus’ saving and sustaining power brings glory to God.

6. My neediness and unashamed transparency give hope to others that God might be willing to accept/heal/support/love them.  Were I to persist in the myth of ‘Maria’s Competency‘, how would that help anyone?

Being Real

 

 

 

 

The final relief-bringing thought for me this week was a view of heaven that sprang to mind, that is MY version of heaven.  (No, it’s not one where I can eat dark chocolate without guilt!)

David Zahl, an evangelical Episcopal priest, wrote something for Mockingbird (Blog is here) like, ‘Life is not about passing test after test; you already have the A, the 10/10’.

That got me thinking.  If I knew I had already been accepted into the graduate school of my choice to follow my ideal course of study, I would be ecstatic.  And until I departed for this school, I would relax and enjoy life and fulfill my responsibilities and be fully present without all the anxiety of measuring up, or making it happen or…or..or…..

Kingdom of God is here

Well, those in Christ already have THE ‘A’.  The Kingdom of God HAS commenced.  Eternal life for the children of God IS a current reality.  But all those ideal situations AWAIT us.   They are not meant for this world, but for the next. So let us REST and not fret over the reality of this present futility.  Frustration is the NORM in a broken world.

Here’s a blog about those who give up the quest for perfect

 

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