While on a pilgrimage walk on the Camino de Santiago (St. James Way) in Spain, I asked some of the most committed and courageous faith-driven business leaders I know to guest contribute to Purposed worKING. Enjoy! – Rusty
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“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
Do all Christians have to be zealots? No. But maybe. In their own way. So why aren’t you dropping your occupation and all your possessions and joining Jesus’ cause? John did. Andrew did. Matthew did. A bunch of grown men, gainfully employed, dropped everything they had on the shores of their lives and set sail to follow Jesus. They simply made the decision and then walked off their jobs. Easy as that.
When people ask me – actually, that’s inaccurate, nobody asks me, but I feel the question being asked nonetheless – why am I not doing more for the Lord? I always have trouble answering. Certainly because we could all be doing more, but specifically, for me, it’s tricky. I’m in entertainment. And what good is entertainment in the grand scheme? “You should be making Christian films” they say. “Why aren’t you telling a more literal, if not metaphoric, Jesus story and spending countless hours writing to save souls from damnation rather than protagonists from lovelessness? What good is a romantic comedy anyway in the eyes of God? Should you really be spending that much time crafting the perfect G-rated fart joke?”
I don’t know. They’re all good questions and sometimes I don’t have an answer for them. But this verse comforts me all the same. Sure, maybe it simply justifies my purpose in life, but it also, well, maybe that’s the only reason, it justifies my purpose in life. Which is another way of saying it encourages me. ‘Whatever you do…’ is not a commandment to stop what we’re doing, to walk out of the operating room or the fire station and go join the church. It’s doing the opposite. It’s reaching out to us, everyone, everywhere, doing all sorts of random things for a living: Backhoing. Banking. Fitting Room Attending. And it’s saying to all of us, this work we do, be it noble, be it banal, go and do it well. Do it mightily. Do it as if the Lord Himself was asking us to do it. Asking us for help picking a sweet watermelon or writing a catchy log line.
There will always be opportunities to spread the Gospel within the sweaty crevices of our fields. So whatever we do do, whatever function in society we fill, if we keep our eyes on the Lord while doing it we should be alright. And yes, I realize I said do do. See? Comedy. What would the Lord do without us screenwriters?
Reference: Colossians 3:23 (New Living Translation)
Phil Lorin