Norm and George Talk About Work

Here is a fictional conversation between two guys who go to church together.

Norm: George, you and I have been attending church together for a couple of years, and I’ve never found out what you do.

George: Well, Norm, I guess you’d say that my work in life is to be an evangelist. I want to tell people about Jesus Christ.

N: Oh, I didn’t know you were in religious work. Somehow or other, I thought you worked for some company in the city.

G: Oh yeah, I do work for Marconi and Sons. They hired me to be a salesman. That’s what I do to make a living. But my real job is to talk to everybody in my industry about Jesus. You might say that I work to exist, but I live to evangelize.

N: Boy, I admire your commitment. I don’t think I’ve ever thought of work that way.

G: I think that’s what every Christian should be about. I want to give myself to what is eternal. Marconi and Sons are in the wholesale food business. I don’t want to give my life to selling fish or cakes or milk or cheese. I want to give my life to what lasts. Christ is what really matters. Your job isn’t important. It’s whether or not on your job you tell people about Jesus.

N: So you see yourself as some kind of missionary. Is that it?

G: Yes, Jesus said go into the all the world and preach the gospel. My world is the wholesale food business. It’s my mission field. Why give yourself to something that really doesn’t last much longer than fish?

There was a time when I would have said that George was really spiritual and that we all should have the same approach to life and work as he does. Now, I think that George has a limited understanding of the gospel and almost no understanding of the purpose of work.

What do you think?

Good Work

I’m doing a teaching series on work. I’m challenging us to think theologically about the work we do.

From what I can tell, most Christians have a hard time connecting what they do during the day to what gets talked about on Sunday morning in most churches.

I think every follower of Jesus should have an answer to the question, “How does what you do during the day fit into what God is doing in the world?”

So let me ask you, “How does the work you do and the gospel intersect?”

3 and 0 Baby!!!

I’m loving the Cowboys.

Romo is for real.

Can anybody out there get me tickets for the Thanksgiving Day game?

3:10 to Yuma

I just saw 3:10 to Yuma. I watched it with a buddy and we both thought it was pretty good. The story was fine and the acting was excellent.

I love a good western.

By the way, the Movie Review Query Engine is a great site for finding reviews of movies you may be interested in watching.

Affirmation

Don’t you love to have your choices affirmed?

Thursday night I took the boys out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants. When I ordered the Spicy Kung Pao Shrimp, our waiter said emphatically, “MMMM, good choice!”

It was as if he had been waiting all day for someone to come in and order that dish and I was the only one with sense enough to do so. His long wait was over. The one he had been looking for had finally arrived. I thought he was going stand on a chair and announce to the everyone else in the restaurant that in the future they should let me order for them, because I knew things the rest of them didn’t.

I’m such a sucker for affirmation that when he asked me if I wanted a side Caesar salad with it, I said yes, just so that I could be rewarded with another outburst of appreciation for my enlightened choice of cuisine.

Afterwards, I went to my Fantasy Football league draft. On several occasions, when I announced my pick, the guys responded by whistling through their teeth in astonishment or saying “great pick” with just the right amount of admiration for me and personal regret that they hadn’t been smart enough to make the same pick themselves. I don’t remember anyone else’s picks eliciting that kind of response.

Every time it happened to me, I felt myself straighten up in my seat. I’d give a polite nod of appreciation and then start thinking about my next pick, feeling like I was the second coming of Bill Walsh.

Affirmation is a powerful narcotic.

So tell me, how do you like this post?