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.
As humans, our natural tendency is to view only big accomplishments as significant. It's therefore easy to put little effort into things that aren't so world changing; it's easy to view tedious everyday tasks like making the bed, or doing the dishes as unimportant and not really worth our time. But this verse is telling us that no matter how little or big the task, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord. It's telling us that even if our tasks seem pointless and unfruitful, we should put all our strength into it as if God had charged us with an extremely important mission.
Now, this sounds great and all, but the overarching question still remains; why?
We can't deny that making our bed probably won't make a big impact on the future; it's probably true that picking up the clothes from our floors won't make a big difference - after all, there will just be more tomorrow. But we shouldn't just look at the direct results of these actions; we should look past that; what else are they doing for us? Pouring our hearts into doing the dishes might not help us all that much right now, but it builds character. These small tedious tasks are like stepping stones getting us ready for the big important ones. I mean, how can we expect God to trust us with big jobs, if He can't trust us to finish the little ones? Many times, He gives us little tasks to get us ready.
Like Mr. Miyagi teaching the karate kid to wax cars, sometimes God gives us jobs that we just don't understand. But, even when don't understand how these little things are going to help us, let's just remember - wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off - God has a much wider range of vision and He knows how to get us ready. So, when it looks like waxing a whole lot of cars isn't training us for elite skills, let's trust God, He may be getting us ready for more than we could ever imagine.
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.
As humans, our natural tendency is to view only big accomplishments as significant. It's therefore easy to put little effort into things that aren't so world changing; it's easy to view tedious everyday tasks like making the bed, or doing the dishes as unimportant and not really worth our time. But this verse is telling us that no matter how little or big the task, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord. It's telling us that even if our tasks seem pointless and unfruitful, we should put all our strength into it as if God had charged us with an extremely important mission.
Now, this sounds great and all, but the overarching question still remains; why?
We can't deny that making our bed probably won't make a big impact on the future; it's probably true that picking up the clothes from our floors won't make a big difference - after all, there will just be more tomorrow. But we shouldn't just look at the direct results of these actions; we should look past that; what else are they doing for us? Pouring our hearts into doing the dishes might not help us all that much right now, but it builds character. These small tedious tasks are like stepping stones getting us ready for the big important ones. I mean, how can we expect God to trust us with big jobs, if He can't trust us to finish the little ones? Many times, He gives us little tasks to get us ready.
Like Mr. Miyagi teaching the karate kid to wax cars, sometimes God gives us jobs that we just don't understand. But, even when don't understand how these little things are going to help us, let's just remember - wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off - God has a much wider range of vision and He knows how to get us ready. So, when it looks like waxing a whole lot of cars isn't training us for elite skills, let's trust God, He may be getting us ready for more than we could ever imagine.